A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK CONTROL OF BED BUGS IS TO REPEL OR MANIPULATE THEM IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE GRIEF TO THEMSELVES AND OTHERS. THE REALITY IS THAT THE ONLY WAY TO CONTROL BED BUGS IS TO COMPLETELY EXTERMINATE EVERY BUG IN THE BUILDING!
THE WAY THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED MAY VARY FROM DIFFERENT CONTROLLERS AND AGENCIES, BUT THE GENERAL RELIANCE ON PESTICIDE SPRAY ONLY HAS LED TO THE INTERNATIONAL PLAGUE OF BED BUGS WE HAVE TODAY. WORLD BEST PRACTICE, AND THE METHOD THAT IS SUCCEEDING, IS TO USE A COMBINATION OF HEAT AND PESTICIDES TO ANNIHILATE BED BUG INFESTATIONS. THIS IS THE PROCESS NOW BEING USED BY UNIVERSITIES AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN THE USA DUE TO ITS PROVEN EFFECTIVENESS. THIS IS THE METHOD ALSO EMPLOYED BY SPECIALIST BED BUG CONTROLLERS, LIKE MYSELF, WHO SUCCESSFULLY ERADICATE BED BUGS.
IF YOU CHOOSE ANYTHING LESS YOU ARE RISKING ONGOING GRIEF TO YOURSELF AND ALL THOSE AFFECTED!
Controlling bed bugs is a bit like a Chinese puzzle, things that seem the most logical often only make matters worse. Let's analyse the logical approach.
You have been waking up to itchy lumps for a few weeks and you have been to the doctor who sent you to a specialist who did blood tests and gave you some cream. You wake in the wee hours and turn on the light and here are several little black looking bugs crawling on you and/or the sheets, so you panic. Somewhere you have heard about bed bugs and their diabolical, blood sucking habits, so you drag your bed and base through the house and leave it out back. You gather the bedding and dump it in the laundry to wash first thing in the morning and empty two cans of mortein into the bedroom, then go and settle in for the night on the sofa.
This is heavy spotting in a room infested to the extreme. The occupant said he wasn't getting bitten!
So what's the problem!
Moving the bed: Bed bugs are hard bodied creatures and are more than likely to jump off furniture as it is dragged through the house. Further, once outside the bed bugs will become agitated by the light and heat and lack of food and will begin an exodus which could see them return to your home or that of your neighbor's. This could take days , weeks or months and could be enough time for them to avoid the residual treatment and re-infest.
Dumping the laundry: Once again, the bugs are likely to jump off as articles from the room are moved, and any bugs on the bedding are now being relocated to the laundry and will start their search for a host from there.
Spraying pesticide: Most pesticides are only effective if a droplet directly contacts the bug, the rest of the bed bugs can be repelled into reclusive areas such as floor/roof cavities, hollow walls etc, then to nest and feed from these inaccessible areas, making identifying and treating an ongoing infestation more difficult.
Sleeping on the couch: Bed bugs can exist for a year or two without a meal but will, given there are readily available hosts (you and yours) nearby, will seek out bodies in the house and resettle in new abodes. Spending a couple of weeks on the couch will result in the couch and the room it is in needing treatment also.
SOME PEST CONTROLLERS ACTUALLY RECOMMEND SOME OF THE METHODS ABOVE. IF THEY DO, YOU ARE TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW NOR UNDERSTAND BED BUGS AND IS LIKELY TO CAUSE LONG TERM PROBLEMS.
If you have an infestation you need to leave the bed bugs where they are and treat them effectively and completely, before they can spread. Bed bug control is a specialised treatment, avoided even by many pest controllers. Early intervention may mean only one or two rooms need treatment which is much better and cheaper than treating the whole house.
One of the major problems with treatment is that there is NO PESTICIDE THAT KILLS THE EGGS OF BED BUGS, and most pesticides ARE DANGEROUS when sprayed on the bed. So this means that a spray application may not target a main source of the infestation nor the future generation of bugs.
BED BUGS ON THE BOTTOM OF A BED BASE
UPDATE: A RECENT RESEARCH PAPER FROM AMERICA HAS SHOWN BED BUG RESISTANCE TO SYNTHETIC PYRETHROID TYPE PESTICIDES. ALVARO ROMERO, MICHAEL POTTER & KENNETH HAYNES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, STUDIED MORTALITY RATES OF BED BUG COLONIES FROM 15 SITES ACROSS AMERICA AND TWO OLD LABORATORY COLONIES SAVED FROM THE MID 1900'S. THE TWO, OLDER LAB COLONIES SHOWED 100% MORTALITY, ONE MODERN SITE SHOWED 45% MORTALITY WITH THE OTHER 14 MODERN COLONIES SHOWING 0 MORTALITY.
THE PESTICIDE TESTED WAS PYRETHROID, THE MOST COMMON PESTICIDE IN USE TODAY. NO TESTING OF THIS SORT HAS RECENTLY BEEN DONE IN AUSTRALIA, BUT IT WOULD BE REASONABLE TO ASSUME THAT SIMILAR RESULTS WOULD BE LIKELY. PESTICIDES BASED ON SYNTHETIC PYRETHROIDS ARE STILL RECOMMENDED ON CERTAIN WEBSITES AND THIS IS MISLEADING AND IRRESPONSIBLE!
SCAMS They may be delusional, uneducated or downright dishonest, but there seems to be a lot of dodgy treatment methods appearing locally and on the net. Natural oils: These will repel bed bugs by the strong odour but they come back, usually fairly quickly. Bed Bug Barriers: Bed bugs are well known to climb to the ceiling and drop onto beds (see wickipedia, bedbuggers etc) and this even outsmarted Auntie (ABC new inventors). A barrier can be used to monitor bed bug presence and/or as part of a multi-faceted control system but as a stand alone, will never stop bed bugs. One treatment: a/ steam, if anyone could find every bed bug and egg located in a room, he would be a genius (1st instar 1.2mm and transparent), steam alone can regulate but not eliminate bugs. b/ pesticide, as I keep saying, pesticides do not effect eggs so "pesticide only" needs to be two treatments with the RIGHT pesticide to be any chance of success. Room Heating: This would work if the room could be sealed and raised to a consistent 70 degrees C for an hour (this would include the walls, floor and ceiling as bed bugs habitats can be against these surfaces). All outlets need to be sealed and goods need to be checked for heat resistance making the preparation painstaking, costly and time consuming. Effective use of heat, therefore, becomes extremely expensive and is dependant on operator experience as has been seen in the USA. I have heard of one operator who just heats up the room and watches as the bugs scurry into every adjoining area.
Current "world best treatment" involves the use of steam to kill both live bed bugs and the eggs, the application of an effective, residual pesticide that eliminates any bugs missed in the initial treatment and the treatment of all goods within the affected zone.
Pest controllers who are too constrained to use steam, will tell you to throw away perfectly good furniture and that they need to apply several spray treatments that will be costly and are a random way to try to break the breeding cycle. Sometimes, they are successful but, often, they just reduce the population, which can stop people reacting or itching, only to have them re-emerge at a later date. Any guarantee given for a period under six months is a gimmick and of no value.
YOU CAN PAY TWICE AS MUCH FOR HALF THE JOB OR GET THE JOB DONE PROPERLY WITH A SPECIALIST BED BUG CONTROLLER.
