Does bitter wormwood help get rid of bed bugs?

Wormwood has been used against insects for a long time. Many people remember that in rural houses grandparents often had this heavy grassy smell, which is well associated with a green summer meadow. It smelled like bundles of bitter wormwood, which many villagers use to protect their homes from various insects.

Wormwood was used for bed bugs even before it was possible to document this use on paper.

It is popularly believed that the constant presence of freshly cut wormwood in the house can completely expel bedbugs from it. And only the absence of this grass in winter makes the villagers use turpentine, denatured alcohol and other means to remove blood-sucking parasites.

But when the use of wormwood is stopped, the bugs return to the house - this is a fact that has been repeatedly tested in practice. So she either doesn't kill them or doesn't kill their eggs.

So, how does wormwood act on bedbugs and is it worth taking it into service when fighting these insects?

 

How effective is wormwood for bed bugs?

It has been unequivocally established and confirmed by scientific research that bed bugs are afraid of wormwood. Not so much her, but her rich grassy smell. If a bunch of fresh bitter wormwood is placed near a cluster of bugs, the parasites will try to move as far as possible from it.

Thanks to the very subtle sense of smell of bedbugs, one bunch of wormwood in a large room is already irritating to them. However, only until the insects get hungry. Severe hunger will cause both adults and larvae to ignore the aversion to the smell and return to the room in which people rest. Even if fresh fragrant grass is laid out directly under the bed.

The sense of smell in bedbugs is much more acute than in humans. It is by the smell of blood in the veins that insects find a sleeping person. It is characteristic that this is why the parasites more often attack women and children, whose skin is thinner than that of men, and the smell of blood is felt by the bugs more clearly.

But wormwood cannot destroy bedbugs. It is not an insecticide capable of killing insects, does not interfere with their reproductive functions, and does not affect bedbug eggs in any way. Bed bugs and sagebrush can very well exist in the same room, and if bed bugs have no other choice, they will stay where people are present, even if there is sagebrush next to them.

It can definitely be argued that bitter wormwood will not rid the room of bedbugs. But it will give a certain indulgence for the people living in this room. In addition, it is this grass that can be used to protect housing from the penetration of bedbugs from neighbors.

As far as I can remember as a child, my grandmother, Lidia Nikolaevna, started every day by driving two cows into the herd, and on the way back she tore five or six branches of wormwood.At home, she carefully laid them out under the beds in order to protect my brother and my children's sleep from fleas and bedbugs. There had never been mosquitoes in the house, and a normal morning for us was one that started with scratching itchy bites. It was bedbugs, mosquitoes, or other insects, I don’t know, but it is with wormwood from bedbugs that my most distinct memories of holidays in the countryside are associated.

Valery Timofeev, Kostroma

 



Why do bedbugs tolerate this plant so badly?

The most famous property of wormwood is the abundance of bitterness in its composition. Various glycosides, saponins and phytoncides contained in its leaves and thin stems provide both a bitter taste, appreciated by absinthe lovers, and no less bitter, astringent smell. It is phytoncides in the composition of wormwood that protect a person from bacterial infections when taking wormwood tincture. And their smell is very unpleasant for bedbugs.

See what bitter wormwood looks like in the photo:

 

It is important that the strong distinct aroma of wormwood not only repels bedbugs, but also masks a sleeping person in a certain way. If a bunch of wormwood is under the bed, then its aroma will suppress the body odor of a sleeping person, and the bug simply will not be able to find its victim. And in addition to this, he will try to bypass the bed itself.

Various preparations based on wormwood are widely used in horticulture and ornamental crop production to protect plants from various pests: caterpillars, aphids, and various sawflies. Bedbugs here are far from the only insects that do not tolerate the smell of this plant. However, among the butterflies there are those whose caterpillars feed exclusively on wormwood.

Of course, if the wormwood is laid on the floor under the bed, and the bugs themselves will be in the bed itself under the mattress, such prevention will not be of any use. Therefore, before you get rid of bedbugs with the help of wormwood, you must carefully examine your bed for the settlement of parasites in it. For fidelity, tufts of grass can be laid between the mattress and the crate.

The disadvantage of wormwood as a remedy for parasitic insects is the rapid loss of its properties when it dries. Literally in three or four days, a bunch of plants ceases to smell as strong as the groin immediately after cutting. Of course, along with this, its repellent properties weaken and after a week the bugs can completely ignore its presence in the room.In order to be able to use wormwood at any time of the year, it is necessary to prepare special products based on it.

And further: Well, what can I say - Get Total picked bedbugs for 2.5 hours, but still did its job ...

 

Bedbug remedies based on wormwood

The main recipes for the preparation of preparations in which wormwood against bedbugs manifests itself quite clearly are tincture and decoction of wormwood. They are easy to prepare, but the effectiveness of both is different.

Wormwood tincture from bedbugs is used quite rarely. There are several reasons for this:

1. The tincture is expensive to prepare. To obtain a liter of tincture, you need to use the same amount of alcohol. This volume is enough to process one sofa to protect against bedbugs for about a week. This approach is highly irrational.
2. The tincture takes a long time to prepare. To obtain a good extract, it is necessary to defend the entire tincture for at least a month.
3. The smell of alcohol in the room reduces the comfort of living in it.

Perhaps the only option in which the use of tincture of wormwood from bedbugs is justified is the spot treatment of accumulations of insects on a mattress or in upholstered furniture. After such an impact, all the bugs that were not mechanically destroyed scatter from the place of accumulation and do not return to it for a long time.

A decoction of wormwood can be used for regular treatment of premises, furniture and individual interior items. Even when boiling dry raw materials, the final product acquires a strong, distinct smell, only slightly weaker than the aroma of fresh grass.It is convenient for them to spray various objects in the room, process skirting boards and bed frames, ventilation ducts to protect against the penetration of insects through them.

 

Brief instructions for use

Wormwood from bedbugs effectively manifests itself in two cases:

1. If necessary, temporarily weaken the activity of bedbugs in the room. For example, when waiting for one or two days for the arrival of the pest control service.
2. To protect the premises from the penetration of bedbugs into it.

In the first case, it is necessary to lay bunches of fresh grass directly into and under the bed, replacing them with fresh ones every one to two days. Decoction of wormwood furniture must be processed with the same frequency. So the bugs will not leave the apartment, but at least for a few days they will stop crawling onto the bed at night.

For preventive purposes, wormwood is laid out in all places through which insects can enter the room: near windows, doors, in ventilation openings, near sockets. Here it also needs to be changed often, and when using a decoction, constantly lubricate the boxes of windows and doors with it. In any case, such measures will reduce the risk of bed bugs entering the house.

 

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Interesting video about the destruction of bedbugs