New and Effective way to Control Bed Bugs
This new amazing research will benefits many peoples as we all have this bug in our bedrooms.
What are bed bugs?
Bedbugs are small, wingless insects that feed on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. They are easily moved from room to room on infested objects. Bedbugs cannot easily climb metal or polished surfaces and cannot fly or jump.
Adult bedbugs can be as long as 10 mm. They have an oval, broad, flat body and a short, broad head. Adult bedbugs are brown but darken to a blood red colour after feeding. Young bedbugs are shaped like adults, but are smaller (1.5 mm long) and lighter in colour, and also darken after feeding.
Bedbug eggs are white, about one millimetre long, and are almost impossible to see on most surfaces. The female bedbug lays at least 200 eggs in her lifetime, at a rate of about two to four per day. The eggs have a sticky coating and are laid in cracks and crevices, behind woodwork and other hidden locations. They usually hatch in 6-17 days.
Bedbugs come out at night to feed, attracted by the carbon dioxide we exhale. They will feed on both people and pets. Bedbug bites may not be noticed right away because bedbugs typically feed at night when people are asleep.
Bedbugs prefer locations where they can hide easily and feed regularly, like sleeping areas. Their flattened bodies allow bedbugs to hide in extremely small locations: under wallpaper, behind picture frames, in electrical outlets, inside box springs, in mattress pads and in night tables.
How do I get rid of bedbugs?
Bedbugs are very hard to get rid of. If you do have bedbugs, it is strongly recommended that you hire a licensed professional pest control operator. If you are a tenant and have bedbugs, you should tell your landlord right away. Tenants who have bedbug-related issues should speak with a public health officer for help in dealing with the infestation.
Professional pest control operators can use a variety of tools to control bedbugs. These include liquid insecticide sprays, aerosol insecticide sprays, insecticidal dusts, diatomaceous earth, pressurized carbon dioxide snow, and steam and heat treatments. Whichever treatment is used, it will only be effective if physical control methods and preventative measures are used together.
1. Physical control methods
Physical methods of controlling bedbugs include steam cleaning, vacuuming, heating, freezing, washing and throwing out items. Steam cleaning should be done before vacuuming, as the steam will flush any bedbugs not killed out of hiding. Heat treatments should be left to the professionals.
2. Steaming, washing and throwing out items
Infested (but intact) mattresses, upholstery and plush items that cannot be washed with hot water and detergent should be steam cleaned. Bedbugs die at 50°C and steam cleaners generally emit steam at a temperature of at least 100°C. Dry steam or low vapour steamers are better because they leave behind less moisture. Steam will only kill the bedbugs that it reaches, so move the steam cleaner slowly to maximize depth. Avoid excess moisture, which could lead to mould.
Putting small items in the freezer or outside is sometimes effective. However, freezing temperatures must be kept for a prolonged period (4 days of consistent cold at -19°C) and may not kill all of the bedbugs.
Place small non-washable items and dry-clean-only items in a hot dryer for 30 minutes or more.
Wash mattress pads, bedding, bed skirts, infested clothes, curtains, and so on in hot water and dry them on the hottest dryer setting. Store clean, dry items in light coloured sealed heavy duty plastic bags or plastic storage bins with secure lids to avoid infesting other areas.
Throw out any items that can't be washed, heated or steam cleaned.
3. Vacuuming
Handheld vacuums, vacuums with a cloth bag, and vacuums with hoses that are made of fabric are not a good idea for bedbug clean-up because these vacuums can become infested. For households with family members who have allergies or asthma, it's best to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to avoid putting insect and dust allergens back into the air.
4. Using pesticides and pest control products
Each registered pesticide comes with a detailed label that provides directions on how to use the product safely, which pests it controls, where and on what it can be used, and how to apply it properly. To see if a pesticide has been registered for use in Canada, check the label for a Pest Control Products (PCP) registration number. If the product label does not have a PCP registration number, do not buy or use it
Follow these precautions when using pesticides:
- Use only pesticides registered by Govt. and only as directed on the label.
- Never use any treatment on people, pets or bedding unless the pesticide label specifically says to do so. For example, pesticides registered for use on bed frames are not meant to be used on mattresses or box springs.
- Do not use pesticides on baby cribs, playpens or toys.
- Do not use homemade pesticides. While they may seem simple and harmless, many homemade pesticide recipes can be dangerous both to make and to use. They could harm you and your family.
New Research- New Effective Bed Bug Control
And don't let the bed bugs bite" is no longer a harmless adage. In reality today, these bloodthirsty bugs infest thousands of homes. According to a team of Penn State entomologists, biopesticides -- naturally occurring microorganisms -- might provide an answer to this pest problem. Bed bugs need blood meals for growth and development throughout their life cycle. Increased travel, widespread insecticide resistance and changes in management practices have caused a resurgence in those insects throughout North America and Europe. Compounding the problem are concerns about the safety of using traditional chemicals in the domestic environment. According to Nina Jenkins, senior research associate in entomology, preliminary bioassays on the effects of Beauveria bassiana -- a natural fungus that causes disease in insects -- on bed bug control have been performed, and the results are encouraging. She and her colleagues report their results in the most recent issue of the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.
Jenkins, working with Alexis Barbarin, a former Penn State postgraduate student now at the University of Pennsylvania, Edwin Rajotte, professor of entomology, and Matthew Thomas, professor of entomology, looked at how B. bassiana acts through contact with its insect host. "They are natural diseases that exist in the environment," said Jenkins. "They are relatively easy to produce in a lab and stable, so you can use them much like chemical pesticides." In the study, the researchers used an airbrush sprayer to apply spore formulations to paper and cotton jersey, a common bed sheet material. Then control surfaces, again paper and cotton jersey, were sprayed with blank oil only. The surfaces were allowed to dry at room temperature overnight. Three groups of 10 bed bugs were then exposed to one of the two surfaces for one hour. Afterward, they were placed on clean filter paper in a petri dish and monitored. The researchers found that all of the bed bugs exposed to the biopesticide became infected and died within five days.
Also, there were no prominent differences in susceptibility by feeding status, sex, strain or life stage. Most importantly, the infected bed bugs carried the biopesticide back to their hiding places, infecting those that did not go out in search of blood. "We exposed half of a population of bed bugs to a spray residue for one hour and then allowed them to go into a harborage with unexposed individuals," said Jenkins. "The fungal spores were transferred from the exposed bug to their unexposed companions, and we observed almost a hundred percent infection. So they don't even need to be directly exposed, and that's something chemicals cannot do."
This result is important because bed bugs live in hard-to-reach places. "Bed bugs tend to be cryptic, and they'll hide in the tiniest crevices," said Jenkins. "They don't just live in your bed. They hide behind light switches and power sockets and in between the cracks of the baseboard and underneath your carpet." The speed of mortality with B. bassiana is as fast as Jenkins has seen in any application, but it doesn't even need to be that fast.
"If you are trying to protect a farmer's field, he wants the insects that are eating his crop dead immediately," said Jenkins. "Obviously, if you have bed bugs in your house, you don't want them there for any longer than you have to, but what you really want to know is if they've all gone at the end of the treatment, and I think that's something that this technology could offer." Next, the researchers will test the effectiveness of brief exposure times and look at entire populations where natural harborages are established. Then they will begin field work. "It's exciting, and it definitely works," said Jenkins. "We're working on the next step, and we have more funding to support these studies."
(Source- Journal of Invertebrate Pathology)
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