Can you kill bed bugs with hair dryer


Can a hair dryer kill bed bugs?

by Bedbug Solutions

The answer is yes… Kind of.

As we learned in our article about using steam cleaners to kill bedbugs, heat is definitely one way that professional exterminators kill bedbugs. That said, they use large industrial-grade heaters to bring up the ambient temperature in the entire space to a level that will kill bedbugs. A regular consumer-grade hair dryer creates substantially less heat. The hair dryer would kill a bedbug after about 30 seconds of direct contact. If you’re going to be standing there for 30 seconds pointing a hair dryer at a single bedbug, you’re never going to get anything done. Plus, the heat from the hair dryer is just going to cause other bedbugs in the vicinity to retreat further into hiding, and they will be harder to kill. It might even blow them away before it kills them.

Here are the simple facts:

  • Bed bugs will die if exposed to 120°F temperatures for 15 minutes or more
  • Bed bugs will die if exposed to 118°F temperatures for 20 minutes or more
  • Bed bugs will die if exposed to 113°F temperatures for 90 minutes or more

The optimal temperature for killing bedbugs is 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. BUT, it must be maintained for at least 30 seconds of direct contact to ensure that all bed bugs are killed. You won’t kill the bugs that are hiding in the couch or mattress, within the cracks in the floor, inside the walls, in electronics or outlets, between pieces of molding… and the thousands of other tiny crevices in your house. Professional exterminators use large heaters that can raise the temperature in the entire house, and maintain it for a sufficient period of time to kill off all of the bugs. This ensures that a few stragglers don’t survive and end up re-starting the infestation all over again.

Ultimately, while the hair dryer will kill a bedbug, it will never get rid of your bedbug infestation. The hair dryer cannot raise the ambient temperature of the entire room to a high enough level to get all of them. It would simply take too long to kill all of the bedbugs that way, and while you were trying, the other bedbugs are still spreading and breeding. You need to make sure that you kill every single bug so that the problem does not return again in time. The only way that a hair dryer would be effective for bedbugs is if they are in a crack or crevice where they cannot easily escape, and you have the time to point the hair dryer at them for a while. That said, it’s only going to kill the bedbugs that you can easily see and find. There are going to be a lot more hidden bedbugs, and tiny bedbug eggs that you are not going to find as easily.

How do you check for bed bugs with a hair dryer?

Some people have commented that hair dryers are a good way to detect a bed bug infestation. You can use the heat to coax bed bugs out of their hiding spots. Once you have lured them out of hiding, you can make a visual identification and know for sure whether there are bedbugs present.

Instead, some ordinary steam cleaners can be used to kill bedbugs, as those are able to heat a larger area at a time and sustain that temperature. But, they still have to be one part of an overall bed bug extermination strategy to ensure results that last. This doesn’t mean that you have to spend thousands of dollars – we’ve put together a guide to getting rid of bedbugs without an exterminator which explains how to get rid of a bedbug infestation cheaply.

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Can a Blow Dryer Kill Bed Bugs?

You may be able to kill a few individual bed bugs at close range with a blow dryer, but you won’t end an infestation with this tactic. Bed bugs hide themselves and their eggs inside your walls, furniture, and clothes. There’s no way to find all the bed bugs in your home to heat them with a blow dryer, so you’ll only kill a few bugs. The ones you don’t find will continue to multiply and infest your home. Contact a professional bed bug exterminator to use heat and pesticide treatments that will eliminate bed bugs permanently.

Table of Contents

Are Blow Dryers Effective at Killing Bed Bugs?

Most blow dryers don’t get hot enough to kill bed bugs in all stages of life. It requires temperatures of 140℉ (60℃) to kill a bed bug. Only the most powerful blow dryers are capable of reaching this heat. So, bed bugs can survive direct exposure to the heat from most blow dryers. This means you may just be wasting your time by blowing hot air on bed bugs.

  • Blow dryers are not a reliable means of killing bed bugs.
  • Bed bugs are only reliably killed when exposed to temperatures of at least 140℉ (60℃) for 30 minutes.
  • Most blow dryers only heat up to 80–130℉ (27–54℃).
  • Bed bugs can often run and hide from a blow dryer before it kills them.

Once a bed bug feels the heat from a blow dryer, it will likely run for cover to protect itself. Tiny bed bugs can disappear into furniture, carpets, or under baseboards. So, it’s no guarantee that using a blow dryer will kill a bed bug.

Can a Blow Dryer Kill Bed Bug Eggs?

Bed bug eggs are hard to find and tough to kill. Unless you expose bed bug eggs to heat over 140℉ (60℃) for at least half an hour, you can’t be sure you’ve killed the eggs. This makes using a blow dryer inefficient because you’ll have to spend countless hours killing bed bug eggs. Since there are no outward signs that the eggs are dead, you still won’t be sure your blow dryer was hot enough to do the job.

  • Only an extremely powerful blow dryer will bed bug eggs.
  • Even if your blow dryer gets hot enough to kill bed bug eggs, it takes 30 minutes of heat exposure to do the job.
  • There is no way to tell if your blow dryer has killed bed bug eggs—they may still hatch later.

Even if your blow dryer reaches the optimal temperatures for killing bed bug eggs, you still have to find the hiding spot of every bed bug egg in order to kill them all. You won’t stop a bed bug infestation with a blow dryer, so it’s not worth your time.

How to Kill Bed Bugs with a Blow Dryer

If you really want to kill bed bugs with a blow dryer, get an extension cord and prepare for a bug hunt. Here’s how it’s done:

  • Plug your blow dryer into an extension cord so you can reach every corner of the room.
  • Search for bed bugs in your clothes, carpet, or couch.
  • Turn the blow dryer on high heat and direct the heat at the bed bug.
  • Hold the hair dryer 2–3 inches (5–7.5 cm) away from the bed bug.
  • Continue applying heat until the bed bug stops moving and dies.
  • Repeat to kill more bed bugs.
  • Remain careful so you do not burn yourself, your belongings, or your carpet with direct heat from the blow dryer.

This process is very inefficient since it requires you to hunt down each bed bug individually. In the same period of time you used to kill a few bugs, a pest control service can kill hundreds of the pests.

Can You Eliminate a Bed Bug Infestation with a Blow Dryer?

You will not be able to get rid of all the bed bugs in your home with a blow dryer. Bed bugs hide during the daytime, then emerge at night to feed on human blood. During the day, they will hide in the walls of your home, under baseboards, or even deep inside couches and box springs. You simply will not be able to discover every bed bug and bed bug egg. The surviving bugs will repopulate your home and continue pestering you.

  • You will not be able to stop a bed bug infestation by using a blow dryer.
  • Most bed bugs will remain hidden in walls, carpets, and furniture during the day.
  • If you kill the bed bugs you find, others will breed in your walls and furniture to take their place.
  • Working with a professional exterminator is the best way to get rid of bed bugs permanently.

Killing a few bed bugs with your blow dryer might make you feel better, but it won’t stop the problem at the source. Pest control operators are your best bet for controlling bed bugs. You will also need to take further measures, such as washing your clothes to kill bed bugs.

How to Use Heat to Kill Bed Bugs

Work with professionals to use heat treatment and other tactics to kill all the bed bugs in your home. Some companies will seal your home and heat the interior to over 140℉ (60℃) to kill all the bed bugs living in your clothes, furniture, and walls. Others use specialized ovens to heat certain personal items to high temperatures in order to kill bed bugs.

  • Professional exterminators can use powerful heat tools to kill bed bugs.
  • Some homes can be heated to high temperatures for extended periods in order to kill bed bugs and their eggs.
  • Some pest control services use small “ovens” that heat certain household items to eliminate bed bugs.

It is always best to call a reputable exterminator when you are facing a bed bug problem. They can advise whether professional heat treatments or other measures are best in your case.  

Are Blow Dryers Good for Killing Bed Bugs?

Blow dryers are a very poor choice for battling bed bugs. Here’s why:

  • Most blow dryers do not get hot enough to kill all bed bugs and their eggs.
  • You will have to expose each bed bug to high heat for several minutes to kill the bug.
  • Most bed bugs in your home will remain hidden in walls, carpet, and furniture—you won’t be able to find them in order to attack them with a blow dryer.

While professionals do kill bed bugs with heat, a professional bed bug heat treatment is very different from what you can do with a handheld blow dryer. Killing a few bugs with a blow dryer on maximum heat won’t kill off all the bed bugs in your home, so it’s better to not waste your time.

independently and with the help of the law

For two years I rented an apartment to a seemingly decent married couple. Sometimes he came in to check if everything was in order. I didn't see anything critical. The couple paid regularly, there were no problems, the neighbors did not complain either.

The tenants have recently moved out. I began to tidy up and found bedbugs in the bedroom behind the bed. I threw away all the bed linen, the mattress and the blanket too. I ordered cleaning with bleach, but came a week later and saw bedbugs again.

Tell me how to deal with them. Until I get the bedbugs out, I won't be able to rent the apartment to other tenants. And I don't want to hand it over to people who don't care if there are bed bugs or not. After such repairs will be more expensive than removing insects.

Ivan

Ivan, it's good that you want to solve the problem, and not silently rent an apartment with bedbugs to new tenants.

Andrey Nenastiev

visited bed bugs

Author's profile

For starters, you should try to eradicate bed bugs yourself. If you can't handle it, invite a person who will professionally help to destroy insects - a pest control.

But fighting bedbugs is not enough. We need to figure out where they came from. It's not a fact that your tenants bred them. Perhaps a dysfunctional apartment has appeared in the house, and bedbugs are crawling from there. If this is the case, you will have to build a defense: eliminate gaps in doors and windows, clog pipe joints and the edges of ventilation grilles.

How bedbugs appear in an apartment

Like cockroaches, bedbugs mainly appear in an apartment from neighbors. You can also bring insects from public transport or pick them up, for example, at a party. You can also buy bedbugs with a new sofa in the store or get it with luggage on the train.

I already talked about how to properly protect an apartment from neighboring insects in an article about cockroach persecution.

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Bedbugs are much slower than cockroaches and move a maximum of 2-3 meters per day. Sometimes they need a week to move from apartment to apartment. But the bug is much faster and more cunning at short distances: it can jump sharply if it is in danger.

Bedbugs move at a speed of 1 meter per minute. The bug is much faster and more cunning than a cockroach at short distances: it can jump sharply if it is in danger.

The sanitary condition of the apartment does not play a role for the breeding of bedbugs. They settle equally well in both clean and dirty housing - as long as there is access to human blood. But they multiply quickly. A female bed bug lays 500 eggs per year.

House bugs are active mainly at night - from 3 to 5 o'clock

Bed bugs are extremely unpleasant and ruinous neighbors. To find them, you have to move furniture, remove baseboards, and sometimes tear off drywall. Bed linen and mattresses after the invasion of bedbugs can be safely thrown away: washing and drying are allowed, but it is better to take more drastic measures.

Bed bugs like to be close to people, not their food. Typical habitats are next to a bed or sofa. It could also be a ceiling plinth. From there, the bugs fall on the person and bite him. The bite of the bug is not felt: before the attack, the insect uses an anesthetic liquid. For this reason, bedbugs often cannot be noticed in time.

If there is a child in the house, the bugs will interfere with his sleep. Adults also feel stings after the anesthetic fluid wears off.

Bedbugs also have the ability to fall into anabiosis, that is, hibernation. If they have nothing to eat, they seem to fall asleep. Therefore, it is useless to kill bedbugs, just leaving the apartment empty.

Bed bug habitats. Source: Sidekix Media / Unsplash

How to deal with bedbugs with the help of the law

If you know where a problematic apartment with bedbugs is located, you can try to complain about its tenants to the mayor's office. The city authorities can file a lawsuit with them and help in the fight against a dysfunctional apartment.

For example, in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the city administration filed a lawsuit against the tenants of an apartment they rented under a social tenancy agreement. Neighbors complained that the apartment was in poor condition.

The inspection confirmed this: the apartment was littered with boxes, and there was rubbish on the floor. Based on the results of the inspection, an act of sanitary and epidemiological examination was drawn up. They also examined a child who lived in this apartment. Bed bug bite marks were found on his body.

The owner of the apartment explained that bed bugs do sometimes appear in the apartment, and agreed to take measures to eliminate them. As a result, the court ordered the residents of the apartment with bedbugs to remove garbage from the housing and take the necessary measures to eliminate the insects.

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You can also write a complaint to Rospotrebnadzor. By law, the owner of an apartment must keep it in proper sanitary condition.

Art. 30 ZhK RF

A fine for citizens under article 6. 4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for violating sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the operation of residential premises - from 500 to 1000 rubles.

management company. She is obliged to regularly call exterminators and process non-residential premises: wheelchairs, basements, attics.

Art. 6.3 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation

Everything about how to live in Russia

And interact with management companies and neighbors - in our mailing list. Subscribe to not miss important articles

How to eradicate bedbugs on your own

You can try to destroy bedbugs yourself. To do this, they use insecticides, folk remedies, create unbearable living conditions for insects and poison them with hot air.

Insecticides are poisonous substances in powder, solution, suspension or aerosol form.

One of the popular remedies is Get. This is chlorpyrifos. The insecticide is diluted in water in a ratio of 1: 5. They wipe the places of concentration of bedbugs and the likely ways of their movement. Bedbug paths are found by black dots and transparent skins that are shed by insects. As the manufacturer assures, "Get" is active for 6-12 months.

Dichlorvos is also suitable - a well-known spray that needs to be sprayed on places where bedbugs accumulate.

Means "Karbofos" destroys not only bedbugs and their larvae, but also parasite eggs.

You can also try "Zonder", which helps even in difficult cases, "Reid" aerosol, "Riapan" powder and other means. It is wiser to start with the simplest and cheapest ones and, if they do not help, gradually switch to more expensive ones.

Insecticide "Get" is sold in small containers of 50-100 ml, but it is enough to make half a liter of solution and treat the main places with it. These offers on Yandex Market Karbofos act not only on the bugs themselves, but also on their larvae and eggs. It is usually sold in 5 liter cans - it is unlikely that you will need that much

Folk remedies. The simplest is vinegar. Unlike insecticides, vinegar does not kill insects, but simply repels them. Therefore, vinegar is effective only at the initial stage, when there are few bedbugs. Or if it became clear that they breed throughout the house and can get into your apartment.

Use vinegar 9% to lubricate baseboards, crevices, wipe doors and window frames.

If the bugs are already settled, turpentine helps. Sometimes it is mixed with kerosene, alcohol and naphthalene to create the most pungent smell. For 100 ml of turpentine, 100 ml of kerosene and 25 g of naphthalene are taken. Turpentine-based solutions smell so that no one can live in the apartment, so you will have to leave the house during the treatment and for a day after it.

Bedbugs can also be repelled with the help of plants: wormwood, tansy and chamomile. The powder from these plants is laid out in cracks and on window sills. You can also make a decoction and wipe the surfaces with it. Such methods work mainly to prevent the appearance of bedbugs. It is unlikely that it will be possible to destroy the bedbug's lair with the help of plants.

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If you use the same remedy for a long time, bedbugs can develop immunity to it. Therefore, if the insects do not disappear, then the means must be alternated until they are defeated. But it’s better to start right away with specialized preparations or call a pest control, because bedbugs can only become stronger from folk remedies, and then it will be difficult to eradicate them even with professional formulations.

Bed bug turpentine - angry, very smelly and cheap

Hot air kill. Bedbugs are afraid of high and low temperatures, so infested surfaces can be treated with a steam generator or building dryer. The higher the temperature, the better.

Infected items can be treated in the same way if it is clear that they will not deteriorate.

The temperature of +50 °C is critical for the bug, but at it it can live up to half an hour. Therefore, if there is an ordinary hair dryer that heats the air up to +80 °C, then you can use it. But it is still better to take a building hair dryer: with its help, you can get an air temperature of +300 °C and higher.

+50 °C

the temperature at which the bug cannot live

How to create an uncomfortable environment for the bugs

For thorough treatment, the apartment must be isolated. Even if you fail to eradicate the bugs on your own and you have to call exterminators, they will start with the same actions.

Here's what to do:

  1. Check that the ventilation shafts are closed. If the grating in the shaft is damaged, then you can buy a fine organza mesh in a fabric store, and seal the edges with sealant. Bedbugs will not crawl through such cells.
  2. Shake water and gas pipes that come from neighbors, and even Internet or telephone cables. All entrances must be tightly sealed with foam.
  3. View sockets. In old houses, they can directly connect to neighboring ones. It is better to dismantle such sockets and cover the holes.

Since bed bugs are most common in bedrooms, lay out all furniture so seams and joints are visible. They can be processed too.

Bed linen from all sofas and beds, curtains and possibly bedbug-infested clothes should be washed in a washing machine at a maximum temperature of +60 or +90°C. If your machine has a dry or steam mode, turn that on as well.

Disinsection against bedbugs

Treating a two-room apartment from bedbugs will cost at least 2,000 R. The cost can reach up to 10,000 R, depending on the number of rooms, the high cost and strength of the compounds used by the exterminator.

In cheap processing, agents are used that do not kill insects, but scare them away. Also, for a low cost, there is a chance to invite a contractor who will simply spray industrial equipment with the same chemicals that are sold in stores. Therefore, it is better to clarify in advance what exactly the apartment will be treated with.

If cockroach exterminators primarily process the kitchen, bathroom and corridor, then the opposite is true with bedbugs. The insecticide solution will be sprayed in the area of ​​sleeping places and baseboards in living rooms. There will certainly be traces of insects.

2000 R

minimum cost of treatment for bedbugs in a two-room apartment

Experts find the habitats of bedbugs by the traces of their excrement - small black dots. The darker, the more infected. There may be white bedbug eggs and their skins nearby.

The cost of fighting bedbugs in Moscow

Prices in St. Petersburg

Black dots are bedbug excrement. By points you can find the lair of insects. If the exterminator has a hot fog installation, this is a big plus. Such a device turns the poisonous substance into fine dust, which penetrates into all the cracks. Source: Parilov / Shutterstock

Bed bug treatments are guaranteed for 6 months to 2 years. As a rule, an obligatory condition is prescribed in an agreement with a company: the owner is obliged to seal the housing, that is, to eliminate all possible ways for insects to enter from neighbors.

If bugs reappear during the warranty period, exterminators re-treat. It can be completely free, with a departure fee, with a fee for consumables or for half the usual cost - the conditions must be read in the contract.

What to do? 01/16/20

Exterminators took the money, but did not remove the bedbugs

It is worth discussing with the exterminator in advance what is covered by the guarantee. It happens that tenants re-introduce bedbugs - this is called re-infection, and in such cases the guarantee does not apply.

As a rule, a re-infection is considered to be a situation when the bugs were eradicated, they were not at all for several months, and then they suddenly reappeared. The exterminator can say that he did his job with high quality, and the bugs are new, so you will have to pay for the new treatment in full.

The apartment is considered to be completely free from bedbugs if they have not appeared for a month.

p. 3.22 Sanpin 3.5.2.3472-17

It happens that because of bedbugs people sell apartments

Alexander Kirillov

exterminator

Sometimes people buy secondary housing and it turns out that the apartment is infested with bedbugs. The previous tenants could have abandoned it precisely because of the bedbugs. There are real cases when these insects survive people from apartments. I had one in St. Petersburg: a man was forced to rent a three-room apartment for his family, because they were evicted from their housing by bedbugs. They couldn't do anything because no treatment helped.

Tropical bugs, which are brought from abroad, still thrive in large cities. Tropical bugs are visually no different from ours and live in hotels in their homeland. But this is a stronger population, which is already crowding out Russian bedbugs. Erasing them is much more difficult.

If you have a question about personal finance, rights and laws, health or education, please email. The most interesting questions will be answered by the experts of the magazine.

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Effective fight against bedbugs - 14 ways


Some methods of fighting bedbugs are effective, and some are not very or do not bring results. Unfortunately, many people try everything in search of a working method. Therefore, we have prepared a special article in which we summarized the professional experience of what it should be - an effective fight against bedbugs.

  1. Physical method of dealing with bed bugs
    • How to "cook" bed bugs - three ways
    • How to "burn" bed bugs
    • How to freeze bed bugs
    • Pros and cons of the physical method of dealing with bedbugs. Prevention and Prevention
  2. Mechanical bug control
    • Lure and capture
  3. Chemical method - the most effective way to deal with bedbugs
  4. Effective methods of dealing with bedbugs - is it possible to combine

We believe that relying on chance is recklessness. Wasting time on experiments is risky, you might not be lucky. A proven system of practical steps will come to the rescue, aimed at the complete extermination of bedbugs, or at least their temporary repelling, pending professional processing.

The whole set of methods for combating bedbugs forms two approaches to controlling their spread:

  • prophylaxis, which includes preventive measures to prevent infection;
  • destruction, or the release of an already inhabited object from the “infection”.

How to start the fight against bedbugs depends on their number in the apartment. If the room is overpopulated and parasites are easy to detect even during the day, immediately adopt chemicals. If the bugs have not even caught your eye yet, then “physical” and “mechanical” will show themselves as quite effective methods of dealing with bedbugs. The most effective way to deal with bedbugs is a comprehensive program for their removal, you can find out about it at the end of the article.




The physical method of dealing with bedbugs

The physics of dealing with bedbugs is based on creating temperatures unsuitable for their survival.

You should immediately sweep away cold and heat in the everyday sense, since they do not give a 100% guarantee of getting rid of bedbugs. Putting a sofa on a balcony or outside in a 40-degree heat for the whole day is a waste of time. The same with frost, all this is effective only when exposed to extreme temperatures on the bug, right on target (-40, and for instant freezing -72; +55, and for instant death +100). In practice, the bugs hide in such hidden places that it is simply impossible to create such a temperature there, unless, of course, we assume that a fire = an effective fight against bugs.

In order to get to the bugs hiding in the cracks of the walls, you will have to thoroughly warm up or freeze the entire apartment. As for open windows on a frosty day, it is dangerous for the plumbing and heating systems to freeze. But a bath with a temperature of 55-60 degrees in an apartment is a difficult undertaking, and if you manage to create something similar with the help of industrial equipment, then the hidden surfaces are again unlikely to warm up to the required level.

How to "cook" bed bugs - three ways

The required thermal maximum can be achieved by local heating with suitable devices. Get ready thoroughly, in combination with the control of all things and bed linen, such processing will take a whole day. Here's what you can use:

  1. No special utensils - just a kettle or pot with a kettle. Pouring boiling water over cracks, seams and joints is the least radical method of thermal pest control. Boiling water is better to use steep, bubbling. The temperature is still below 95-100 degrees, and only with such boiling water there will be an instant effect. They need to water everything that is allowed, preferably twice.
  2. Curtains, bedding, blankets, pillows, clothing and personal items are best treated with water vapor generated by various steam appliances. You can use a regular iron, but steam cleaners, steam generators, steamers and other similar devices are more efficient. Many people ask us, what power steam generator helps against bedbugs? For the treatment of all surfaces, a powerful steam cleaner with at least 1400 W of power consumption and a steam pressure of at least 4 atmospheres is best suited.
  3. Vapor treatment of coatings must take into account their ability to withstand high temperatures. In order to process a small area, you should not overpay, the Rolsen sc3510 gr green steam generator will be effective against bedbugs.

    This model is also equipped with a long nozzle, a universal nozzle and an angle nozzle.

  4. Side nozzles, crevice nozzles are useful for reaching the most inaccessible places when processing. And if the thermal blower has a function with adjustable heating temperature, then this will allow you not to worry about damage to materials.

Effective bed bug control is in the details. For example, a hair dryer or other means of heating should be treated several times in a row until all the bugs are destroyed, not forgetting to change the direction of the steam every 1-2 seconds.



How to “burn” bed bugs?

An even more flammable way to deal with bedbugs at home, used by some in the extreme stages of infestation, is a turbo lighter. The device burns the ends of chipboard, holes for fiberboard and other small gaps that cannot be reached in other ways. There is no need to burn everything in a row, only bedbugs are burned, as well as places where feces (black dots along the edges) with discarded skins are located. The method is not recommended by us, due to the fact that it spoils the surface and is a fire hazard. However, if for some reason it is decided to use fire in the fight against bedbugs, then you should be extremely careful and very careful - the flame of turbo-lighters is very high temperature.

How to freeze bed bugs

Liquid nitrogen, like other liquefied gases, is especially effective when used for bed bug control immediately after hot air blowing. To create an extremely low temperature, spray guns or cans of liquid nitrogen equipped with a spray gun are suitable. Tools for applying liquid nitrogen can be obtained from specialized stores that sell medical equipment for cryotherapy.

Perhaps the most affordable of all cryogenic methods of dealing with bedbugs in everyday life is a pneumatic sprayer used to clean keyboards and computer equipment.

This special compressed gas can is useful for blowing bed bug eggs out of hard to reach places. Along with this, the refrigerant also blows out all the dust and debris that have clogged into the cracks, making it difficult to search for bedbugs. Such cleaning is environmentally friendly, and the substances used are not combustible.

At the same time, a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher will also perfectly cope with the role of cooling surfaces, which, moreover, will not leave any marks when used. The temperature of the outgoing gas is 72 degrees below zero. And yet, not everyone will buy a fire extinguisher specifically for fighting bedbugs, because effective fight against bedbugs is also available using less “emergency” tools.

Cryotechnologies and other innovative methods of pest control are not used as widely as traditional control methods. The reason for this is the increased cost of work and the need to simultaneously combine several methods of struggle within a specific area of ​​the master's work. Without a combination of several techniques, it may not be possible to provide a stable result with one refrigerant the first time, because the bugs move from one place to another quite quickly.

The use of nitric oxide dispensers and industrial dewars in pest control has not yet been fully substantiated. Despite this, a successful experience of using the Chladonit disinfection unit for the purpose of instant freezing of eggs and larvae of bedbugs and other insects has been recorded.

Pros and cons of the physical method of dealing with bedbugs. Prevention and prevention

Summing up the expediency of using the physical method of dealing with bedbugs, it is worth mentioning why they generally resort to the physical method - absolute harmlessness to humans and pets. There are many more cons:

  • Significant risk of deformation or deterioration of coatings during processing.
  • No residual action that kills transients from neighbors and new larvae hatched from eggs.
  • High risk that physical impact will not kill bed bugs completely. Freezing bedbugs with a short exposure to cold can only slow down the life of bedbugs, briefly “lulling them to sleep”. The same is true for thermal exposure. With insufficient air flow or heating, as well as with insufficient pressure and steam flow, the bugs will not die completely.
  • In addition, unlike the chemical method, local thermal effects do not provide effective luring of bedbugs, and this does not make the task of the processor any easier.

Effective bed bug control does not end with treatments. As part of a preventive approach, physical methods of dealing with bedbugs include such preventive and control measures as encapsulating things and sealing surfaces.

  • Firstly, absolutely all clothes, bedding and bedding must be packed in vacuum bags for clothes. With a long vacuum "preservation" all the bugs in them will die.

Sealable plastic bags can be used if vacuum bags are not available. Upholstered furniture must be put in special covers or protective covers for sofas, and mattresses - in durable mattress covers with zippers. If things or furniture are infected with bedbugs from the inside, then with prolonged conservation of things, all individuals found in them will die.

  • Second, seal joints, crevices, and other openings. Holes need to be caulked, and existing gaps and even thin joints should be covered with sealant.

It is advisable to seal the doors, try to keep the windows tightly closed in the summer, if possible, close the ventilation openings with fine mesh gratings.

Mechanical method of dealing with bedbugs

As an independent method, mechanical action on bedbugs is practically not used. But to do without it completely in the fight against bedbugs will not work for two reasons:

    • Firstly, because in order to detect bedbugs, it is effective to create vibrations, tap, knock out and move furniture with mattresses, as well as do other things, that cause bed bugs to worry. This does not work as well as a chemical provocation, but the bugs sleeping during the day will definitely stir, albeit not immediately. Without the subsequent destruction of the detected bedbugs, this method is harmful, because it will irritate the bedbugs and contribute to their resettlement around the apartment.
    • Secondly, at the moment of finding several individuals in one place (something like a nest), especially if there is no insecticidal spray at hand, they will have to be collected, or, in extreme cases, crushed.
  • Can also be done manually by scraping and examining the seams with something like a plastic card. Spreading bugs can also be collected with tweezers, a brush or a broom. However, a vacuum cleaner can handle this task more efficiently and not so laboriously. The contents of the vacuum bag must be transferred to a plastic bag, after which all the collected bedbugs, together with the eggs, should be poured into the sink or toilet, and immediately flushed down the drain. It is important to wash the bedbugs into the sewer, because only there, being in the water, they will finally die.

Lure and trapping

A promising, but still expensive method of dealing with bedbugs is attractive. It is based on attracting and collecting bedbugs in one place - a bait trap. As attractants, heat, carbon dioxide or pheromones are used, and sometimes all together. Such traps or bedbug detection monitors are not yet produced by a domestic manufacturer, and foreign ones are too expensive.

However, you can also use conventional mechanical traps without attraction - the so-called Velcro. This, of course, is not the most effective way to deal with bedbugs, but sometimes it helps. Slippery caps, sticky sheets, duct tape, water cups under the legs of the bed, and anything else you can make yourself.

Such mechanical methods of catching bedbugs will be effective only if you roughly imagine the place where bedbugs accumulate in the apartment and, on the basis of this, manipulate their behavior. Many use the following method.

The infected sofa is moved away from the wall, making room next to it. Velcro is installed half a meter all around the sofa and on all sides inside, including under the legs. The sofa is not allowed to be used for a couple of weeks (it is better to wait a month), and it is better to choose a place to sleep nearby - in the same room if the bugs live only in the sofa so far, or in another if they have populated the space around it.

Hungry bugs will sooner or later follow the smell of a person, but going down from the sofa along the legs of the bed or moving in another way, they will fall into traps before they leave their usual habitat. In order to protect the sofa from bedbugs from the outside, deprive bedbugs of the opportunity to fall from the ceiling and perform other similar manipulations bypassing the Velcro. To do this, it is necessary to stop the main ways of moving bedbugs on the ceiling, thresholds, door trims, through ventilation grills or pipes, pasting all these places around the perimeter with double-sided adhesive tape (adhesive tape).

The chemical method is the most effective way to deal with bed bugs

The use of insecticidal agents of various classes of chemical compounds in the order of their alternation (to avoid addiction) is the basis of the method. Effective fight against bedbugs in 90% of cases cannot do without chemistry. And this is a whole arsenal of bedbug control products, including professional and household products of various formulations, from Masha to powders and emulsions. The same method includes the use of various kinds of repellents and attractants in order to scare away / attract bedbugs.

Vinegar, tansy, turpentine with denatured alcohol are among the best repellents. It is not uncommon for repellents to attract bedbugs, stimulating their activity. It should be noted that most of the repellents and attractants are ineffective, some work from time to time. Only death can stop a hungry bug, and only carbon dioxide emitted during breathing and the unique smell of a person can be attracted, broken down into components and synthesized, which no one has yet succeeded in synthesizing.

At the moment, the most effective way to deal with bed bugs is exterminating disinfestation using acute contact preparations that destroy bed bugs and their larvae moving along the treated surfaces.

At the same time, it becomes obvious that there are more than one effective way to deal with bedbugs. So what is the most effective way to deal with bedbugs to use?


Read also: How to get rid of bedbugs in 8 hours without leaving your home

If you are suddenly thinking about whether to send your recently bedbug-infested furniture to the trash, then don't. If this is not justified by other reasons, except for the presence of bedbugs in them. Then where to start? An effective fight against bedbugs at home is unthinkable without a persistent and meticulous inspection of all pieces of furniture. A painstaking search for bedbugs in an apartment is a guarantee of one of two things - either that the last bedbug found will be finally destroyed, or that there will already be 100% certainty in their absence.

In Western countries, dogs have long been involved in the fight against bedbugs, using their sense of smell. Trained dogs, led by a professional handler, inspect hotel rooms, focusing only on the smell of bedbugs. Animals find places of accumulation of these insects in 99% of cases.

Despite the fact that applied methods of controlling bedbugs make it easier to detect them, it is quite possible to find and destroy all the bedbugs in the apartment on your own.

  • The first reason why self-control of bedbugs drags out for a long time is because at home, few people manage to objectively assess all infection factors, including the possible resistance of bedbugs to various toxic substances.
  • Secondly, it is not always the residents who process all the premises at the same time, with a sufficient consumption rate of insecticides.

Therefore, the most effective way to combat bedbugs is to detect all places where bedbugs accumulate in the room and in all adjacent foci using insecticides and physical and mechanical methods of examination, and then the simultaneous continuous treatment of all rooms in which bedbugs were found, contact insecticidal agent (namely contact). With a high number of females in the family (laying eggs), re-treatment will be required after 14-21 days.

Whatever method of dealing with bedbugs you would not consider effective in your case, it is necessary to carry out prophylaxis without fail, changing bed linen twice a week, steaming (washing and ironing) all clothes and bedding.

Effective methods of dealing with bedbugs - can they be combined?

Any professional pest control will answer that a comprehensive approach to the fight against bedbugs only increases the likelihood of their complete elimination.


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