How to eliminate bed bugs from flat?
I have tried pest control etc.
After a few days they come back due to moisture.
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2tell the other residents as well so they can take preventative measures/check if they have an infestation as well– ratchet freakSep 29, 2014 at 12:12
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Unless you can get buy-in from all the other flats in the building you have basically no chance of keeping them out. Bedbugs need to be thoroughly removed from the whole building at the same time.– Jack AidleySep 3, 2021 at 12:29
3 Answers
Of all the sprays that exist, Temprid SC (imidacloprid + beta-cyfluthrin) and Transport (Acetamiprid + Bifenthrin) are found to be the best for controlling bed bugs. The best natural spray is Ecoraider. Ecoraider and Temprid SC do work together, but Ecoraider would be antagonistic with diatomaceous earth, because diatomaceous earth works by absorbing oil while Ecoraider is oil based... so they would completely cancel eachother. Diatomaceous earth and Temprid SC or Transport would work well together.
However, the real key to killing bedbugs is getting them to move, and crawl through a pesticide. Bed bugs will not move without an attractant, like carbon dioxide. Recently, histamine was discovered to "arrest" bed bugs... meaning that the bed bug will not move once it contacts histamine. This is pretty good news, but there's a few problems; first, you can't spray histamine everywhere (that would kill a person)! The second problem is that spraying histamine would cost an outrageous fortune! So, histamine works (better than glue) for trapping them, provided that you can attract them to a trap. The third major problem is that the company that was supposed to be producing these new lure, Contech, suddenly went out of business.
But chemical lures, except carbon dioxide, are poor attractants; they are used for monitoring- meaning that they are supposed to catch one or two bugs, just to indicate their presence; they are not a "control" method. The best control method (tried and true for centuries) is the pitfall trap, especially under bed and furniture legs. The best bait is a sleeping human. However, lots of work has been done, trapping bed bugs, and as a result, you can get a fair amount of control from a homemade trap. Commercial traps are limited by the fact that they need to sell something simple... which is what most people want. Consumers don't like to buy an elaborate trap, so commercial traps are not really made to work, as well as they are made to sell well, by being as simple as possible and still capture a few bugs. Still, pheromone lures might help with a DIY trap, especially in conjuction with carbon dioxide, and using the right objects and colors.
Bed bugs are attracted to large vertical objects. They are not attracted to pictures (like of a person). They are attracted to dark red and black. They climb surgical/cloth tape best. So, I would recommend using the DIY trap that Rutgers came up with, but I would also add a pheromone lure, if possible (although the extra $15 may not be totally worth it). And I would invest in some pitfall traps (for your bed and furniture legs). And I would pick up a bottle of Temprid SC.
But, home made traps aren't really going to collect all of the bed bugs... it might offer 60%-70% control by trapping (only)... the idea here is that it will hopefully cause all the bed bugs to at least move and inspect the room, which is absolutely critical for a pesticide to work. An insect must contact the insecticide! Use trap to draw them out into insecticide-treated areas... and you should also be able to monitor the size of the population and the control as time goes by.
The cleanest, most thorough, and most effective way to kill bed bugs is to heat the affected rooms to 140 °F (60 °C) for two hours or 130 °F (55 °C) for three hours. See this.
There are services which can be hired to do the work, but it will still take you hours to prepare for it and a few hours afterward to restore your home.
But since you are asking on a do-it-yourself venue, you might rent a high power propane heater such as this from a tool rental:
Unlike traditional residential heaters, it has no thermostat which would prevent heating to 140 °F. This model is 60,000 BTU/hour which would heat a small or medium size room insulated moderately. A larger room might also be possible to adequately heat if there are few or no windows.
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1Note that as a combustion heater this is going to produce carbon dioxide and monoxide. If leave this for pros who know how to manage that hazard– keshlamApr 18, 2016 at 1:31
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@keshlam: Well, carbon monoxide will just accelerate the termination of whatever bugs are present. (No, it probably won't.) When the heater is operating properly, there should be no CO. As the room heats, one would not want to be in there for more than a few dozen seconds at a time anyway. The hazard should be minimal.– wallykApr 18, 2016 at 3:10
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Like mentioned about, heat treatment does work, but it needs to be combined with an integrated pest management approach. See this guide for effective bed bug treatment and prevention. It also has some info on what to do if you have been bitten.
The essence of it is this:
- Vacuum everything, rugs, carpets, mattresses, bed frames etc.
- Wash all items like sheets, linen, clothes, soft toys on the hottest setting.
- Seal everything that can't be washed and store them during the treatment.
- Treat every room with steam or insecticides.
It will take about a week before you will see any effect of the treatment. And of course, if you can prevent them from even coming inside your home the first place, that would be preferred.