Killing Bed Bugs At Home

Bed bugs are a growing source of aggravation, especially in the developed Western world, because bed bugs were largely cleared out there by the late 1950's.

This means that most people under 50 years of age had probably never seen a bedbug until after 1995, when they made a big comeback. Their numbers are still increasing fast, so many people are thinking about how to kill bed bugs.

This is due to two major factors: their natural hardiness and their resistance to modern household chemical insecticides. Their natural hardiness is due to a waxy outside layer on their bodies which protects them from surfactant insecticides to a large extent.

Their tolerance to chemical pesticides is most likely due to the fact that they were almost exterminated in the West in the 1940's and 1950's by the widespread use of DDT.

The waxy coating on bedbugs blocks their fast dehydration, which is why they are capable of lying inactive for up to five months waiting for a fitting host to come along. It is also the reason why a lot of contact pesticides are unsuccessful. Therefore, one of the tactics for killing bed bugs is removing that waxy coating .

People understood this 150 years ago, but they did not have the know-how to really take advantage of the information. People frequently used to lay down crushed dried leaves or sharp sand.

In the 19th century, lime, ash and diatomaceous earth were used to erode the outer waxy coating. The latter was particularly effective and has seen an upsurge in usage over the last couple of years as an alternative to chemicals.

One method of killing bed bugs that will not work is catching them and squashing them, even if you did wrap sticky insect bands around the legs of your bed. Bed bugs cannot fly, but they could still get at you. They are not averse to walking up to the ceiling and dropping on to you.

If you would like to try chemical insecticides, then there are three basic types. The first sort attempts to imitate the effects of diatomaceous earth.

It is a spray that contains ground glass or silica mixed with a contact insecticide. This does not seem to be a healthy situation for humans or pets either though. Breathing powdered glass or silica seems like bad news.

Contact pesticides have limited effect, partly due to the waxy layer, but also because to be effective they have to be strong and this makes them a repellent, which means that the bedbugs will just keep away from it if they can.

Insect growth regulators are effective at killing the young, which is great, but the adults can live for about a year, so that is not so good, unless you are thinking about a long world cruise.

Professionals usually use steam these days, because none of the bed bug's life stages can survive temperatures over 45c, so you could try| this method by getting in a steam wall paper stripper or a hot air paint stripper for the weekend and going around your walls and woodwork. In fact, if all your wall paper and paint is hanging off, you may as well combine the job with your next redecoration.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous subjects, but is at this time involved with How To Test For Bed Bugs. If you want to know more, visit our website now at Pest Management at Home.