[anat_gartman]

I have a problem
How I can kill bedbugs?
??

[loveland80537]

Bedbug problems should not be taken lightly. Immediate action should be taken to treat the affected individuals and to remove them from the infested environment.

If you suspect that you've brought bedbugs home in your luggage from a recent trip, you may want to inspect and treat the luggage.

Although one's first reaction is to dispose of the offending mattress or furniture, this is not necessary and may not eliminate the problem. Treatment of the immediate area should include spraying or dusting of the mattress and box spring. (It may be necessary to cut open the net enclosure on the bottom of the box spring in order to properly inspect and treat this area.) Most attention should be given to the edges under piping or seams or under mattress tufts or buttons. You must separate the mattress and box spring and treat areas in between as necessary. Pillow-top mattresses require special attention.

Bed linens should be laundered in hot water as well as draperies hanging near the bed, if necessary. Those items should be put through a dryer as well to help insure removal of insects or their eggs. Laundered items should be keep out of the bedbug infested area and/or sealed in securely tied heavy plastic bags.

A residual insecticide (other than a pyrethrin product) should be applied to bed frames and connecting points, floor and wall moldings as well as any other objects or hollows that offer "shelter" for bedbugs. Treat night tables and dressers by removing the drawers, the objects in the drawers and then spray in the corners of the drawers both inside and then on the bottom corners of each drawer. Also check behind any objects hanging on the wall such as behind picture frames or clocks. In severe case, treatment of adjacent rooms may be necessary.

In apartment buildings, it may be helpful to seal any cracks or crevices around floorboards and moldings to prevent insects from migrating to or from other apartments.

If there is a wooden floor and there are gaps between the boards, be sure to treat there as well. When treating, try to think three dimensionally, looking up and down and observing the treatment area from the floor and from above, looking down.

Sprays or dusts should be directed into cracks and crevices - surface spraying of carpets and upholstery or dusting of these areas is usually unnecessary.

One final point: though these treatments should be effective, it may take some time for them to work. Therefore, it may be prudent to arrange to sleep in another area for several days and perhaps as long as one to two weeks. Unfortunately, the only way to know if the problem has been resolved is to try sleeping in the treat area once again.

The Bug Clinic offers four products that may be applied for bedbug infestations. The first, Rockland Indoor/Outdoor Insect Spray, has a label allowing it to be applied to mattresses as well as allowing application to cracks and crevices and in surrounding areas as needed. The active ingredient in this product is permethrin.

The second and third product are both dust products. Drione Insecticide Dust or Deltadust may be applied to mattress tufts as well as other nearby cracks and crevices. Drione contains 1% pyrethrins, an organic insecticide and silica gel, a desiccant, as active ingredients. Deltadust contains 0.1% deltamethrin, a low toxic pyrethroid insecticide. According to the manufacturer, Deltadust should be left in place for four to six hours and then vacuumed out. The vacuum bag should then be disposed of.

Finally, the fourth product, Gentrol IGR Aerosol, is quite different than the others. Gentrol does not directly kill bedbugs. The active ingredient in Gentrol, hydroprene, acts to sterilize the adults. Over time, the process will control and help eliminate bedbugs.

One of the More Difficult Insects to Eliminate

In the last year, bedbugs have received more and more notoriety. Some have succeeded with their treatments while others have failed.

Professional applicators are available to assist you if you prefer not to attempt treating on your own. My suggestion is to question any company that you hire to be sure that they are familiar with performing bedbug treatments. Since the problem is a relatively new phenomenon to some applicators, we suggest contacting companies that already treat hotels and motels since they are likely to have experience in dealing with bedbug issues.