How to kill bed bugs in an apartment

Among all insects that temporarily or permanently settle in human housing, bedbugs are the most resistant to various kinds of insecticides and methods of control. In cases where cockroaches completely leave the apartment, and ants die out in a few days, bedbugs may not even reduce their activity. That is why today on the market for home and professional insecticides there are many products aimed specifically at the destruction of bedbugs.

This is interesting: among the bugs, most of the species harm a person in one way or another. Many species spoil the harvest, some feed on caviar and fry of commercial fish, and only one species - the bed bug (aka domestic) - is directly parasitized. However, due to the huge number of species, bed bugs play a very important role in natural ecosystems.

However, despite such a weak vulnerability, it is relatively easy to destroy bedbugs in a single apartment. It is only important to use the right ways to deal with them and start it as early as possible.

 

How to destroy bedbugs in an apartment: all methods

There are four main groups of ways to deal with bed bugs, which give different results and are used depending on the specific circumstances.

 

one.Use of chemical insecticides

This is the most common, versatile and effective way. Allows you to cope with insects at any level of infestation of the apartment, in any season and with different family composition.

Effective preparations for the destruction of bedbugs are quite expensive, but their main advantage is the need for only a one-time use: if the necessary conditions are met, after one treatment of the room, bedbugs are unlikely to appear in it again.

Bed bugs develop resistance to various chemicals very quickly. In a large colony of insects, there is a high probability that there will be an individual with a congenital mutation, the body of which is able to utilize the active substance of a particular drug. If such an individual is already a fertilized female, she is able to give offspring, part of which will inherit her stability. After several generations, a colony will appear, on which the previously applied drug will not work at all. This is a kind of natural selection, and a person who regularly poisons bedbugs “a little bit” (today - a sofa, tomorrow - a bed) strengthens his own parasites.

Synthetic insecticides such as Karbofos, Dichlorvos, Hangman, Fufanon and others have low toxicity to humans, but still can lead to trouble. Therefore, the destruction of bedbugs at home with their help requires strict adherence to the instructions and compliance with safety measures.

 

2. Temperature treatment

This group of methods for the destruction of bedbugs is based on the main weakness of these parasites: they do not tolerate significant temperature fluctuations. At least they are much more sensitive to temperature than cockroaches and ants.

The main advantage of temperature control of bedbugs is its harmlessness to other inhabitants of the house. After processing the room, you can return to it immediately, as soon as a comfortable thermal regime for a person is established.

But the disadvantages of this method is the complexity in its implementation, and sometimes its fundamental impossibility.

 

3. Mechanical methods of struggle

The mechanical destruction of bedbugs in an apartment consists in the banal crushing of bedbugs, the destruction of their nests with a vacuum cleaner, washing at high temperature things that may contain bedbugs and their eggs.

Due to the small size of insects and the inaccessibility of their nests, such a fight in most cases turns out to be ineffective. However, if it is combined with general repairs and furniture renovation, it can give very good results.

Bed bugs in the process of evolution managed to protect themselves to a certain extent from mechanical stress. It is very difficult to crush a hungry bug - it is almost flat. The absence of wings allows these insects to penetrate almost any cracks, and the segmented abdomen can change quite a lot in size during saturation and starvation.

It is very problematic to achieve the destruction of domestic bugs with folk remedies. Only with a direct hit of the parasite in the jar, for example, with vinegar or turpentine, the insect will die. In other cases, all folk remedies serve only to repel bedbugs.

And further: The Get Express tool really killed all the bugs quickly - after 42 minutes only corpses were lying around

The most effective methods for the destruction of bedbugs using modern insecticides can be done independently, and they are also used by special professional services for disinfestation of premises. As a rule, specialists in the destruction of bedbugs carry out all the work faster, more completely and more efficiently than an ordinary person who has encountered a problem for the first time.

But their services cost more than the total cost of bed bugs and do-it-yourself pest control.

 

Rules for choosing the optimal method

Before you destroy bedbugs in an apartment, it is necessary to approach the choice of a method of struggle with responsibility. There is no need to invent and guess anything - a clear instruction has already been developed:

1. You should first figure out how the bugs entered the apartment. If from neighbors, it is necessary to find out from which ones, and either carry out independent pest control with chemicals, or call the sanitary and epidemiological service. If at least one of the apartments is particularly heavily infected, you need to use the services of professionals.
2. Only if at the time of detection of bedbugs it is possible to freeze the apartment (outside temperature is minus 22 ° C or lower), you can independently carry out temperature treatment of housing. In other cases, it is better to entrust the matter to specialists (this applies to the heat treatment of housing). If the insect control service has the ability to carry out such treatment, the manager will clarify the conditions when ordering and decide for himself which pest control products should be used.
3. If the bugs in the apartment are found only in some piece of furniture - a sofa, armchair, mattress - then only this item can be processed. It can be taken out in the cold for several days, treated on the street with any insecticide, boiling water or steam. If the processing will be carried out indoors, it is extremely important to ensure that bedbugs from such furniture do not scatter to different corners of the apartment.
4. Mechanical methods of struggle are permissible only in cases where one bug is accidentally found in the apartment, or when a carpet brought into the house is infected. With careful vacuuming, insects are likely to be collected and neutralized.

However, in most cases, apartment owners discover bedbugs and start sounding the alarm only when there are already too many of these insects in the apartment and a complete treatment of the room is required.

 

Professional extermination of bedbugs: sanitary services

Professional extermination of bedbugs is a service, although quite expensive, but quite affordable.Processing a one-room apartment usually costs from 1,600 rubles, depending on the region and the service itself, and a two-room apartment - from 2,000 rubles.

A huge plus of the sanitary services is the range of their services: the destruction of bedbugs in change houses, administrative and industrial premises, the complete disinfestation of any object, ensuring the destruction of bedbugs, cockroaches, fleas, ants and other insects. Specialists in most cases destroy bedbugs with gas, which is an aerosol that is poisonous to insects.

The room must be prepared for the work of exterminators. Before you destroy bedbugs, you must:

• remove carpets from walls
• arrange furniture - sofas, beds, armchairs
• take things out of the cabinets and pack them in vacuum bags for the purpose of further washing
• Ensure that no people or pets are present during work.

There can be quite a lot of such nuances, but in services with good service, managers without fail introduce them to clients and give clear instructions on how to prepare the premises for processing.

All services for the destruction of bedbugs must be provided under a special contract.

Moreover, professional sanitary services must take into account the composition of the apartment residents, and when newborn children, pregnant women or allergy sufferers live in it, the composition of the products used is adjusted accordingly.

Most of the drugs used by professionals are slightly toxic to humans. In addition, these same agents are rather unstable in air and quickly decompose, losing all their properties. Therefore, in general, disinfestation of the premises is a relatively safe event.

However, due to the large amounts of funds used, they can still affect the human condition. Service specialists should advise the customer on the timing of the return to the apartment and further actions - washing things, wiping windows and others.

 

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

Destruction of bedbugs with cold, steam and high temperature

The fight against bedbugs with the help of temperatures implies almost complete safety for humans, but at the same time it is technologically more complex than the use of insecticides.

• The destruction of bedbugs by steam is usually carried out independently by the owners of the apartment. For this, a kettle with boiling water is used, which is used to treat a sofa or mattress. Sometimes it makes sense to pour boiling water under the baseboards in small quantities. Steaming clothes that cannot be boiled in water is also effective. This is done in a large saucepan, in which clothes are placed over boiling water in a special colander. In general, the question of whether it is possible to destroy bedbugs with steam is ambiguous: insects die in a couple, but steaming the entire apartment and not damaging the furniture and wallpaper is very problematic.
• The destruction of bedbugs with the help of low temperatures is carried out either by taking the furniture out into the cold, or by freezing the entire apartment in winter. Here it is necessary to understand that both adult bugs and larvae with eggs are guaranteed to die only at temperatures below minus 22 ° C. If such temperatures are not observed in a particular area, it makes no sense to freeze out bedbugs.

Important to remember! When an apartment freezes, heating and water supply systems can be damaged, wallpaper can peel off. Therefore, this method is not suitable for urban apartments.

• The destruction of bedbugs by heat is the most effective, safe and reliable way. When it is implemented in the apartment with the help of industrial fan heaters, the temperature rises to + 50 ° C and is maintained for several hours. With this, both adult bugs and their larvae and eggs die.

Within a few hours after the restoration of the initial temperature in the room, residents can return to it.

The destruction of bedbugs by temperature can be carried out using a washing machine, into which infected items are loaded and washed at temperatures above + 50 ° C. And it can also be done with a regular car, which is left in the sun on a hot day with the windows closed and things on the seats. However, bugs are found on things in the smallest quantities, and these methods cannot be used to completely destroy parasites in an apartment.

The main advantage of all temperature control methods is the ability to destroy odorless bedbugs in the apartment. Indeed, many chemicals for insect control have a smell, sometimes very unpleasant, and freezing or heating the apartment ensures the absence of such unpleasant consequences.

 

Five effective ways to kill bed bugs in the apartment

 

Special means against bedbugs, their effectiveness and nuances of use

A variety of household and industrial insecticides today are the main means of destroying bedbugs. Different drugs act differently: some disrupt the nervous system of parasites, others block their breathing, and others inhibit the development of eggs.

The most commonly used are those means that lead to the earliest possible death of the insect. Some of the most popular and effective drugs are listed below.

Karbofos, one of the most famous drugs, is losing its popularity today due to the addiction of bedbugs to it and the disadvantages associated with smell and toxicity. However, it continues to be the best selling bed bug remedy.

Hangman, a very effective novelty based on Cypermethrin. The executioner is much less toxic than many other drugs. It is produced in Germany, in Russia it is produced under a license and is quite expensive: to process one apartment, you need to buy a drug for 1200-1500 rubles.

Feverfew, one of the few widely used drugs with a natural composition. It is made on the basis of chamomile flowers and is a white powder that crumbles in places where insects may appear. Can also be supplied as a solution. Its particles, penetrating the body of the bug, cause muscle paralysis and death. Feverfew is harmless to humans and animals.

Kombat, among all competitors, stands out for its low price. It is produced in Korea and is widely used by sanitary services due to its low toxicity to humans.

Insecticide is also an inexpensive remedy, but of Russian production. Effective, but toxic and requires strict adherence to safety measures.

The list of all drugs that can be used in the fight against bedbugs is extremely wide. However, it should be understood that in each case, a tool that has proven itself in one apartment may not work in another.Therefore, you should aim for those drugs that are preferred by professional health services in your area.

 

Interesting video: the destruction of bedbugs in the apartment

 

Bed bugs and how to deal with them