Contents
Bed or linen bugs are small insects that feed on human blood. They usually emerge from their hiding places between 0 and 4 in the morning, then crawl into their nests until the next feeding. Chains of red, intensely itchy dots remain on the human body from their bites. Getting rid of these little vampires is not easy at all. About what and how to deal with bedbugs, we will talk further.
Where can they be
To destroy bedbugs, you need to know where their nests can be. You can get rid of these insects only if you simultaneously process all their habitats – nests. If at least one living individual remains (a female at any stage of development), everything will have to be repeated. And they are so tenacious that they will definitely remain. Until now, they have not found a tool that would allow you to kill all the bugs at a time.
Bedbug nests are usually arranged near the feeding place – 2-3 meters from the bed. In this area, they can live in any crack, recess, hole that is larger than 0,5 mm. Here’s where to look:
- Under mattresses and in them.
- In the bed frame.
- In bedside tables, chairs, armchairs, cabinets.
- On the back of carpets and rugs.
- Behind the plinth.
- In sockets, switches, electrical appliances, in electrical wiring channels.
- Behind the departed wallpaper.
- In the gaps between the floor/ceiling and the wall.
- In the cavities of frames and frames of paintings and photographs.
- Under floor coverings and in floor crevices.
- In recesses in the wall.
- In clothes.
Actually, all places where it is dry and warm at a distance of a couple of meters from the bed can be breeding grounds for bedbugs. Here’s an example for you: if the plaster is lagging behind, then they will be behind it. Or under laminate. Or under linoleum. in any cavity.
Inspection process: example
When fighting bedbugs, it is necessary to examine all the intended places of their nests thoroughly. For example, in furniture, inspect the bottom, legs. Remove, if possible, the back wall. Be sure to draw out drawers and shelves. Inspect all joints of furniture parts, under mounting and mounting plates, in recesses for fasteners. Even remove the handles and check for bed bugs.
This is how meticulously and scrupulously you need to check everything. Otherwise, even the best remedy will not help. When processing, go through even those places where, theoretically, bugs should not be. They are found in strange and remote places. And if one survived, then after a while there will be a hundred again, and then a thousand.
How to poison bedbugs
Although the bugs settle near the bed, it is necessary to process the entire apartment at once. If you process only one room, insects can “wait out” in other rooms.
In addition to all the possible places listed above, ventilation ducts must also be processed. And not only “poison”, but also barrier means. They will not allow bedbugs from other apartments to migrate to you. As a barrier, the well-known crayon “Mashenka” works well. It can also be applied under skirting boards and in cable ducts. Just don’t forget to update it.
So that the disinfected pieces of furniture are not infected with bedbugs again, smear everything that is possible with the same “Masha”. If this is cabinet furniture, all the shelves around the perimeter, behind the cabinet before putting the back wall in place. Upholstered furniture has places for attaching legs and a pair of rings on the legs themselves. You can “draw” closer to the body, so that it is less noticeable.
How to deal with bedbugs: repeat over and over
If the degree of infestation of the apartment with bedbugs is very high, any single treatment will be ineffective. They may disappear for a day or two, then reappear. We’ll have to poison again and again, trying to reduce the number of insects. With due perseverance, you can still win. But such a fight with bedbugs takes many months. And for all this time, at least once a week it is necessary to carry out processing.
This is what many stories look like: they poisoned many, many times and as a result the bugs disappeared. In this case, the means are called very different. It is only important that the bugs really die during processing and that you find their shells every day. In this case, after several months of regular use of one of the remedies (as practice shows, any that kills bedbugs), you will defeat the bloodsuckers.
How to get rid of bedbugs faster: make repairs and poison
A faster option is to combine repairs and bed bug extermination measures. For maximum results, you need to take out all the furniture, remove the wallpaper, remove the flooring, suspended or stretch ceiling, if any. During these works, the nests of bedbugs are opened, which must be destroyed. Therefore, stock up on insecticides in the form of sprays or powder, which are best tested on the “control group” beforehand.
After everything was taken out and removed, it is necessary to close up all the cracks, cavities and cavities. Anything where nests can reappear. An audit of the ventilation shafts is also required. Then a couple of times to process all the premises with the chosen means or method. For insurance, you can re-process or combine techniques.
Only after you have not observed bedbugs for a week (preferably two weeks), you can finish the repair and bring in the processed furniture (or better, buy a new one).
How to Sleep Without Biting in Bedbug Infested Rooms
Not everyone has the opportunity to spend the night outside the house while the fight is being fought with them in the home. How to sleep so as not to be bitten? It is necessary to put a decontaminated bed on high legs in the middle of the room. Glue the legs with Velcro for flies.
On the ceiling, make a couple of rectangles from the same Velcro. The smallest of them should be the size of the bed. The other two are 5 cm wider/longer. And that’s it. You can go to bed. If this seems insufficient, stick Velcro on the floor as well. But it will have to be updated every evening.
Bed bugs will crawl up the legs of the bed and stick there. They will also try to “land” from the ceiling. But they will stick there too. Just update the traps periodically. Until you get rid of bedbugs completely.
Ways to deal with bedbugs
There are several effective methods for getting rid of bedbugs in an apartment or house. The most common is chemical treatment. But chemicals often cause allergies, and they require a lot of time. Not a single available chemical agent can destroy bedbugs at once. The fact is that few substances act equally effectively on adult bedbugs and their larvae.
Let’s say you poisoned adult bedbugs. From freshly laid larvae, nymphs hatch after 2 weeks – teenage bugs. Under adverse conditions, they can appear in 6-7 weeks. Therefore, you have to repeat the treatment once a week, at least for a month. And better – for two months.
Another option is to steam everything that is possible. Heating up to + 50 ° C, the bugs can withstand only an hour. At higher temperatures, they die immediately. The steam generator produces a jet of steam at a temperature of about 80°C. Clothes and linen can be washed at high temperatures. Everything else can be processed with a powerful steam generator. This method is good because bugs of any “degree of maturity” die from temperature. You just need to get all the nests and individuals. For a guarantee, it is advisable to take the ferry a couple of times with an interval of several days.
Freezing also works, but this method is suitable for things and furniture. Because -10 ° C bugs can withstand several days. At -20°C they survive for more than 24 hours, at even lower temperatures they die in a few hours. You will not freeze a house or apartment so much that the walls, floor and ceiling have a deep sub-zero temperature. And there may be many of them. Even if you can open the windows / doors of a private house and leave for a week, then during this time it will break the pipes / radiators, freeze the equipment. But the furniture can be put out in the cold and for several days. And for a few weeks.
Crushing and beating bedbugs is a futile undertaking. Adults have a shell adapted to this, and larvae and young individuals will only be smeared.
What medications will help
Unfortunately, almost all “targeted” drugs that are sold in stores are ineffective. This is explained by the fact that if a couple of individuals survive after chemical treatment, their offspring become insensitive to it. Professional preparations work, but they are absorbed into walls, floors, furniture. You can’t wash them for months. Therefore, it seems that allergies often develop.
There are several drugs of a different orientation that help get rid of bedbugs. About their action and how to use all these tools, read below.
Colloidal microcalcite
It’s not a poison, but a powder that absorbs moisture. It is contained in the pharmaceutical preparation “Polysorb” and the like, so the development of allergies is unlikely. Based on this substance, the Hector tool was made. Almost pure colloidal microcalcite contains “Aerosil 200” – a thickener for epoxy compounds. You can find it where they sell resins and fiberglass. The same substance in a different form is found in Diatomite (food) and Kieselguhr – these are food additives. They differ from those listed above in that they do not dry the air and only benefit people. Bed bugs die from them in the same way as from analogues.
How does this substance work? Bedbugs cling to powder particles on their paws and shell. They do not die instantly, but go “dusted”. But after a couple of days you start to find their shells. The powder simply dries them out and the insects die.
That’s just the trouble, the powder will “dry” you if you inhale it. So spray colloidal microcalcite in a respirator, long-sleeved clothing and gloves.
Powdered colloidal microcalcite should be sprayed on bedbug infested areas. It’s volatile and won’t be a problem. If you bought not a drug, but a powder in its pure form, make a “dust duster”. Take a plastic bottle, pour the powder up to 1/2 volume. Put on the lid with holes made in it of small diameter (burn it with a needle heated on fire). Then just squeeze the bottle, spraying the powder. Aim at the places where there may be nests. In the rest, the volatile suspension will get itself. The powder is best left indoors for at least a month. And under the baseboards and in the crevices it is better not to clean at all.
Delcid
Delcid also helps get rid of household bed mites. This is a veterinary drug (insectoacaricidal drug), which is used to treat animals and places where they are kept. It is also effective against bed bugs. Sold in ampoules and even in canisters in veterinary pharmacies or stores. The good thing is that it is not harmful to birds and animals (and to humans). But toxic to fish and bees.
In veterinary pharmacies, it is usually sold in ampoules. They contain a concentrate that is diluted with water. The amount of water is indicated on the package (concentration may vary). Forms a white emulsion with water. You can spray it from a conventional spray bottle. For animals and their habitats, a double treatment is recommended. The apartment will probably require more repetitions – to be sure.
Any insecticide
To destroy ticks, you can use any insecticide and acaricidal preparation from a veterinary pharmacy. Preparations of this group are aimed at the destruction of animal parasites, including bedbugs. So any of them will work. For animals, a double treatment with an interval of 10 days is recommended. For an apartment with a high degree of infestation, more repetitions will be required.
When choosing, take release forms for large dogs or even larger animals. The concentration of active substances in them will be sufficient for the rapid destruction of insects. Sprays are the most convenient. With their help, you can apply the drug even in the far corners. Upholstered furniture can be processed pointwise, but make at least 2-3 “points” per square meter. At the same time, it is better to apply more preparation in all possible cracks (between the railing and the seat, in the frame cracks, in the upholstery folds, etc.). Do not forget that ventilation must also be processed. There you can lay rags soaked in the product. For a guarantee, it is better to carry out several “extra” treatments.
Ozonation – very dangerous, but effective
Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent that, at the proper concentration, destroys all living things. Literally everything. In the classification of toxic substances, it is in the same group as arsenic. Therefore, this method cannot be used in multi-storey buildings. And in private homes, you can do whatever you want. But you will have to live somewhere else for a few days.
But even this method will not help get rid of bed house mites at a time. High infestation levels will require 3-4 treatments per week for 4-5 weeks. In addition, you need a powerful ozonizer and clogged windows / doors, ventilation ducts. They put it in the affected room, but leave the doors to all the rest open. In a medium-sized room, the ozonator should run for at least 10 hours. Given the fact that he has a large energy consumption, the pleasure is not cheap.
The ozonizer must be turned on/off remotely (throw the extension cord/carrying outside). After turning off, wait a day, after which it will be possible to jump in a respirator (better – in a gas mask), open the windows and jump out back. Airing will end in about another day. If the desired ozone concentration has been reached, you will get rid of all fauna in the house, including bedbugs.
Once again: ozone is a powerful poison. Be extremely careful. But together with the bugs, it will destroy their smell.