What should be the death of bedbugs in the apartment: a review of reliable means and useful tips

Next you will find out:

• Why it is much more difficult to kill bed bugs than, for example, cockroaches or domestic ants;
• Why, even after applying a highly effective insecticidal drug, within a week or two, the parasites may bite you again;
• What additional methods to control bedbugs (besides the use of chemicals) can be effectively used in practice to obtain a truly reliable result;
• What drugs for bedbugs today are considered the most effective and safe to use;
• How to kill bedbugs if these bloodsuckers constantly crawl from their neighbors;
• What is important to consider if you suddenly decide to call the pest control service ...

Bed bugs are considered one of the most difficult to remove domestic insects.This is largely due to the fact that it is impossible to feed any poisoned bait to these parasites, while it is this method of struggle that gives the greatest effect, for example, against cockroaches and domestic ants.

The fact is that bed bugs are obligate bloodsuckers, and they simply cannot feed on anything other than blood (and in most cases this is fresh human blood). This means that no poisonous gels or, for example, food mixed with boric acid or any modern insecticide, will give absolutely no effect.

Thus, it is advisable to kill bedbugs in an apartment with insecticidal preparations of contact action - that is, those that destroy insects due to simple physical contact with their external chitinous integument. The form of production of such drugs can be different: powders (the so-called dusts), concentrates in the form of a suspension for dilution with water, aerosol cans, smoke bombs, as well as insecticide crayons (pencils).

On a note

Oddly enough, but even today, when there are many relatively inexpensive, highly effective insect repellents for sale,some are still trying to kill the bugs in their apartment with kerosene, gasoline, turpentine and even vinegar essence. Unfortunately, these “grandmothers” recipes are not only ineffective in general, but also often represent a potential danger to human health when used unreasonably.

Imagine, for example, how tenants tormented by bedbugs furiously pour all the cracks with gasoline, coat them with plinth, and abundantly wet the upholstery of the sofa. And here it is no longer clear who they are staring at - bugs or themselves (a terrible smell). Well, if you think that in a closed room the mixture of gasoline vapors and air can explode from a small spark, then the price of such a “pest control” can become too high ...

The difficulty of breeding bugs is also associated with a very high resistance of their eggs to the action of most insecticides. Even if it succeeds in successfully plowing adult individuals and larvae of bedbugs, there is always the likelihood that somewhere in secluded areas of the house several eggs of these parasites will survive, from which later larvae will emerge, grow up and again begin to terrorize the owners of the premises.

Therefore, when starting to kill bedbugs in an apartment, it is important to understand that in most cases this will not be a one-time “victorious” treatment of the room.As a rule, especially with significant contamination of the apartment, for a reliable effect it is required to carry out treatment at least 2-3 times with an interval of 2 weeks (during this time, almost all of their surviving eggs of bedbugs will hatch young larvae).

On a note

Practice shows that a significant number of fighters with bugs, not having received 100% destruction of bloodsuckers in one treatment, are already inclined to consider the drug ineffective. After all, like so - it would seem that the whole apartment was generously processed, and after two weeks the parasites bite again. So, the drug is a dummy ?!

In fact, if even for a week after the treatment of the room, the bugs practically ceased to be disturbed at night, this can often be considered a good result, indicating that the adult individuals and larvae of the parasites “failed”. In such a situation, it is important not to give chances to the hatching larvae to grow to the state of an adult individual and to lay eggs, because otherwise the population of bedbugs in the house will begin to rapidly increase again.

Meanwhile, it is useful to keep in mind that it is possible to destroy bedbugs not only by insecticides, but by physical methods of exposure,moreover, in some cases, it is the combination of different methods of combating parasites with the minimum effort and in a short period of time to obtain the desired result. Therefore, before considering the most effective modern preparations for bedbugs, let us also touch on the methods of physically destroying bloodsuckers, which can be expediently used in conjunction with insecticidal treatment of an apartment.

 

Physical ways to destroy bedbugs

Perhaps the main drawback of various chemical poisons used to combat bedbugs is their specific toxicity for humans too (as well as for domestic animals). And no matter how advertised about the safety of a drug, it should always be understood that insecticides will not add health exactly when they are inhaled or prolonged contact with skin.

At the same time, instead of dying out bugs with insecticidal preparations, it is sometimes advisable to combine this treatment with physical methods for the destruction of parasites, which include:

• Freezing;
• And destruction of bedbugs hot steam or just hot air.

Such methods are well suited for the destruction of parasites in children's things, baby beds, things people prone to severe allergic reactions, in the case of living in the room with asthma and in some other situations. That is, in cases where it is desirable to minimize the use of chemicals.

On a note

Most modern insecticidal products for bedbugs quickly and without consequences are broken down in the human body to safe compounds, and therefore are not as toxic to humans as they are to insects. However, if they come into contact with the skin or mucous membranes, they can cause irritation and provoke allergic reactions, sometimes very severe.

Particularly severe cases of poisoning occur when the instructions for use of a drug are not followed, in particular, when personal protective equipment (respirator, gloves) is neglected.

The method of freezing bedbugs is especially well suited when clothes, bed linen and furniture are infected with parasites - instead of venting insects here with bloodsuckers, it is enough to take it all into frost: bed bugs, as well as their eggs, die at a temperature below –22 ° C.It is important to take into account that cooling of furniture or mattresses “for the whole thickness” may take some time, so things should be left in the cold for at least 24 hours.

You can also freeze the entire apartment (or the entire private house), but it is important to protect the plumbing and heating pipes from freezing.

However, if the yard is far from a harsh winter, then you can “kill” bedbugs with heat: the parasites die rather quickly at temperatures above + 50 ° C. Accordingly, the following options are possible:

• Take out contaminated items on the glazed balcony on a hot summer day;
• Wash contaminated bedbugs in hot water;
• Treat furniture, mattresses, clothes with hot steam using a steam cleaner (steam generator);
• To process things and furniture with hot air from a hairdryer (it should be borne in mind that hot air will not pass, for example, deep into a thick mattress);
• With the help of powerful fan heaters, create a temperature above + 50 ° С for several hours in a room (this is how some companies abroad destroy bugs).

In general, it can be said that both freezing and heat treatment are more suitable for the destruction of parasites, so to speak, locally - in certain things, contaminated furniture, mattresses,allowing you to reliably destroy not only adults and larvae, but also bedbug eggs. However, in most cases, it is advisable to use highly effective insecticidal preparations for the treatment of the main areas in an infected apartment.

In this case, the choice of the drug, which is planned to kill the bugs (especially in the living room), must be approached competently - let's consider this point in more detail ...

 

Insecticidal preparations for bedbugs

What do you think is the most important property of a bed bug? Its high performance? Affordable price? Or, perhaps, the absence of an unpleasant residual smell in the house after treatment?

Practice shows that the main thing in a quality drug for bed bugs (as well as from other domestic insects) is its safety for humans and domestic animals. Many cases are known when, it would seem, the banal treatment of a room with an aerosol ended tragically for the one who carried out this treatment.

That is why the safety issue when choosing a drug (and in the process of treating an apartment) must be approached especially carefully,not chasing with killer pesticides for professional use is a blessing, today there are quite a few products that are comparable in effectiveness, but at the same time adapted for domestic use, including without an unpleasant odor.

Feedback:

“... The first time I walked, I caught my breath, such a stinking poison. Half an hour sprayed in all the cracks, inhaled, then nauseated the whole evening. But the bugs subsided immediately, for a week now we have been sleeping peacefully. Although the apartment still stinks, all the furniture stinked and clothes. Especially the sofa ... "

Vitaly, St. Petersburg

With regard to the effectiveness of the means - for self-breeding bedbugs, so-called microencapsulated preparations have proven themselves well. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that the active substance is enclosed in a kind of microcapsules - these small particles adhere well to the chitinous covers of parasites, later on bugs have time to get to their nest, where they die, sometimes "infecting" their relatives here.

In particular, the number of modern microencapsulated drugs, with the help of which you can poison bugs in an apartment quite effectively and safely for your health, include the following:

• Xsulat Micro - combined preparation based on three active ingredients (cypermethrin, tetramethrin and piperonyl butoxide). Allows you to kill bugs without an unpleasant odor after processing, and you should not confuse Xulat Micro with a strongly smelling drug Xsulat C25;
• Get - one-component microencapsulated drug based on chlorpyrifos. Odor after treatment can be described as quite weak;
• Delta Zone is a highly effective microencapsulated drug based on the insecticide deltamethrin. When processing there is practically no smell;
• Lambda Zone is also a very effective drug (based on lambda-cyhalothrin), which allows for the treatment of an apartment without an unpleasant smell.

For comparison, some drugs are based on outdated organophosphate insecticide karbofos (also known as malathion), which has a very unpleasant odor. There were cases when tenants, after being treated with strong-smelling preparations, had to throw expensive furniture out of the apartment, as it had retained an unpleasant smell for months.

On a note

There are a number of drugs with the help of which bugs are stained by professional pest control services - Tetrix, Microcin, Biorin, Sinuzan, Hlorpirimak, Minap 22, etc.They are quite effective, but have a strongly pronounced unpleasant odor and are, in most cases, more toxic than products adapted for independent use.

What else is useful to keep in mind regarding the use of insecticides in the fight against bed bugs in the house:

• Aerosol preparations such as Combat, Raptor, Dichlorvos of different brands should be used in cases when there are few bugs in the room and the places of their dislocation are well known;
• In case of severe contamination of the premises, as well as, if necessary, to treat large areas with relatively low financial costs, concentrates of microencapsulated preparations for bedbugs (the same Xulsat Micro, Delta Zone, Get and the like);
• The use of dustov from bedbugs saves only with little contamination of the room. In addition, powdered insecticides are very inconvenient to apply on vertical surfaces. But you can put the legs of the bed in such a powder - then the bugs in search of food will not be able to not get dirty in the poison;
• Insecticidal crayons (for example, crayfish from cockroaches and bedbugs Masha) are useful as a means of preventing bedbugs indoors.Often, the parasites penetrate from the neighbors through the ventilation, therefore, processing the walls with small perimeter of the vent, as well as processing the legs of the bed and other places of possible movement of blood suckers, allows you to destroy single bugs even before they give rise to a new population in your apartment;
• Insecticidal smoke bombs (Quiet Evening, City, etc.), used in nature from mosquitoes, also destroy bedbugs, cockroaches, fleas and domestic ants in confined spaces. It is enough to set fire to such a checker - and literally within an hour, the smoke itself will spread throughout the room (however, it must be borne in mind that after using insecticidal smoke bombs, the clothes and furniture may retain a specific odor for some time).

 

How to starve bugs insecticidal drugs

In general, bed bugs can be lit up in an apartment in accordance with the following plan:

1. Aerosol preparations (Raptor, Dichlorvos, Combat, Clean House or others) process the found nests of bedbugs;
2. To process the main areas in the apartment with a microencapsulated preparation, diluting the concentrate in accordance with the instructions;
3. Wash clothes and bed linen at a temperature not lower than 60 ° С;
4. If you do not want to handle the crib and mattress with "chemistry", then you can carefully walk on them with an ordinary household steamer (steam cleaner);
5. Ways of possible penetration of bedbugs from neighbors should be treated with a microencapsulated preparation, and after drying, additionally draw the strips here with insecticidal chalk.

On a note

Eggs of bedbugs in a badly contaminated apartment can be in any clothes, so it is important to make sure that all things have undergone appropriate processing (washed, heated with steam or ironed).

And once again it is worth recalling that even after a very thorough one-time treatment of the apartment, individual eggs of parasites often survive - respectively, a bite can be observed again after a week or two. Therefore, after 1-2 weeks you need to re-process the room. And sometimes a third treatment may be required.

 

What to do if bedbugs constantly crawling from neighbors

If at least one apartment next to you is severely infected with bugs (and sometimes it happens that all the neighboring apartments are infected at the side, lower and upper), then in this case the bugs will constantly penetrate from the neighbors, and the processing of your apartment will give the result only about 1-2 months.In such a situation, it is necessary either to kill bedbugs with neighbors at the same time, or, if it is not possible to reach an agreement, call SES and complain.

Feedback:

“We moved to the apartment, made expensive repairs. We thought that now we will live. For two months they lived normally, and then out of nowhere did the bugs appear. This is some kind of horror, a child of 2 years. Bite mercilessly. They bite me too, but for some reason they don’t touch my husband. Than just did not take. Everyone tried - no sense. We have neighbors on the site - it's just a guard, drunkards. They also have bugs, but they calmly relate to them, they are accustomed to, as if to cockroaches - there is, so what ?! I talked with other neighbors, to call everyone together SES, but they do not care ... "

Tatyana, Moscow

As already noted above, as a preventive measure, it is possible to treat, for example, insecticide crayons, a wall around the perimeter of the ventilation grille (barrier treatment). However, a more effective option is to install a new ventilation grill with a very fine mesh.

 

Call for special services to deal with bedbugs

Companies that specialize in the fight against bedbugs and other synanthropic insects work in almost any large city (there are several dozen in Moscow and St. Petersburg).And although it is generally accepted that the services of local Sanitary and Epidemiological Stations are the most reliable, nevertheless, many private pest control services also effectively bugs bugs.

For example, to pitch up bugs in a one-room apartment will cost about 2000-4000 rubles - depending on the company, village, processing method (cold mist, hot mist, manual spraying) and a set of related services.

When choosing a pest control service, it is useful to pre-read reviews about it on the Internet, making sure that the quality of the services provided is high enough. And then there are cases when the wrong choice of disinsection service, the tenants simply throw money down the drain (as an example - see the review below).

Feedback:

“... These fraudsters simply pry money out of normal people. Their master came to us, spoke a lot, persuaded us to get a more expensive drug, supposedly more powerful, so that we could be calmer. And what to do, we agreed. In 15 minutes he quickly processed everything and dumped us. I did not find a single dead bug. Both bitten and bitten. And they called, the guarantee required. They said that under warranty processing is paid, I will have to pay another 800 rubles. Wow guarantee! I told them that if an employee met them on the street, I would break his jaw ... ”

Ramazan, St. Petersburg

In conclusion, I would like to note that although independent control of bed bugs in an apartment may seem difficult and lengthy, nevertheless, everybody can cope with parasites with a competent approach. The main thing here is not to give up halfway: let slowly, with varying success, but methodically and steadily destroying parasites, in the end you will certainly reduce the number of bedbugs to zero, thereby restoring comfort and tranquility in your home.

Successes you in the fight with parasites!

(If you have already managed to kill the bugs on your own, then do not forget to leave a review at the bottom of this page: what worked, what did not work, how things are now - all this may be of great interest to those who are in a similar situation).

 

5 effective ways to destroy bed bugs in the apartment

 

And a little more informative information about bugs and preparations for their destruction