I have mentioned several times in the past that spraying aerosol pyrethrins (RAID, KONK, etc) tends to push the bugs further from the bed into odd locations. Last week I was involved in moving a RAID spraying family from their massive 3 bedroom 1000+ square foot bed bug infested apartment to their new home. The […]

Sometimes tenants will put a quarter inch of baby powder into the interceptors and it is then difficult to identify bugs. Or sometimes there is so much dirt that the bugs are invisible. The solution is dump the contents of the interceptor into the toilet. The dirt and dust will sink leaving the bugs floating […]

My entire apartment block is inspected for bed bugs on a yearly basis. One tenant requested climb up interceptors on a permanent basis and stated they would monitor themselves. I agreed because the tenant appeared competent and would immediately let me know if there was a problem. Unfortunately the tenant, in his zest for cooperation, […]

I recently built a new experiment tank for my bed bugs. I purchased two slippery plastic tubs from Walmart – one large one and one medium one. I rubbed baby powder onto the insides of the plastic tubs to make them slippery. Then I put two inches of mineral oil on the bottom of the […]

In a recent blog I noted that a commercial Co2 trap  (FMC verify fed bug detector) performed poorly compared to my modified glue board traps placed under bed legs.  I opened the verify detector and found that all the components had been properly activated.     I decided to test this Co2 device in another […]

Most exterminator instruction sheets include a line about frequently vacuuming the home with emphasis on using the crevice tool. While I fully support a clean home to maximize the residual pesticide’s efficacy I wonder about the effectiveness of the vacuum as a bug removal tool. Bed bugs can be effectively removed from the mattress and […]

My chemical wholesale supplier showed me a new commercial bed bug trap a while ago. Apparently you put a concoction that creates Co2 into the trap and put it against the wall in the bedroom and the bugs fall in. It looks quite handsome. But does it work? Starting about a month ago I began […]

Any experienced exterminator can walk onto a new bed bug job site and guess pretty accurately where most of the bugs will be hiding. The bugs have very specific likes and dislikes for harbourage substrates and prefer to be close to a sleeping host. If the exterminator understands this it is relatively easy to find […]

When my wife and I were married 20 odd years ago we decided that we would purchase a new king size bed. It was very awkward to move and weighed a ton. But as long as it was sitting in it’s place it worked very nicely. But in the last few years I took it […]

When wrapping bug infested furniture the standard answer is to use plastic bags. In some cases large garbage bags are excellent solutions. But when wrapping larger furniture the mattress and sofa bags may not be very helpful. I purchased two cases of mattress and sofa bags 5 years ago and I detest using them – […]