Mar 28, 2012 – In Order of Popularity…….
QUESTION:
What pesticide is best used for eliminating bed bugs?
ANSWER:
The advice from our many industry consultants and experts on The Common Bed Bug continues to be that we need to NOT rely on insecticides as the ultimate answer for its control. Insecticides definitely can kill the bugs, and perhaps their eggs, but at this time there still is no perfect chemical solution for this difficult pest, other than whole-structure fumigation. Resistance to the many pyrethroids continues to be an issue as does the ability for the bugs to hide in many places that are not easily treated. In addition, you may choose to use several different formulations depending on the setting - Nuvan strips for fumigating electronic equipment and other sensitive materials inside a sealed bag, a dust for within the wall voids, an aerosol for treating along seams inside furniture, a liquid residual for treating along carpet edges. You may choose one product for use away from the bed and another for use on the mattress itself, given the sensitive nature of the mattress.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
What pesticide is best used for eliminating bed bugs?
ANSWER:
The advice from our many industry consultants and experts on The Common Bed Bug continues to be that we need to NOT rely on insecticides as the ultimate answer for its control. Insecticides definitely can kill the bugs, and perhaps their eggs, but at this time there still is no perfect chemical solution for this difficult pest, other than whole-structure fumigation. Resistance to the many pyrethroids continues to be an issue as does the ability for the bugs to hide in many places that are not easily treated. In addition, you may choose to use several different formulations depending on the setting - Nuvan strips for fumigating electronic equipment and other sensitive materials inside a sealed bag, a dust for within the wall voids, an aerosol for treating along seams inside furniture, a liquid residual for treating along carpet edges. You may choose one product for use away from the bed and another for use on the mattress itself, given the sensitive nature of the mattress.
It also continues to be important to consider all the non-chemical aspects, and these include the use of steam along mattress seams, the hot washer and hot dryer for everything that can go through either of these appliances to heat up and kill bugs and eggs, the installation of mattress and box spring encasements, and the use of some of the improving monitoring devices and traps. Obviously all of this means that the price to do bed bug eradication is going to be far higher to the customer than for getting rid of just about any other pest insect, and you cannot expect to eliminate them by using only insecticides of a single kind.
According to a recent survey and reported at the last NPMA Conference, these are the most used products in order of their popularity in our industry - Phantom, Temprid, Bedlam, Gentrol, Alpine, Transport, Deltadust, Suspend, Tempo, Drione. Phantom and Temprid were by far the most often used products. This speaker at the conference also reported that the average number of visits per account was 3 and the average time spent was 3 hours per visit to the infested account, so again we cannot treat bed bugs as we do earwigs or ants. They are simply a different breed of horse.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
