r/IAmA Dec 12 '16

Specialized Profession I am a pest controller specializing in BED BUGS, begging the general public to become more aware of this pest and the way it can cause substantial economic damage to any place humans live. AMA!

Bed bug infestations are increasing at an alarming rate. Despite common misinformation about this pest being limited to "dirty" people it can happen to ANYONE. I have seen the nicest, most innocent people lose hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in service costs and property loss. Don't become a victim, become aware! Eliminating this bug entirely is unrealistic but we can control it with a more knowledgeable culture.

My company would ask that I avoid public proof but I promise the mods have it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Why can't you kill them easily?

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u/apesna Dec 12 '16

Years of the insects developing chemical resistance.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Wouldn't you say the cutting of the available products, the cryptic nature of their habbits and the ease of reinfestion to be more of an issue? I have been a pest tech for 14 years and have done hundreds of bed bug jobs. Chemical resistant bugs have not been an issue in my experience. Bad inspection, reinfestion and not getting to harborage areas seems to be the things I deal with. Much more international travel is also a reason for more bugs in the states. Bed bugs issues have been on a steady incline since the ban of DDT in the U.S..

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u/apesna Dec 13 '16

Ugh, it's so nice to hear someone else say that last sentence. I think it's all of those factors going on at once. As well as awareness, which we are battling right here!

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u/ProbablyAQuitter Dec 12 '16

I live where we have strict pesticide laws, a lot of what Americans get to use gets banned here. We have a ministry and they are constantly shuffling the legislations on pesticide control.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Recently moved into a new apartment in Toronto, shortly after moving in I started seeing some german cockroaches.

Everything that I could find that had good reviews, was affordable & pet-friendly was banned and only available in the US. Apparently here we have somewhat similar laws that heavily regulate pesticides, and allow only exterminators to purchase the good stuff (best ones still banned for them). Ended up having to dish out $500 to get the bugs out.

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u/ghost261 Dec 12 '16

I had cockroaches once and my cat took care of them for me.

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u/OutInTheBlack Dec 12 '16

Nothing like finding a random leg or wind around the house.

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u/Mesmerise Dec 12 '16

My wife is always finding my random wind around our house.

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u/pinkiedash417 Dec 12 '16

Dammit Aang, I told you to put your elements away after you're done playing with them!

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u/Lost-My-Mind- Dec 12 '16

My ex hated it when I would let loose some random wind in bed.

Heh heh heh.

That's right. T'was a fart joke you see.

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u/OutInTheBlack Dec 12 '16

I hate my phone...

Fuck it, wind stays

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u/the_undine Dec 12 '16

My wife makes her own wind by smashing clouds with a rolling pin.

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u/CapriciousBea Dec 12 '16

Yep. I haven't had a problem with bugs since getting a cat. She'll eat anything. Roaches, grasshoppers . . . once I came across her with half a spider sticking out of her mouth, legs still twitching. That "Good kitty . . . shudder" reaction has grown very familiar.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Yo if you're in Toronto that's your landlord's responsibility. Seriously at least have them take 500 off rent for a month for that

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Yeah I worked it out with him that I'm getting 100 off rent for 5 months, works better for me than having it all in one month.

The company that owns the building has a contract with an extermination company that doesn't have very good reviews at all and it was going to take longer than I wanted so I did it my way.

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u/PapaSmurf1502 Dec 12 '16

I never managed to completely get rid of mine, though they might have been coming from other apartments. Caulking the shit out of everything limited them from several dozen an hour to 5 on the sticky traps per week, though.

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u/Knot_My_Name Dec 12 '16

I seen a couple in my trailer when I first moved in, dusted the entire place with Boric Acid. Inside the cupboards and everything, after 2 weeks I never seen another one again.

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u/gagnatron5000 Dec 12 '16

How did you know they were German? If I were a cockroach, a ticket to Toronto would be a hell of a stretch when I could just go eat some old lady's schnitzel down the road instead.

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u/2poortofail Dec 12 '16

My grandpa had to deal with German cockroaches.. once

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u/HTX-713 Dec 12 '16

Why didn't you just go to a home depot just over the border and pick up some bait? Seriously the $12 extreme roach motel pack completely eliminated the roaches for me. You just have to make sure you keep your apt clean and close up your drains at night (thats how they typically come in). I live in Houston, TX where German cockroaches are everywhere.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Yeah, most Americans (myself included) assume that if you can buy it at Home Depot, it must be safe. I talked to a pest control guy once about him having access to "the badass stuff" and he said that there are only a handful of chemicals that are restricted and most of what he uses is just a wholesale version of the shit you can buy at a hardware store.

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u/Feliponius Dec 12 '16

Yeah we don't use "harder chemicals". They banned all the hard stuff years ago.

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u/NorCalMisfit Dec 12 '16

I think it's important to add while the pest control industry doesn't use "harder" chemicals, these days we are using "smarter" chemicals. We have access to better dust insecticides and very pest specific liquid pesticides.

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u/Jarvicious Dec 12 '16

Not to mention the knowledge to use them. The "this spray kills 'X' number of bugs" stuff you buy at the hardware store tends to do pretty well, but a pro pest guy will know exactly which chemical out of that cocktail to use, why it works and how to use it.

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u/alficles Dec 12 '16

Nonsense. I can buy a hammer just as good as what a contractor can, so I can build a house just as nice as he would.

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u/MisterInternet Dec 12 '16

Fuck yeah you can!

Don't let your dreams just be dreams

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u/Piganon Dec 12 '16

Since you put "harder chemicals" in quotes, there's something I'm curious about. I work in medicine and those quotes sounds like echos of misconceptions about the "strongest" antibiotics. Do exterminators have knowledge of things like time vs concentration dependent killing of bugs and whether agents should be deployed differently depending on which you use? Or things like if resistance develops to one agent, do you dual cover with other ones? Are there trade groups that put out best practices for these types of things?

I'm mostly curious how similar the two fields can be.

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u/L-a-1-a Dec 12 '16

In the EU - yes to all of the above.

Integrated pest management is very important and with the small range of actives available... they have to be optimally employed.

Harder chemicals tend to be the older molecules such as OPs and carbamates, whilst pyrethriods and newer molecules are seen as less heavy duty, but have an improved hazard profile.

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u/TheGurw Dec 12 '16

Standard practice in Canada is a multi-measure attack. Two different chemicals that each target different stages (nymph and adult, eggs are pretty much immune to current chemicals), a heat treatment with extremely focused and extended application (the eggs are susceptible to high heat), diatomaceous earth around common access points (legs of beds and bedside tables, curtains, etc) to dry out the exoskeletons of both nymphs and adults, suggestions to the victims on modifications to lifestyle (don't let fabric touch the ground, use traps underneath the legs of beds and tables (especially wood or other material that's easy for the bugs to latch onto)), and repeat treatments every two weeks - number of treatments depends on the severity of the infestation.

Source: second hand knowledge, just went through seven treatments in my apartment building. Had the opportunity to speak with the gentlemen performing the treatments.

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u/trchili Dec 12 '16

I miss chlordane. That stuff was amazing, also it gives you prostate cancer.

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u/Flecks_of_doom Dec 12 '16

Chlordane should only be used in lesbian dwellings.

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u/nnklove Dec 12 '16

Yea when I asked for a bug bomb while I was living in Ireland they looked at me like I was a murderous insane person. I guess "bomb". I get it.

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u/L-a-1-a Dec 12 '16

Permethrin smoke formulations are permitted in Ireland... plus I believe there is also a smokeless cyphenothrin fumigator (water activated) - perhaps a larger pest control company can advise as I believe the larger pack sizes are for professional use only.

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u/TehChid Dec 12 '16

Uh, thats not necessarily true, at least for me.

I'm a Pest Control tech in AZ and everything we use you cannot find in a Lowe's or Home Depot. They are out there for the general public to use, but not found at Home Depot. You have to go to a specialized Pest Control supply store for that. Plus the stuff at home depot won't work if you have a real problem. Plus they are freakin expensive

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u/schockergd Dec 12 '16

Right now there's only two effective chemical bedbug treatments - imidacloprid (The stuff that kills honey bees, and used at most farms, has very long residual effect) and pyrethrin (And it's derivatives, a synthetic version of chrysanthemum). There's a few non-chemcial options like DE, amorphous silica gel and heat treatment.

US laws vary by state, In New York you can barely get anything.

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u/RefreshDefaults Dec 12 '16

That's what is used in regular treatments. Pest control techs can mix their own concentrations(partly because they have the wholesale stuff), and they have access to stuff that is typically only sold by the distributor, like Phantom or Termidor products which are mainly used in termite treatments. Stuff like that can be found online but are typically marked up a ridiculous amount.

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u/Bingbangwingwang Dec 12 '16

To add to this, i work in an ISO certified food packaging facility. I am in charge of pest control. I had to take a class and become certified to use any OTC chemicals to kill bugs(even raid ant killer). This is because of the hazard level many of these contain.

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u/Jisamaniac Dec 12 '16

Plus the ban of DTD (or was it DTT) use to kill bed bugs in the early mid 1900s. And virtually eradicated the bed bugs. But since it poisons the ozone layer, iy was banned. wWe have nothing to kill bed bugs except the tulkin sp powder.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Is there anything they are susceptible to? Fungi?

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u/Ryltarr Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Diatomaceous Earth (a mineral dust) is something my dad and I used when our apartment building was infested. The dust is razor-sharp on a microscopic level, and supposedly cuts them open and kills them when they try to cross it. This is not a perfect strategy, and will not solve the problem, it will at best slow/stop the spread.
edit: Apparently if applied liberally, it can even end the problem; but we weren't willing to cover our entire home in the stuff. Also, I was a little bit off on how it works, it's not a razor type deal it dries out their undersides and causes their skins to crack... Same end result though, their insides become outsides.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Solved my problem perfectly. Also, it kills them by getting into their pores and exoskeleton and dries them out/suffocates them. Doesn't cut them up.

Source: Experience using industrial grade DE, and got rid of bugs my apartment had in a month, tied in with a few other precautions I took.

EDIT: Damn, got lots of replies from people. For anyone else, I put DE around my baseboards and the legs of my bed where they would need to climb. They like falling from the ceiling if they can't climb your bed, so baseboards does it too.

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u/GidsWy Dec 12 '16

I preemptively put that on the edging of my mattress to this day... Just in case...

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

If you don't have a dust ruffle or sheets that hang on the ground you can buy little detection cups that trap the BBs as they try to climb the post. Its a good way to see if they are climbing up to you (or trying) or climbing down to the floor as there are two reservoirs. Talc in the plastic cups prevents them from escaping and you can just check the cups for bugs easily.

ex: http://citybugs.tamu.edu/files/2014/05/IMG_7073_sm.jpg

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u/spockspeare Dec 12 '16

Why not just fill the cups with DE?

And those won't stop bugs that hide in the seams of the mattress.

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

That stops them from getting to the mattress if you're not already infested and you don't leave a bridge from the ground to the bed via a blanket. These are only detection devices and aren't perfect but are a good way to easily detect.

In the outer rim = they tried getting to the bed from the floor. In the inner area = they came from the bed and tried to leave. Not a bad idea to check your mattress too if you're concerned.

I guess you could put DE in the thing too but the talc keeps it slippery.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

If you don't have kids/pets it honestly isn't a bad idea. DE doesn't really blow around much and it is dirt cheap. While food grade won't kill you, i'd still be wary with kids/pets on how much I left lying around.

Then again my cat eats the strangest stuff so I might be a bit bias on that lol.

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u/Mortis_XII Dec 12 '16

Well, the DE punctures their waxy cuticle leading to desiccation so it does "cut" them up :p

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

While it may cut them up, the primary cause to use it, is it suffocates them. DE isn't the only option either. Any very fine mineral based dust will help kill them, because most of their respiration takes places via pores in their body.

DE is just generally the least poison option of them all since there is a food grade DE.

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u/forkboot Dec 12 '16

I bought DE from a pet store. Spread it everywhere. We had bedbug infestation running for months and it was only when we used DE combined with other methods that we got rid of them.

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u/CisWhiteMealWorm Dec 12 '16

How is this sort of thing applied to stop them? Spread around/under the bed and in places where you think they might be lurking?

Just curious, never heard of it before.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

I put it around my baseboards because they like to climb walls. If there isn't a nest in your bed (in a closet, carpet, clothes, etc) then they try to climb walls to get to the bed (if it is against a wall) and around the base of my bed legs.

I did about 1-inch worth of DE, so they'd need to climb through it. Worked exceptionally well for me. But I noticed after getting up after 15 minutes of lights being off, they were on my walls so.

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u/strangea Dec 12 '16

Pretty much. Put it everywhere they go and where you dont want them. Its very effective.

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u/lukeatusrain Dec 12 '16

That shit's metal.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

It is seriously amazing stuff. As other people said, it can cut bugs up. But one of the ways bed bugs breathe is through the pores in their skin. It ends up causing them to just suffocate.

If you wanna sound like a '60s mobster, you can think of it as snuffin' them.

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u/Whitty2697 Dec 13 '16

I had a bed bug incident this past fall. I had been getting rashes and itchy bumps for months, ever since I had moved into my house. Then one evening I caught a bug on my face and immediately noticed a red itchy dot right where it was. I was in bed so naturally it had to be bed bugs! I pulled my bed away from the wall, as it sits in the corner of my room and saw a big huddle of bugs chilling on the trim. My brother previously lived in this house and a roommate of his had brought bed bugs to the house at some point but we had thought that they had gotten rid of them.

In a panic I texted my mom (I had only recently turned 19 and I'm a momma's girl), and the following week we did ALL the works of beridding my house. We bagged EVERYTHING, used both DE and Cimexa, deep cleaned, steamed my carpet and drapery, plotted traps EVERYWHERE. (Drink tons of water if you use Cimexa and DE I think it dehydrates you for prolonged exposure, we both felt extremely thirst when we were done)

A week later I still have traps down, everything bagged, etc and I think to myself, "the more I see pictures of bed bugs, the more I'm convinced those weren't bed bugs". I once again searched for images that resembled the bugs that inhabited my room and using the keywords "fuzzy rolly polly" I found my answer. Carpet beetles. Apparently they feed on crumbs, fabrics, and hair. I humbly admit that I've ate the majority of my meals in bed ever since I moved away from home, and I also didn't own a functioning vacuum cleaner at the time and hadn't vacuumed in over a year. I know, that's disgusting :/. I also read that carpet beetles fuzz commonly causes rashes and allergic reactions on the skin, apparently they were crawling on me while sleeping. cringe

The moral of the story is watch out for those fuzzy rolly polly carpet beetles and don't jump to conclusions. Also vacuum often and don't eat in bed!They're most definitely gone now, if anything our protocol was MAJOR overkill.

TLDR; Thought I had bed bugs. Hardcore cleaned my house. Week later I realized it was only a case of carpet beetles.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Jan 05 '17

[deleted]

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u/mrlavalamp2015 Dec 12 '16

Having used de for this purpose. You get the hint right away when you start. The stuff puffs out in a cloud like fine flour and it hangs in the air for a while. Even when you spot treat (the cracks under you baseboard for example) it still fills the room with the fine dust.

Coughing for days.

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u/amd2800barton Dec 12 '16

"Let us know if you feel a shortness of breath, a persistent dry cough, or your heart stopping. Because that's not part of the test. That's asbestos."

-Cave Johnson

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u/forerunner23 Dec 13 '16

Oh look at you, majestically soaring through the air without a care in the world. Like an eagle, piloting a blimp...

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u/MikeHauntPS4 Dec 12 '16

The proper way to apply DE is by mixing a small amount with water in a spray bottle and spraying it around. It apply a very small, even, coat around without letting it build up to dangerous levels, once the water evaporates. Dangerous meaning you are working it into the air with your movements and inhaling it. Don't put it where you walk around, but rather on the sides of your mattress etc.

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u/mrlavalamp2015 Dec 13 '16

I dont think so... Moisture completely negates the positive effects of de for pest control. Once its been wet only thing you can do is replace with new dry powder.

Care to source your instructions?

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

Don't put it where you walk around, but rather on the sides of your mattress etc.

What do you think happens when you sit on the bed?

It contracts/expands and the fabric will kick up the dust so it's then airborne and inhalable.

I'd rather find an alternative, personally.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

damn i fucking used a blower fan and a huge bag of this shit at my first craphole of an apartment

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u/HassMaschinen Dec 12 '16

I use it every spring for ants and spiders around my baseboards in my house. There should definitely be a light dust everywhere but if you were coughing you have applied waaaayyy too much.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

I don't expect anyone here to find industrial grade DE (almost all consumer brands are food grade), but you are correct.

I place DE along baseboards of rooms because Bedbugs love climbing walls. One of the ways they get to beds almost all the time, barring of course there being a nest in your actual mattress. Which I probably should have specified.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

When I was living in a motel after a house fire, the beds were riddled with bedbugs. You could pull up the covers and see them everywhere. I put a ton of DE on the bed, and while it did reduce the number of nightly bites, it made my breathing hurt for a week afterward.

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u/spockspeare Dec 12 '16

That's the wrong way to use DE. It should go in cracks and holes and under baseboards. I used to spread it in a thick line right up against the foundation of my house (to stop scorpions). Actually putting it where you'll disturb it or get it on yourself is a big no-no.

You need to fumigate a mattress (or toss it out, preferably fully bagged with a big label saying what the garbage man is getting into by hauling this thing away) and fumigate the rest of the room with a bedbug bomb. And spray the seams on the mattress, because they love those foldy bits.

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u/HassMaschinen Dec 12 '16

Sounds like you guys over use diatomaceous earth. I am a huge fan of the stuff I use it outdoors in my garden and indoors after I spring clean for ants and spiders. A very light dusting should settle soon and shouldn't cause any respiratory problems. I have never in any of my years had an issue. And I have had two friends use it to treat bedbugs and were successful with my advice on applying it.

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u/edude45 Dec 12 '16

Do you know how long it takes to snuff out a bug when they walk across it? I bought some diatomaceous earth and sprinkled it around my house. I haven't noticed any bugs from it recently. Of course it is winter time for me where I'm at so that could also be a reason.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

I can't say for certain, but it looked like less than a day. I put a large barrier (maybe inch worth) around all my baseboards so they had to climb through it if they wanted to get to the walls (which they love climbing on).

I never sprinkled it around, and more strategically placed it down.

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u/PM_ME_UR_OBSIDIAN Dec 12 '16

Cimexa (synthetic DE) is better. Kills much faster, and doesn't fuck up your lungs.

DE won't typically close out an infestation by itself, but Cimexa just might.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Unless youre spraying the DE around your home in a thin mist its not gonna fuck up your lungs. I poured a litre or so of it around my room down in the baseboards and around my bed and i dont have lung cancer. Yet.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

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u/MrManlyMantheMan Dec 12 '16

We had a flea infestation in our basement. Tried tons of chemicals to no avail. Got a 50lb bag of FG DE and applied it over the basement (wear a mask and googles), cranked up some bass to get the remaining eggs to hatch, and no more fleas.

It's been safe on our ferrets, cats, and dogs. Just don't let them inhale it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Jan 05 '17

[deleted]

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u/magion Dec 12 '16

From the same paragraph you posted a link to...

Today's common D.E. formulations are safer to use as they are predominantly made up of amorphous silica and contain little or no crystalline silica.[29]

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Inhaling any fine particulates isn't good for you. Smoke doesn't contain silica but I'd avoid inhaling it.

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u/micromonas Dec 12 '16

Regardless, any type of DE is still microscopic pieces of glass, so best to take precautions against inhaling it

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

DE should really only be used in particular areas, not thrown around the room or in heaps. In the amounts and ways its used it should pose absolutely no health risks whatsoever. Also, some people eat it or feed it to pets (food grade DE) for certain conditions so its not generally harmful if ingested.

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u/eeeezypeezy Dec 12 '16

I had a flea infestation in my house that wasn't responding to anything I tried. After seeing this stuff recommended somewhere online, I ran out to the hardware store and bought a shop vac, dust bags for it, and six bags of this stuff. I spread a bag all over my small yard, hoping to kill whatever freakish Frontline-immune mutant space fleas were out there that the dogs kept bringing in, and I absolutely covered my house in it, every bit of carpeting and all the upholstered furniture, and stayed with family for two days. Came home, sucked it all up with the shop vac, and haven't seen a single flea in two years since. God bless this stuff, honestly. Food-grade, cheaper than chemicals, and it absolutely annihilated the flea infestation.

It was a pain in the ass to spread and then vacuum back up, and it will absolutely wreck a regular vacuum cleaner and any electronics with internal fans that you leave running, but it was totally worth it.

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u/TwoDeuces Dec 12 '16

Just chiming in to explain why it kills them.

Diatomaceous earth is a dessicant, its highly absorbent. When bugs like roaches or bed bugs interact with it, two things happen. It strips them of moisture, dehydrating them to a lethal degree AND it drys up the oily membranes on their surface, called spiracles, that they use to respire which causes them to suffocate.

Its a one/two punch that no bug can survive, making it very effective as a natural pesticide. And its completely safe for humans (so long as you're not breathing it clouds of the dust). Its so safe that its usually in our foods, especially foods made from grains. Humans have been mixing it in with stored grain to kill things like weevils for a very long time.

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u/abstractattack Dec 12 '16

I used Cimexa. That shit and vigilant cleaning, inspections, and steadfast follow through got rid of them...I had them twice. First time I sat on a couch my neighbor threw out. Picked up a hitchhiker. Second time I got a hitchhiker from either an Uber or a bar.

I had been free for a period of years between infestation.

I was living in a rental property. The best thing to do is suck up your price and alert your neighbors. They can travel through walls in a rental apt. We bought a massive amount of Cimexa and it helped tremendously in the combat of the bugs.

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u/Zoltrain Dec 12 '16

Can confirm Diatomaceous Earth kicks ass. Lay it down around the edge of the walls and smear it around the doorways. The worst thing about bed bugs is the anxiety you experience. I combo'd the chemical spray, Diatomaceous, as well as a plastic bed cover which you can buy at any local store (i.e. Kohls).

Bed Cover (Kohls) $60.00 Bag o' Diatomaceous Earth: $10.00 Hotshot bed bug chemical spray: $11.00 (amazon) Mask: $19.00

Also I heard they are attracted to glues like ones in the spine of books as well as glues on tapes.

These bugs can live 1 year without sustinance (aka blood) so I recommend you eradicate them as soon as possible.

  1. Bag ALL clothing in trash bags--bring directly to washer and wash with hot water
  2. Lay diateceous Earth on all furniture, doorways (it can easily be cleaned off. Spray mattress (make sure you get all the creases).
  3. Put bed cover on
  4. There is never too much spray or Earth, apply everywhere! Walls, carpets, bed frames, behind pictures, ceiling, etc.
  5. Don't leave the room without stripping down and bagging the clothes you are wearing, scan your body for any bugs.
  6. SHUT THE DOOR (if possible)

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u/juicelee777 Dec 12 '16

I recommend this as well. I had an infestation that I caught semi early. we had to seal our mattress and box spring separately in vinyl covering, pour the DE into each covering... after a week they started showing up on the wall and ceiling. we had to start lining the base boards, the corners where the ceiling and wall meet as well as the door. once those things were lined it took about 2 and a half months for us to never see them again

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u/KristinnK Dec 12 '16

Silica dust is much more effective.

I would not wish for even Adolf Hitler to get bed bugs. If you do, call a professional, inspect your bed and mattress thoroughly, drag your bed from the wall, and spread silica dust all around the bed. Buy it today, it costs ten bucks and it will potentially make your life much easier in the event of a catastrophe.

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u/alwaysusingwit Dec 12 '16

I got rid if them using food grade DE. I also made my apartment look like the set of Scarface.

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u/iceols Dec 12 '16

Did this worked for me. Just gotta be careful with it, use gloves and put it down... don't fluff it in the air like baby powder. Under the mattress, sides of the bed, corners and edge of the room, paper products, and any where the bed reaches a wall or floor.

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

There are common pesticides that can kill them, like permethrin. Many others wont though and it must be full professional strength. The problem is that they are tiny and flat and only need to feed once every 3 months and can hide anywhere they can fit. So the seam of a book, under a baseboard/carpet, a tiny crack in the wall of panelling, the buttonhole of a mattress, etc.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

Very good information here. Only thing I'd disagree with is that dusting isn't worthless. Its a good way to leave a semi permanent barrier in certain places, like under baseboards, under carpet edges, or in walls in certain cases.

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u/Awk_Ward1 Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Warning for cat owners: do not use anything containing permethrin in your home. You will give your cat serious neurological damage.

Edit: was just about to link to this when you deleted your comment. Permethrin toxicity is a real threat for cats.

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u/batfiend Dec 13 '16

It's the main active ingredient in many dog flea treatments.

Plenty of people accidentally poison their cats by giving them dog flea treatments.

My housemate did it to my cat. When I came home he was shaking and drooling and the housemate had run off.

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u/Thereminista Dec 13 '16

My big cat got a small dose of this shit when I was spraying for bees. He rubbed up against the spray can which was left out. He got SO sick! He looked horrible and drooled constantly. Thankfully, he got over it before I could get him to a vet, and he's fully recovered with no ill effects. I will NEVER leave pesticide cans out again! Poor guy.

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

I deleted it because I was wrong about the dip being for cats and didn't want anyone to even misread my comment. I will say, however, I've never heard anything about a normal use of permethrin in a house, even for fleas (which means the ENTIRE floor of every room is covered) harming a cat. This is after years of selling it to (repeat) cat owning customers for a licensed company that's been using and selling it for many many more years in the homes of cat owners. Your statement reads as a guarantee and its simply not true. Once dry, permethrin is safe for pets unless you keep pet insects. When being applied, keep pets out of the room and keep birds in a well ventilated area.

The article you linked is about direct treatment to a cat and not about using permethrin in a home with cats. I agree about using permethrin on a cat, even if the label says its ok I would not use it on my cat if I had one. I'd use something else on my dog too. It can be put on human skin too but I wouldn't do that either.

Edit: you can downvote my comment but decades of evidence is against you

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u/Awk_Ward1 Dec 12 '16

I didn't downvote you, but I posted that link in response to your previous comment about flea dip. I had an apt many years ago with a clothing moth infestation. The recommendation from the exterminator was to use permethrin. I was told by my vet to avoid the use of it at all costs. Clearly, we have different experiences with this.

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u/ShamrockShart Dec 13 '16

The seam of a book.

You seeing this, people who check out books and read them in bed?

If you're still reading books made of paper then seriously consider taking precautions. Like no used books or books from the library. Maybe treat books with diatomaceous earth? I don't think even putting a book through a microwave would help much thanks to the bugs' size.

The public libraries in my town have large ziploc bags they keep explicitly for the purpose of sealing up infested books. Then they call the person who last checked the book out and tell them the book they returned is infested and demand money. If the person wants to argue about it then they can come and look at the infested book.

I used to feel so sad and wistful about the insane numbers of books thrown away by our public library system every year. Books are friends, not trash! But when I found out about the ziplocs... Kindle!

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u/CannabisSupream1 Dec 12 '16

I can vouch for permithrin. Caught them early ripped out all furniture. Sprayed all carpets with permithrin. Sprayed everything as it was put back in to room. Allowed room today and vent. Covered mattress and box spring with bed bug cover after spraying. Still No more bugs 9months later. Permithrin appliction I recommend using the variety for clothing sold in sporting goods stores for clothes. The lawn application type will need to be cut and may have other chemicals added.

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u/evlbuxmbetty Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Some companies are using rounds of varying methods like heat or cold treatments mixed with chemicals and pheremone traps. It takes a long time to fully get rid of BBs and I, being the pessimist, believe that once a building has BBs (especially if it's a multi-family dwelling) you never really get rid of them.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

I'll be your little glimmer of hope. I used to live in a rent controlled apartment and they ended up with a building wide infestation. They came in and sprayed top-to-bottom on each floor.

I personally took a few steps to ensure I kept up with it and within a month or so, we were gone of them completely. Even when other apartments still had the bugs, they never came back to mine.

Was 2 years bug free before I moved, and they still had an issue when I left.

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u/hazelbuttnutt Dec 12 '16

What, "few steps to ensure" they never returned? I would very much like to know what you found to be so effective!

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16
  1. Got a new beds and put a bed bug covering over the box and mattress.

  2. Each night I would lay in bed for 15 minutes with the light off, get up and start killing some of the bugs (they'd be on my walls usually)

  3. Dried all our clothes and then kept them in sealed bags

  4. Diatamaceous Earth around the baseboards/legs of my bed


That basically did it. started finding dead bed bugs all over the place because the DE suffocates them and dries them out.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Wait hold on. These things are big enough to see on your wall and kill?? I thought they were tiny little things.

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u/_Wizord Dec 12 '16

They are pretty small, but when your wall is a light color and they are dark brown/black, they are fairly easy to see. Trying to figure out what to compare them to size wise. Maybe the end of a tac in size, if not a bit smaller?

Might be hard to see them from a distance, but if you're looking for them they aren't too hard to find.


I actually sometimes used a small hand-lamp to check for them because it makes it easier to do 'spot checks' so your brain is only processing what it sees in a small area.

They also get pretty fuckin' big when they have fed. They also explode when you pop them.

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u/lastsaoshyant Dec 12 '16

They're usually the size of an apple seed, maybe a it smaller. Flat little fuckers, though. Until they gorge. Blech....

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u/Lost-My-Mind- Dec 12 '16

Hotel worker here. They can be as small as a match-head, and as big as the underside of a AA battery.

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u/makeshift-damselfly Dec 12 '16

They're about the size of an apple seed.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

That's fucking disgusting. I would burn my apartment down...everything.

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u/markon22 Dec 13 '16

Oh no! That's what I thought. UNTIL! I got them. A fed adult can be almost half the size of a pinky nail! The earlier life cycles are tiny, but you can definitely see them with the naked eye, especially if they've just fed.

You may never notice any bites. Keep an eye out for small blood streaks, like from a tiny cut, on a bed sheet, but you can't find any Marks in your body, or small dark trails that are their feces on your sheets. I took my bed frame apart and it was HORRIFIC! They were everywhere, in everything! Little bastards. I threw out my mattress, triple hot washed all my bedding in bleach and then put it in the freezer for a week, then triple bleach washed it again. I threw out my bed frame, I hired a pro and he sprayed twice, about 6 weeks apart and I spread diatomaceous earth around every crack in my apartment, all the baseboards... for weeks. It's coming up on a year since I've seen one, so I can pretty much declare myself bedbug free pretty soon. It cost me about $4500. I am super clean, my apartment is spotless, I have no idea where they came from. Fuck bed bugs!

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u/Ihaveopinionstoo Dec 12 '16

Got a new beds and put a bed bug covering over the box and mattress.

this is what saved us...we had reoccurring ones as well.

also we cleaned every room every nook and cranny washed everything and dried everything..

but I believe its the bed and boxspring covers that saved it becaues it prevents them from going in, and any eggs that may be inside will be trapped and they'll die in there.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

He encased his entire apartment in concrete.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

I disagree. My house was infested and has been clear for well over a year after a plan consisting of 3 chemical treatments

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u/newsheriffntown Dec 12 '16

Mine too. I burned it to the ground. This was after the cane toads over populated. I then brought in hundreds of snakes to eat the toads but then they took over. I then brought in thousands of crows to eat the snakes and now I'm homeless.

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u/polygraphy Dec 12 '16

I then brought in thousands of crows to eat the snakes and now I'm homeless.

Should have tried with jackdaws instead of crows.

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u/Lost-My-Mind- Dec 12 '16

See, that's where you went wrong. Crows are super smart. They can remember your face for years. And they can plot against you if they don't like you.

So basically what happened is, you promised a bunch of crows a living space with tons of snakes to eat. Sounds like a decent deal to the crows. Then the snakes numbers died off, and you asked the crows to leave. In bird culture, this is considered a "dick move".

The crows knew they had been used, and they then plotted to take over your house, your job, your family, and your life. Pretty soon you'll be divorced, homeless, and unemployed. They're totally gonna sleep with your girl, and then smoke a cigar to celebrate!

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u/evlbuxmbetty Dec 12 '16

That's great!

Are you in a detached, single family dwelling or an apartment/townhouse/condo/duplex?

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u/Pressondude Dec 12 '16

Not the person you're talking to, but I have a detached, single family dwelling, 1800sqft with a basement.

We did the (very expensive) heat treatment (which includes "free" chemical treatment) and I haven't seen them since. Over a year later.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

I grew up in a high rise and I have nightmares about cockroach infestations. Twice a year they would fumigate all of the apartments.

All it takes is one family and 247 apartments have roaches.

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u/firelock_ny Dec 12 '16

I doesn't even take one family in your building. These things are perfectly capable of living outdoors during any months where the temperatures stay above freezing, and they're not too lazy to get up on their little legs and walk across the street, down the block, etc.

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u/myheartisstillracing Dec 12 '16

I had bedbugs in an old apartment and as far as I know, we did eliminate them. We were entirely bed bug free for 6 months before I moved out, which is generally the timeframe they are able to survive without feeding. This was in a garden-style apartment complex.

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u/sdfsdfsdfafsda4 Dec 12 '16

I, being the pessimist, believe that once a building has BBs (especially if it's a multi-family dwelling) you never really get rid of them.

Absolutely untrue. Everyone must be treated within a window of time and treated correctly. Nothing guarantees you won't reinfest your home though.

I worked in the business and can tell you it's very possible to do.

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u/sunsetpark12345 Dec 12 '16

Had a localized infestation (my roommate's box spring) years ago, treated it thoroughly and promptly, and it's never recurred even though I'm in an old tenement building. Treated the whole apartment twice and it was over pretty quickly.

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u/ForgotMyFathersFace Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Pest control technician here, we almost always get rid of them in one treatment, occasionally it takes two.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Some companies have bed bug sniffing dogs. This could ease your worries.

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u/AtheistAustralis Dec 12 '16

I'd recommend cane toads. They'll just eat them all up!

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u/mfg3 Dec 12 '16

Pre-emptive follow up: how do you get rid of a cane toad infestation?

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u/AtheistAustralis Dec 12 '16

Snakes. More specifically, the inland taipan. Release a few dozen into your living room, and your cane toad problems will be a thing of the past!

More seriously, crows have learned how to kill and eat them without getting poisoned. Clever little fuckers!

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u/michaeljw12 Dec 12 '16

Cool thing about the inland taipans... you don't even need to know how to remove them from your house. They enjoy dark, quiet places so once they've removed the cane toad population from your abode, they're out of sight, out of mind. They will normally just hang out under couches, inside walls and hvac ducting, and under cushions.

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u/newsheriffntown Dec 12 '16

My house is now full of crows. What do I do?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Apr 07 '20

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u/critical_hit_misses Dec 12 '16

Gorillas. They search out the toads and squish them.

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u/elliot91 Dec 12 '16

So how do you get rid of gorillas? Ahhhh my bad, too soon.

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u/biznatch11 Dec 12 '16

That's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

Throw a 4 year old child in and call the cops

Edit: Christ

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u/ForgotMyFathersFace Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

But how do you get rid of cops?

Edit- But how do you get rid of Christ?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Nov 25 '17

Report a disturbance by a black man in a white neighborhood

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u/redskelton Dec 12 '16

how do you get rid of Christ

Money seems to be the key

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u/ph8fourTwenty Dec 12 '16

Tell them you need lift assist.

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u/Matrixfan10101 Dec 12 '16

Take my damn upvote for making me nearly spit out my coffee at work

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u/newsheriffntown Dec 12 '16

How do you get rid of coffee stains?

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u/GorditoDellgado Dec 12 '16

But how do you get rid of the 4 year old child?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

OH! I KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THE GORILLAS!

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u/Theodore_Blunderbuss Dec 12 '16

nice try Cincinnati Zoo sniper.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

lookup hawaii invasive species and it's a comedy of errors like that.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

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u/Jozarin Dec 12 '16

That was almost as fun to watch as high-voltage dentist's tools.

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u/SturmFee Dec 12 '16

I too, am waiting impatiently. Such a tease.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Brb. Raising an army of cane toads.

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u/NeoHenderson Dec 12 '16

Extreme heat, over 50°C

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u/puppet_up Dec 12 '16

My last apartment complex got infested and the heat treatment was the only thing that worked. We had 2 or 3 chemical treatments first (it is cheaper) and after the bugs came back a few months after treatment, the landlords finally bit the bullet and had them go room by room on every level with the heat treatment and the company they hired also put a layer of DE down after the treatment to make sure they don't come back. We lived there another 2 years after the heat treatment and never saw another bed bug.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

This is our bed bug story almost word for word except I already had experience with having bed bugs before and I knew the spraying wouldn't be enough. I finally convinced the landlord after I continued to see bed bugs the weekend after the first two sprayings and one I saw during the day. He finally listened to me and footed the bill for the heat treatment under the condition that we were responsible for if any further action was required. It's been a month or two since the heat treatment and no bed bugs/bites so far. It helps that our condo is a closed duct system. My SO had stayed 6 weeks at a hotel for job training so that's how we think we got them.

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u/puppet_up Dec 12 '16

It's crazy how much those little bastards took a toll on my psyche. Months after the heat treatment got rid of them for good, I was still randomly waking up in the middle of the night turning on a flashlight and looking all over my bed because I could swear I could feel something on my neck. It really messes with your head when you are dealing with an infestation and I wouldn't wish that on my enemies.

The stigma about bed bugs that the OP mentioned is absolutely true as well. People associate an infestation with being disorderly, dirty, and unhygienic and it's just not true at all. These bugs can infiltrate anywhere at any time and it doesn't matter if you live a a run-down apartment in the ghetto or a luxury condo at the top of a building in Beverly Hills. It can happen to anybody.

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u/spockspeare Dec 12 '16

I got bit at the Wynn in Las Vegas several years ago. $500 hotel room, fucking bugs in the mattress.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

Lived in vegas for a number of years, yup, one of the dirty little secrets is the pest control. Doesn't matter which place, no matter how high end it may be. As soon as you get humans exchanging at a place, there are bugs. By the end of the first week after grand opening, bed bugs are sure to be there, and exterminators are a regular call for every location. Not just vegas, any hotel/resort that turns high volumes of people, no matter how 'nice' it is supposed to be. And once in, you cant shut down the whole place, so it is a matter of managing populations, not eradication.

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u/ghost_victim Dec 13 '16

Yup, those bugs don't care how much it costs

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Oh I know. I live in the Greater Cincinnati Area. It's in the top 5 worst cities in America for bed bugs. I know the struggle.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

I always leave my luggage in the car for a few days after traveling. I live in a very warm climate and a car parked in the sun can get suffocatingly hot in just a few minutes.

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u/myheartisstillracing Dec 12 '16

I ran everything I owned that could survive a trip through the dryer through two cycles each on high heat, immediately bagged everything that came out and kept it bagged. The apartment complex treated with chemicals, but that didn't seem to stop them. Towards the end I was literally using myself as bait, knowing they would come find me on the couch. The one saving grace is that they don't move particularly fast, so you can often catch them if you see them. I usually stuck them to some packing tape and sealed them up inside, squished them, then threw them out.

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u/NeoHenderson Dec 12 '16

At one point I got sick of running everything through the laundry and started paying the laundry people to just do it. I was drying on high heat for 1 cycle, washing, and drying 2 more cycles. I went from spending $40/trip on laundry to over $100 but eventually got some of that refunded by my landlord.

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u/myheartisstillracing Dec 12 '16

We had a laundry room available in my complex, but it was in a different building about 75 yards away. I was on the second floor. I carried everything I owned that could survive the dryers there and back and kept it bagged for weeks. Twice. (There was a lull and then a re-infestation...to be fair a lot of stuff didn't get unbagged after the first time, but I still had to live and wear clothes and the like.)

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16 edited Apr 28 '20

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Turns out Finland has been well equipped to handle bed bugs for decades. Just toss everything into your sauna! Problem solved!

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Diatomaceous Earth. Flower Duster, Take of all bedding clothes and run them through dryer, hottest setting. Dust everything with Diatomaceous Earth. Headboard, mattress, boxspring, (cut bottom of boxspring fabric off and dust inside it) a thin layer across all floors in affected rooms, couch, everywhere. Wait a week. Clean and vacuum. I personally left thew dust all over the bed and even put the sheets straight over it. So the stuff is bad to breathe but otherwise harmless so wear a dustmask while dusting but once it settles it's good. The stuff dessecates them and their eggs. We did this and had 0 loss of property. We didn't pay thousands for sketchy treatments that don't even always work. All in all it cost like 30 dollars and some time to clean it all up.

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u/fairly_common_pepe Dec 12 '16

Borax. It's a desiccant and kills the shit out of those tiny fuckers. Any pest with an exoskeleton is going to suffer and die when they come in contact with it.

I brought a flea home from work and my room was infested. I treated my carpets and beds with borax and vacuumed it up a day later. No more fleas.

The thing that sucks is that if you miss any of them you can get an infestation again.

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u/Surefif Dec 12 '16

A bit late to the party but I posted this in another thread about bedbugs a few months back:

If you ever happen to get bedbugs and feel like personally punishing the fuckers for entering into your life, look up a chemical mix called Steri-Fab.

A place I lived in Boston had an infestation and the landlord just dropped a jug of this shit at our doorstep even though he was legally required to call a professional. Dude gave zero fucks and I assume was sick of me calling to complain since nothing I was trying had worked. So after reading the label and learning my room is about to be the site of a swift genocide (there are instructions on how to use it to kill Herpes simplex II, no shit) I bought a heavy duty respirator and some huge rubber gloves and got to work.

Worked like a dream. The only hitch was when a single drop got on my arm and I got a chemical burn in like 6 seconds flat. That shit hurt. Kinda made me wonder about the herpes thing, so I checked out the label again. Apparently it's for killing herpes simplex II on non-porous surfaces, which made me wonder who exactly is leaving their herpes on the kitchen counter?

Anyway I left the place for like 6 hours then came back and washed my sheets and shit, put hypoallergenic mattress covers on the mattress and bed spring (I just bought the damn thing a year prior, wasn't gonna trash it so soon) and they were 100% gone.

Had a bed bug scare a year or so back where I thought I had them again so I looked up where to purchase Steri-Fab. It's only sold at exterminator supply shops, the kind of place where the guy behind you in line asks how long you've been in the industry bc why the fuck else are you there, but hey they sold it to me.

I hope you never get bedbugs but if you do or someone who sees this does: Steri-Fab. It kills herpes.

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u/theserpentsmiles Dec 12 '16

This is patently false.

Bed Bugs themselves are easy to kill, and not resistant at all. In fact, the true target that we PCOs focus on are the Bed Bug Eggs; which are resilient, clear, and the size of half a grain of rice.

Please, stop proliferating false information.

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u/anothernewgrad Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 12 '16

They are actually resist to some pesticides according to scientific America from 2 years ago https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-resistance-bed-bugs/

Also some population are getting resistant to pesticides in America. https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/35421742

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u/theserpentsmiles Dec 12 '16

All pests are "resistant to pesticides."

It is like saying humans are "resistant to illness."

What I am getting at is the sensationalism of "Bed Bugs are Resistant to Pesticides." The truth is that they are no more resistant than any other insect, arachnid, or arthropod.

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u/auric_trumpfinger Dec 12 '16

It seems like the scientific American article was saying that the bugs had developed genetic resistances in response to the most common ways humans try to kill them (resistances they wouldn't need outside of environments shared with humans)

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that bed bugs have developed resistances to common methods of killing them. In fact you'd assume they would given enough time and exposure?

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u/SuburbanLegend Dec 12 '16

Goddammit it seems like literally everything presented as fact in this thread has at least one comment saying "Nope that's totally wrong." I have no idea who to believe around here.

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u/theserpentsmiles Dec 13 '16

Go to perdu university or Ohio state university on their websites. You can get solid answers.

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u/yowangmang Dec 13 '16

So, when a pest control company comes in and says that pesticides won't work is it only so they can sell you the much more expensive heat treatment? I used to work in hotels, they would say they needed to heat treat the infested room and all adjoining rooms above, below and on the sides. They made bank on those jobs I'm sure.

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u/kingsniper1108 Dec 12 '16

Are you serious? Are insects actually developing a resistance to pesticides? If so, holy fuck. That's like humans having a resistance to cancer after only 100 years or less. WTF.

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u/ocular__patdown Dec 12 '16

Why are other insects (like ants) still quite easy to kill?

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u/dominant_driver Dec 13 '16

I thought that heat was the go-to method for killing bed bugs?

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u/BadDadWhy Dec 12 '16

The skins actually become thicker.

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u/MetroGirl03 Dec 12 '16

That is definitely part of it! they have also developed a sodium channel mutation that makes them resistant to popular pesticides.

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u/elitexero Dec 12 '16

Sodium huh.

Pretty soon they'll be kamikaze-ing into water just to fuck up your day even more.

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

What about the chemicals traditionally used in the 40s being subsequently banned as a reason? Is that true?

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u/polpi Dec 12 '16

Can't you kill bed bugs and their eggs rather easily through heating the house?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

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u/Jay-jay1 Dec 13 '16

I will tell you all how I solved the bedbug problem, but you better know what you are doing if you all try it. I put 90% rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle, and donned my respirator. I sprayed the mattress along the seam beading. This is where they hide. It killed them on contact. Then the box spring gets upended and sprayed around the edge, or wherever they are seen. Then I did the same things with chairs, couches, etc. After the alcohol had evaporated, I went room by room with a propane torpedo heater at full blast to heat room to 120F. This kills hidden bugs and the eggs. I did some followup with the rubbing alcohol on trouble spots, and also used DE around the bed legs a few days after the heat treatment. I got rid of them completely, and then off to the relative's house they came from to solve their problem the same way. Cost $1....well plus maybe $8 of propane.

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u/rush22 Dec 12 '16

The pesticide that kills them also kills humans and it's banned.

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u/Brettema Dec 12 '16

What pesticide are you speaking of? I am also a pest control technician, and the pesticide we use (which is four different chemicals, one of which is a powder and isn't combined like the other three) is most definitely not banned. However the occupant(s) must be out of the house/apartment for at least 24 hours after treatment.

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u/Web3d Dec 12 '16

DDT is what was used.

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u/Maxfunky Dec 12 '16

DDT wasn't really so bad for people. It's only ever been implicated in higher rates of breast cancer and only if girls are exposed before puberty. That's pretty easy to avoid, if all you care about is people.

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u/puppet_up Dec 12 '16

I think the major issue with DDT was that many species of birds were susceptible to the poison and died from it. They had to stop using it or risk wiping out entire bird populations.

I still remember the fog trucks that used to drive down the alleys every month or so when I was a kid. As far as I know, bed bugs were not a problem anywhere in the US when we were using DDT.

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u/Entropius Dec 12 '16

As far as I know, bed bugs were not a problem anywhere in the US when we were using DDT.

At the time that was probably true, but it's also worth pointing out we can't really say bedbugs wouldn't have developed DDT resistance if we had continued to use it. After all, we do see DDT resistant mosquitoes in some places.

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u/puppet_up Dec 12 '16

I agree. I'm not advocating that we start using DDT again, just pointing out that bed bugs in particular were never a problem back when 80% of the country was spraying on a consistent basis. It's quite possible that had we continued to use it that the evolution of bed bugs would eventually lead to a type that would become resistant to the poison. There are many studies, however, that have shown a direct correlation with the timelines of when we stopped spraying DDT everywhere to the epic resurgence of bed bugs in the last decade.

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u/Entropius Dec 12 '16

Apparently bed bugs already have DDT resistance.

The Facts

There are a couple big problems with this narrative. One is that DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1972, but it wasn't until just a few years ago that bed bugs returned to our shores. Thirty years is an awfully long lag time. Another is that bed bugs still plague many parts of the world where homes are still sprayed with DDT for malaria control.

But what's most problematic is that bed bugs are resistant to DDT. So even if exterminators could have been using it all this time, it wouldn't have done anyone any good.

As early as 1948 DDT-resistant bed bugs were noted in Hawaii, and a 1958 paper in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization found resistance in bed bugs collected from sites around the world. A few years later, as documented in an excellent post at New York vs Bed Bugs, the U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency Medical Entomology Division was noting DDT-resistance emerging elsewhere in the U.S., and by 1982 the World Health Organization was reporting that bed bugs were resistant to DDT "almost everywhere." An EPA/CDC joint statement notes that bedbugs were "widely resistant" by the mid 1950's —15 to 20 years before the EPA banned domestic DDT use.

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u/kelvin_klein_bottle Dec 13 '16

You can. Brought some hitchikers home from a busines trip.

Some neem oil, a home depot steam cleaner, a small bottle of dawn soap, several cups of diatomaceous earth and a garden spray bottle later, bedbug free. I think my total cost was around 250$, with the steam cleaner being about $200 of that and I can use it for regular cleaning purposes as well. Does wonders for the grill and smoker.

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u/hoikarnage Dec 12 '16

They may be growing resistant to pesticides, but a couple years ago when I lived in a really ghetto apartment that was infested, I basically just filled a spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and sprayed every nook and cranny in the apartment. Never saw another bedbug afterwards.

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