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 entire building had been treated for bedbugs on a monthly basis for more than a year. Upon inspection evidence of infestation was very apparent but not severe.
The large size of the apartment would have ensured that much of the furniture was very far away from sleeping surfaces which would decrease their risk of infestation. And the moderate size of the infestation would again encourage the bugs to remain close to the sleeping surfaces. Without RAID spraying some pieces of furniture in the livingroom would have been relatively safe from bugs but, because of the RAID spraying and it’s propensity to disperse the bugs, I recommended heating absolutely everything.
The family did not want to pay for more than one load of furniture in my trailer so they made the following risk reduction plan with my guidance. The family was already grossed out by the beds so all beds and most dressers would be discarded. That left more room in the trailer for things like couches and tv stands. I was not sure we would have room for the kitchen table (large varnished wood table with wood legs) so I suggested heating the chairs and the family could move the table untreated as it would be relatively low risk (bugs dislike varnished surfaces, table at least 20 feet from the couch where no one slept and even further away from the beds, and the chairs offered better harbourage and access to hosts encouraging bugs to go there rather than the table).
On moving day the family disassembled the legs from the table and brought it down for heating anyways. I managed to squeeze it in the trailer. But I noticed that there was evidence of bed bugs on the unvarnished portion of the table where the legs were attached to the top!!! In a non RAID spraying home that would have been extraordinarily unlikely. But in a RAID spraying setting even the kitchen table was infested. Wow!