Bed bug traps: do they exist and how effective are they?

Looking at a variety of traps for cockroaches and ants suffering from invasion bed bugs A resident of a city apartment often tries to find similar bedbug traps for sale. Usually such searches end in nothing: there are very few such bug traps, and those that are commercially available are much less effective than their counterparts in fighting, for example, with cockroaches.

The reason that almost no bed bug bugs are released is that the bugs themselves are very difficult to attract into such a trap. With cockroaches and ants, this problem is not even worth it - they are actively running for sweet, salty, to water and any foodstuffs. Their vulnerability in this case is omnivorous.

Bedbugs eat only human blood, and no treats can draw them into a trap.In addition, they find their prey - a sleeping person - not by a single smell, but by a whole combination of aromas that cannot be imitated by affordable and simple products.

That is why those bed bug traps, which today can be bought for crazy money, are so difficult to use and to make.

But at the same time, if not for complete destruction, then at least for a partial struggle with bed bugs, you can quite successfully use the most simple insect traps that work without attracting them.

 

Adhesive tape in the fight against bedbugs?

Special hook-and-fly stickers are widely known and popular in the fight against moths, cockroaches, flies, and domestic ants. For each pest such traps have their own form.

For example, to fight flies, this is an unwinding reel, from which a piece of tape is cut and hung from the ceiling.

To deal with bedbugs, stickies from cockroaches are more suitable in the form of sheets of thick cardboard with a special non-drying glue applied on its surface.

They are convenient for placement under the bedside tables and on the ground of frequent movement of cockroaches.

Such traps against bedbugs should be used taking into account the specificity of the behavior and habitat of these parasites:

1. Sheets with glue are placed inside the beds and sofas on which people sleep. Above them should be located free space so that the traps themselves are not stuck to the surfaces of the furniture. It is advisable to frequently check traps and place them where the bugs are found in the largest quantities.
2. Several traps should be placed under the legs of the bed - most likely part bed bugs in the house hiding in other furniture and at night climbs on the bed on the legs. If the bugs bite at night, but no one sticks to such traps near the legs, then most likely the parasites hide in the same bed on which the occupants sleep, and to attack at night, they simply move from the mattress to sleeping people. In this case, the main step should be taken ...
3. Fully surround all the legs of the bed with bedbugs and for a few nights - up to two weeks - move to sleep on other beds or sofas. If they are not - on the floor. For several days, bed bugs will get hungry and, guided by their smell, will endeavor in large numbers to move from the bed surrounded by traps to a new place of lodging for the night.Since they do not know how to fly and can only go down on the legs of the bed, they all fall on the velcro.

On a note

At normal room temperature, bugs feed every 4-5 days. This should be remembered when developing a strategy for their destruction.

It is only important to remember that such an operation should be carried out for at least 10-12 days, while young larvae hatch from eggs laid in an old mattress and descend from bed to traps in search of food.

The disadvantage of this method of getting rid of bedbugs is its duration. In addition, if the bugs in the house live on the bed and in other secluded places, in order to completely exterminate a new sleeping place from them, it is necessary to surround it with a continuous ring of traps. It’s generally inexpensive to buy one such bedbug trap for about 5 rubles - but troublesome, and will cause some inconvenience if the person himself accidentally steps on such sticky tape at night.

On the other hand, the merits of such a method bedbug removal - low cost and safety. No poisons, no complicated mechanisms. Only safe means.

 

Really effective bedbug trap: principle of operation

A more technologically sophisticated, but also significantly more advanced bedbug trap is offered by the American company Nuvenco. The unit it produces is a large vessel with liquid CO.₂ - carbon dioxide, connected by a tube with a special umbrella, which is installed on the floor.

The principle of this trap is that bugs are attracted to it by the usual product of human respiration - carbon dioxide. Scientists believe that it is CO₂, exhaled by a sleeping person, is a guide for hunting bugs. Accordingly, if under a plastic umbrella constantly evaporates carbon dioxide, it attracts bugs, who believe that this is a sleeping person.

This trap is called Bed Bug Beacon. It has the following characteristics:

• the volume of the vessel with carbon dioxide - 0.5 liters
• umbrella diameter - 15 cm
• total weight - about a kilogram.

The trap is installed in places where bedbugs move most often - near the beds, in wardrobes, along the edge of the carpets.

The only disadvantage of the Bed Bug Beacon is the attraction of bedbugs - after hitting the umbrella, they simply remain in it, not knowing where to crawl further. You need to destroy them yourself.For this, insects are usually poured into the toilet.

It is interesting

Today, inventors are trying to use in the traps of this type of odorous substances secreted by the bugs themselves to attract individuals of their own species. These devices are only going through an experimental stage so far, but they are already showing encouraging results: a concentrated bump attractor should be more attractive to insects than the smell of a sleeping person.

On a similar principle, several more traps work. For example, the more cumbersome bedbug trap NightWatch Bed Bug Trap and Monitor, which in addition also allows you to see parasites just moving around it using a night vision device.

It is quite difficult to buy a trap for bedbugs of similar design today. Domestic manufacturers do not release them, the Chinese have also not yet started producing cheap analogues, and the original device from the USA costs about $ 50 for the Bed Bug Beacon and $ 350 for the NightWatch Bed Bug Trap and Monitor. The cost of delivery depends on the working conditions of the online store and may exceed the price of the trap itself.

 

Industrial Specialty Bedbug Traps

Some sanitary epidemiological stations have bedbug traps in their arsenal, the principle of which lies in the design of special houses in which the bugs are trying to hide, as if in shelters.

Inside these houses are plates with insecticides of contact action, after sitting in which the parasites are poisoned.

The effectiveness of such traps is extremely low. Bedbugs are very conservative in the choice of shelters, and simply will not get into a trap en masse. In addition, the likelihood that even a little bit of a significant part of the parasite will simply find such a trap is also quite low. It is not surprising that for the control of bedbugs, the disinfectors prefer to use a more dangerous, but reliable way - to treat the room with insecticides.

 

Homemade traps to detect bedbugs in the house

Such traps are designed not so much to deal with bedbugs, as for their detection and identification of their shelters. They are produced according to two main schemes:

1. Two cardboard glasses are taken from McDonalds or from Mivina, one smaller and the other larger. In a large glass, powdered sugar is poured to the very bottom and vegetable oil is dripped. Once in this mixture, the bug loses the opportunity to get out of the glass. A small glass is placed in a large one, and the leg of the bed on which people sleep is placed in a small glass.A similar design is prepared for all the legs of the bed.
2. A plastic plate is taken, talc is poured into it, and its edges are smeared with graphite grease. One such plate is placed under the foot of the bed.

Detection and detection of bedbugs is the same as when using stickies. In general, it is much simpler to use velcro traps, and it makes sense to play with glasses and saucers when there are no such sticky traps on sale.

In general, such devices have the right to life and can help in the fight against bedbugs. But if a resident of an apartment wants to get rid of bedbugs quickly and without much hassle, it is easier and more effective for him to call a brigade of exterminators or use an effective insecticidal agent on his own.

 

How can I get rid of bedbugs on my own and what nuances should be taken into account

 

But this is actually the look of bed bugs and their larvae.