One of the most common questions a person will ask if they suspect bedbugs in their house is, how can I kill bedbugs? It's not an easy answer because the creatures are hard to find and control.
With the widespread use of DDT in the 1940s and '50s, bed bugs all but disappeared from North America by the mid-twentieth century. Infestations remained common in many other parts of the world, however, and in recent years have begun to rebound in North America because pest control services more often nowadays use low toxicity gel-based pesticides for control of cockroaches, the most common pest in structures, instead of residual sprays. One of the advantages of sprays was the fact that other insects were commonly killed, resulting in a collateral insecticidal effect on potential bedbug infestations. Yes, these insecticides actually killed the bedbugs. However, the gel-based insecticides primarily used nowadays do not have any effect, as they are incapable of feeding on these baits. You see, these vermin only like to feed on blood.
If it is necessary to live with bed bugs in the short term, it is possible to create makeshift temporary barriers around a bed. Although they cannot fly or jump, they have been observed climbing a higher surface in order to then fall to a lower one, such as climbing a wall in order to fall onto a bed. That having been said, barrier strategies nevertheless often have beneficial effects: an elevated bed, for example, can be protected by applying double-sided sticky tape (carpet tape) around each leg, or by keeping each leg on a plastic furniture block in a tray of water. Bed frames can be effectively rid of adult bedbugs and eggs by use of steam or, used with caution, by spraying rubbing alcohol on any visible bugs (although this is not a permanent treatment). Small steam cleaners are available and are very effective for this local treatment. A suspect mattress can be protected by wrapping it in a painter's disposable plastic drop cloth, neatly sealing shut all the seams with packing tape, and putting it on a protected bed after a final visual inspection. Bedding can be sanitized by a 120 °F (49 °C) laundry dryer. Once sanitized, bedding should not be allowed to drape to the floor. An effective way to quarantine a protected bed is to store sanitized sleeping clothes in the bed during the day, and bathing before entering the bed.
There are many products on the market today, but only some have been laboratory tested to be bed bug bite proof. Make sure you check to see that the product you are considering is more than an allergy encasement, but is bedbug bite proof.
Vermin and pets may complicate a barrier strategy because bed bugs prefer human hosts, but will resort to other warm-blooded hosts if humans are not available, and some species can live up to eighteen months without feeding at all. A co-infestation of mice can provide an auxiliary food source to keep bedbugs established for longer (that's a pleasant thought, isn't it)?
Another method that might be useful in controlling bed bugs is the use of neem oil. It can be sprayed on carpets, curtains and mattresses. Neem oil is made from the leaves and bark of the neem tree native to India. It has been used safely for thousands of years in India both as a natural, effective insect repellent and it is antibacterial. It has recently received US Food and Drug Administration approval for external use. It is also possible to incorporate neem oil into certain types of mattress.
In England, BBC1 aired a television program a while back entitled "The One Show" about the growth of bed bug infestations in London. In the program a pest control officer claimed that the use of insecticides alone was no longer an effective method to control them as they had developed a resistance to most if not all insecticides that might be used legally in the UK. He stated that insecticide use in conjunction with
freezing the creatures was the only effective control. All items of clothing and upholstery (including curtains) in the affected household had to be deep-frozen for at least 3 days in giant freezers to ensure complete eradication.
My question here is, who is really winning this battle?
