Insecticides alone can rarely eliminate a bed bug infestation. Long-term control requires that non-chemical methods be used in combination with insecticides as part of an integrated bed bug management program. - Dini M. Miller, Ph.D., Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech
Know your enemy
Bed bugs are tiny, oval, brownish insects that suck on human or animal blood at night while their host is sleeping. Sound like a nightmare? Well, getting rid of a bed bug infestation can be very challenging. Adult bed bugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed (5-7 mm or 3/16 - ¼ inch long). After feeding, however, their bodies swell and become a reddish color. Bed bugs do not fly (thank Mother Nature for that!) but they can move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings. They also like to hide in dark places before feeding at night. Female bed bugs may lay hundreds of eggs, each of which is about the size of a speck of dust. Immature bed bugs, called nymphs, shed their skins five times before reaching maturity and require a meal of blood before each shedding. Under favorable conditions, the bugs can develop fully in as little as a month and produce three or more generations per year.
Bed bugs have been a nocturnal pest for at least four millennia. Research from the Journal for Nurse Practitioners states that although numbers were dramatically reduced after World War II, these nasty critters have made a comeback, due to increased global travel, regulatory restrictions on insecticides like DDT, and tolerance to newer, organic bed bug treatments.
Where Bed Bugs Hide
Bed bugs are so tiny that they may enter your home undetected through luggage, clothing, used beds, and other items. Their flattened bodies—about the width of a credit card—makes it easy for them to squeeze into hidden spaces. Though they prefer to live in large groups, they don’t build nests. Since a female bed bug can lay hundreds of eggs, an infestation can lead to a large group hidden in your mattress, box spring, padded headboard, couch, or recliner chair, and even cause them to seek out hidden crevices in nearby rooms or apartment units.
Despite the fact that they are a nuisance, their one saving grace is that they don’t spread diseases. However, if you wake up with itchy areas (or bite marks) that you didn’t have before going to sleep, there is a pretty good chance that bed bugs are to blame. Some other possible signs are bloodstains on sheets or pillowcases and dark or rusty spots on sheets and mattresses.
Banishing Bed Bugs
Even though bed bug infestations peak in August, you can rest assured that they appear year-round. That is why you need to learn how to prevent and destroy them, ideally before you ever even see one. Dr. Dini Miller, an internationally recognized expert in the area of urban pest management, (particularly bed bug biology, behaviour, and control) and the Urban Pest Management Specialist for the state of Virginia, explains that “While most people would like to have a pest management professional come to their home and spray a magic potion that eliminates bed bugs forever, no such potion exists. Bed bugs are highly resistant to a number of insecticides, and their eggs are impervious (resistant) to most insecticide formulations.”
So, if chemical treatments are not enough to cure bed bug problems, what other tools do we have? According to Associate Professor of Entomology and Interim Department Head at the University of Minnesota Stephen A. Kells, “When providing control recommendations against bed bugs, non-chemical measures should be foremost in the list of required practices, and chemical measures should be used only as a remedial (or second-line) measure...Several of the nonchemical methods currently used against bed bugs are proper and thorough inspections, vacuuming, steaming, isolation and cleaning of infested garments, thermal treatments, and use of mattress covers.”
Below is a quick summary of the non-chemical methods that can be used as part of an integrated pest management program. The information is divided into prevention tips and products used for bed bug control. These measures can help you prepare for the worst and wage war against the enemy that sleeps in your bed: the common bed bug.
Bed Bug Prevention Tips
Inspect your home
If you suspect a bed bug infestation, the first thing you must do is thoroughly inspect your home. And then inspect it again. You need to check every location where people sleep, rest, sit, or hang out for long periods of time. Inspections must be performed extensively, because—as I mentioned earlier—bed bugs are extremely flat and small. Bed bugs have been found along picture frames (between the glass and frame itself), in the stitch holes of mattresses, inside books, telephones, radios, the edge of the carpet, and even electrical outlets. Examine the beds and pieces of furniture, to the point of dismantling them so that you can inspect between their cracks and crevices. Besides dismantling furnishings, inspection and control require that you move and temporarily relocate these items. Be aware that non-chemical means do not provide residual control and there is a risk of reinfestation if treated items are placed back in the infested area.
Remove Clutter
Clutter is your enemy too. Bed bugs don’t have a particular preference for dirty or clean spaces, as long as they have a meal. However, the amount of things (or clutter) in an infested room is a very important factor in how quickly you can detect, and successfully treat, a bed bug problem. In other words, reducing clutter will greatly improve your chances of eliminating bed bugs. Clutter is also a key factor in the heat treatment process (that is explained below) because the bug has to be exposed to the proper kill temperature. Overstuffed rooms can make it challenging to achieve lethal kill temperatures deep inside the places where bed bugs hide and lay their eggs.
Go through your closets. Bag and throw away any items that you no longer use but don’t move these into another room, as you may spread the infestation. Take this opportunity to bag and throw out items that have no value, such as old newspapers and magazines, junk mail, and broken electronic equipment.
Vacuuming
Vacuuming makes inspections so much easier. Using a vacuum during inspections and control efforts helps to quickly capture the bed bugs. In the case of large infestations, bed bug harborage sites are not only filled with live bed bugs but also with debris (dead bed bugs, molted skins, hatched egg shells, and feces). It may be difficult to distinguish what is alive from what is dead in this mess, but a high powered vacuum is always very useful for removing this debris. You should fit the vacuum with a collection bag so that it the infested vacuum bag can be treated with diatomaceous earth (see below) and then sealed and discarded.
Products Used for Bed Bug Control
Bed Bug Monitoring
There are also modern bed bug monitoring devices available. For example, the ClimbUp™ Insect Interceptor detects bed bugs before an infestation develops. The ClimbUp™ interceptor is basically a dish that is rough on the outside and coated with talc on the inside. Hungry bed bugs coming to feed on the host crawl up the outside of the device and fall into the outer well where they cannot escape. This device is an excellent tool for early detection and is also useful as a trap. The ClimbUp™ will not eliminate the infestation, but it can catch enough bed bugs to actually reduce the population size.
Isolate and Clean All Infested Garments
You must wash and dry all your clothing and linens, which should be contained in sealed plastic bags until they can be washed. Your pest management professional may also provide you with water-soluble laundry bags that dissolve in the washer or you can purchase them yourself. You can pack your clothing, sheets, and other washable items into the bags and put them to wash without having to open the bag and risk worse bed bug spread.
Steaming
Steaming is a very effective method of killing bed bugs, and is the most common heat method for treating bed bugs. Applied correctly, steam will kill bed bugs on top of surfaces as well as hidden inside stitch seams. Many pest management companies use professional steam cleaners to kill bed bugs on couches, mattresses and other places where you don’t necessarily want to apply insecticide. However, bear in mind that steaming is a hard and time-consuming task. The technician must move slowly enough so that the heat concentration is kept over every inch of surface. Also, the steamer head must be large to avoid the steam coming out at such velocity that blows bed bugs and their eggs across the room.
Freeze Them
Some of the larger pest management companies have been using a new technology where bed bugs are frozen to death by being exposed to pressurized CO2 snow at -108° F. This technology is called Cryonite®. The CO2 snow made by Cryonite® is a mixture of three different types of particles: small, medium and large. The three together will produce snow with optimum freezing qualities. This mixture has been tested to give the optimum result against pests. Furthermore, the CO2 used by the Cryonite® system is non-toxic and is recycled from industrial processes. It does not add additional CO2 into the atmosphere and there are no pesticide smells, messy wet residues, or health implications when Cryonite® is used.
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a great tool to use in your fight against bed bugs. This all-natural, non-toxic barrier to bed bugs can both kill them and prevent them from moving freely throughout your home. DE is a desiccant dust made from the silica-based skeletons of microorganisms called diatoms. It kills bed bugs by sticking to the outside of their bodies and absorbing the wax that keeps them from losing their body moisture. The bed bugs then desiccate and die within a couple of days.
DE is very safe to use and has a broad label allowing the product to be applied in many locations where insecticidal powder cannot (bed frames, carpeting, etc). However, you must be aware that there are several types of diatomaceous earth. Make sure to purchase the one labeled as 100 percent diatomaceous earth for crawling insect pests. There is also a 100 percent DE that is used as an animal food additive that also works well for killing bed bugs. Do not buy DE for swimming pool filters because it is a serious health hazard and should never be inside someone’s home.
Mattress Encasements
Mattress encasements are recommended for sleeping areas that are prone to infestations. More than a bed cover, the encasement is intended to seal your mattress so that no bed bugs can infest it, and any bed bugs currently living in your mattress can never bite through or escape from the encasement. It is important that the mattress encasement is placed on both the mattress and the boxsprings because boxsprings are favorite bed bug harborage and they are very difficult to treat. It is also important that the mattress encasements you purchase have a zipper that will close completely. Mattress encasements like Protect-A-Bed® will prevent bed bug escape even if the zipper is not entirely closed. Have in mind that not all mattress covers are effective at keeping bed bugs inside so make sure that the product that your purchase has been lab-tested for bed bug protection.
Essential Oils
It is possible to use 100-percent true or pure essential oils to rid your living quarters and your belongings of bed bugs but it requires a lot of patience and a lot of cleaning. You need to clean all your clothes, either by washing them with natural insecticides or by steam cleaning them. You also need to vacuum all corners of your home, your furniture, and carpets. The best essential oils for bed bugs come in two categories: ones that repel bugs and others that soothe their bites. Lavender oil and frankincense are healing and soothing oils that can help soothe your bug bites. On the other hand, peppermint oil, citronella oil, and eucalyptus oil are irritating to roaches, ants and bed bugs.
You can also add six to 10 drops of cinnamon oil, lemongrass oil, clove oil, thyme oil or tea tree oil to a spray bottle filled with distilled water and spray all around the sleeping area. If you are traveling, you can also spray the inside of your luggage and any other bags. For personal protection, make your own blend by adding ten drops of lavender essential oil to six drops of lemongrass essential oil, six drops of tea tree, ten of thyme and a quarter cup of any base or carrier oil (almond, grapeseed, jojoba).
Remember that none of these oils should ever be ingested for any reason at all.
Heating Systems
Some of the most effective new technologies for bed bug control have been the development of heating systems that are capable of superheating infested rooms and killing all bed bugs. The key to heating systems is to ensure that bugs are exposed to a lethal temperature for a specified time, thus the temperature in cracks, crevices, and hard-to-reach places are monitored remotely from various sensors placed throughout the room. Once the bed bug thermal death point (114-115°F) is reached at all the sensors, the heating process continues for 60 minutes (or more) to kill all of the bed bugs and their eggs. The advantages of these heat systems are that residents do not have to remove or bag their belongings, and most infestations can be cured in a single treatment. An industry leading example is the PestPro Thermal System, which is a non-chemical and non-toxic approach that uses electric heaters and high volume/high temperature fans to generate the temperatures needed to penetrate wall cavities, mattresses, and other hard-to-reach locations, eliminating bed bugs in an infested apartment or home.
Remember that taking control of your bed bug infestation is not an easy task as bed bugs can be a very challenging opponent. Achieving complete control can take time, depending on the nature and extent of the infestation, but if you identify the problem on time and develop a strategy (along with the pest management company of your choice) you can keep the infestation from spreading and then, you've won half the battle.
You can do it!