Bed bug infestation across Canada has become a major problem in recent times. In previous years, bed bugs were associated with dilapidated and overcrowded housing environments, but this is a thing of the past. Bed bugs have returned and are manifesting in the cleanest living areas from large apartments to fine hotels and hospitals. Bedbugs are not easy to get rid of and if you realize your home or building has been infested, hiring or contacting a licensed professional bed bug exterminator or a pest control specialist in your area is a very wise idea. Nonetheless, there are do-it-yourself methods available that you can also try out, however we do not recommend that anyone tries to get rid of bed bugs without professional support because it may worsen the problem.
The following are both professional and DIY methods of killing bed bugs.
DIY Bed Bug Extermination Procedures
If you are going to go with DIY in your bed bug containment procedure, be sure you have a lot of time and be ready to work at it really hard; the area has to be prepared with bed bug pre-treatment procedures before inspection and treatment.
Preparation means the clutter has to be reduced to ease the inspection, while being very careful during the removal of items from one room that has been infested with bed bugs to another to avoid transferring pests. Personal items such as blankets, soft toys and stuffed animals must be removed and cleaned, perhaps using vacuum cleaner before bagging them in plastic bags for a number of days.
Dismantling of bed frames should be done to expose other areas where bed bugs could be hiding. Drawers in dressers and desks need to be removed as furniture is turned over to clean and inspect all hidden areas. All homes where wires and pipes penetrate the floor and walls need to be sealed and caulked as cracks are filled around moulding and baseboards to reduce areas where the pests could hide.
Infested bed linen and garments cannot be sprayed with insecticide and thus hot water should be used to launder them. The bed linens and garments can be heated if washing is impossible for a couple of minutes, perhaps in clothes dryers.
While most of these activities can help reduce the bed bug scourge around your home, they are just a preparation for the big job of eradicating the problem. It is the reason why pest control experts should be a consideration if you realize you do not have the time or the manpower to do all these.
If you are using bedbug detection devices placed in infested areas to ascertain where the pests are residing, remember the tools are only for monitoring. Lack of bed bugs trapped in the device is not a reason to celebrate that your home is bedbug free.
Killing the Bed Bugs – DIY
Firstly, the methods you decide to turn to must be legal, effective and safe.
Non-chemical methods
There are a number of non chemical ways of dealing with bedbugs. You can use heat treatment by heating a clothes dryer, a closed but hot car or putting black plastic or polythene bags out in the sun. You can also try out cold treatment by setting the freezer to about -20°C and requires that the items be left in a freezer at such a low temperature for a number of days. You also need a thermometer to keep tracking the temperature; it’s hard to maintain a freezer at home always at -20°C. This is why both of these bed bug extermination methods are usually done by experienced bed bug exterminators.
Non-chemical methods are usually very expensive, especially heat treatment and cold treatment and always cumbersome and require a lot of time to be pulled through. You can definitely reduce the bedbug population with these methods but they usually do not eliminate the problem completely unless they are conducted by experts like Bed Bug Exterminator Pro.
Pesticides
Pesticides are very delicate products and should only be used by DIY bedbug exterminators if they are absolutely necessary. The label directions need to be followed to the letter. Ensure bedbugs are listed on the pesticide’s label and foggers should only be used with extreme caution since improper use of bug bombs can cause an explosion or fire and damage your health and that of your family.
Drying agents or desiccants
Use of desiccants can be effective if well done; they even work by ensuring bed bugs have been dried out and thus cannot resist it. Use of this product should only be from registered products. Nonetheless, when desiccants are absolutely effective they sometimes take a number of months before any change is seen and experienced.
Once you are through with your DIY bedbug treatment you can then evaluate the situation and apply a number of preventive measures such as the use of interceptors, traps and diverse monitoring methods. However, do-it-yourself bed bug extermination methods are quite expensive, time consuming, require a lot of manpower and might not really give the deathly blow to bed bugs you were looking for.
Professional Bedbug Extermination
Professional bedbug control operations use a number of methods to kill and control pests such as heat treatments, steam, carbon dioxide pressurized snow, diatomaceous earth, insecticidal dusts, aerosol and liquid insecticide sprays, among others. One pest control operator that has the necessary skills and knowledge to efficiently get rid of your bed bug problem is Pestend pest control Mississauga.
Heat treatment
If there is a very effective bedbug treatment method, this is it. Killing bedbugs using heat requires less preparation, lets you maintain your furniture and gives faster results. State of the art heaters are used as temperature is raised to the most lethal level of 50°C minimum for about 180 minutes or longer for the heat to effectively penetrate belongings, fixtures and furniture.
Temperature does not damage belongings and professional exterminators will always let you know the items to be removed before the annihilation of bedbugs with heat can begin. The exterminator team will then continue monitoring the process until heat treatment has been rendered effective and complete. If you have guests or a family that is not tolerant to odors or pesticides, heat treatment through the hand of professionals works wonders.
Integrated pest management
In most cases, professional pest controls might decide bedbug infestation require a multi-faceted approach, which is the most common practice among bedbug management professionals. In this case, pesticides, freezing and steam heat methods are used. They are selected before being applied delicately as per the factors present with the bug infestation.
Integrated pest management practices also include sealing crevices and cracks by pest controllers as doors and windows are modified to prevent bedbugs from making their way into the dwellings. Most importantly, professional exterminators are licensed and trained in ways of applying pesticide safely for the safety of those living in the building and in effective control of bedbugs.
Exterminators also use the best monitors in bed bug inspection purposes and are very handy. One type of bed bug monitor is the portable monitor that uses heat, carbon dioxide and carmines to lure the bugs where they die later. Portable monitors are quite expensive and their use not as prevalent, especially among DIY bedbug exterminators. Moat-style interceptors are another method some professional exterminators use by applying them around your bed legs using talcum powder and placed on a moat’s wall. The bedbugs then fall into the trap and remain trapped there.
Contrast between DIY and Professional extermination
DIY methods use over the counter pesticides with labels indicating they control bed bugs, but are not recommended because their effectiveness has not been tested. Professionals will use tested and well researched pesticides ascertained to control bed bugs effectively and are also well trained in safety application of the pesticides to control an infestation.
Portable steam devices are used in killing bed bugs and to be effective they are directly applied, a very difficult method if infestations are way too high since finding bed bugs and directing the hot steam at them is time consuming and must be thorough. Professional bed bug exterminators have at their disposal a highly advanced and effective steam technology that works better than DIY bed bug steam treatments.
Also, the use of certain DIY methods such as ozone generators is dangerous and not allowed in Canada; it causes shortness of breath, pain around the chest, coughing as well as irritation of the throat and nose.
Professional exterminators talk with occupants concerning diverse health risks that could follow the use of the various methods such as pesticides they intend to apply and also let the residents know the right time to re-enter their dwellings, the exact areas where treatments were applied and pet safety in such circumstances.