Controlling and Deterring Large Pests

Removing Bed Bug Infestations Without Resorting To Insecticides

28 April 2015 by Katrina Alvarez

Everyone dreads bed bugs, and for good reason. Unfortunately, bed bug sprays can trigger severe allergic reactions, respiratory illness and neurological conditions in people besides just killing these pests. In one highly publicised case, somebody even died because of chemical bed bug killer.

With this in mind, alternative methods of killing these nasty little pests are highly desirable. Your local pest control team will probably offer chemical-free services, but there are a number of other options as well. No one home treatment will be 100% effective, but by combining several methods and being thorough you stand a good chance of eradicating your bed bug problem.

Heat treatment

You may have read that turning your space heaters and thermostat up to maximum can kill all the bed bugs in a room, and this is true—provided you leave them on in the height of a desert summer. To kill a bed bug with heat, you need to raise its body temperature to above 49 degrees Celsius, so realistically the ambient room temperature needs to reach at least ten degrees above this to have a significant effect on bug numbers. With wall cavities, carpet underlay and other, cooler shelter for bugs to hide in, this really isn't feasible.

You can achieve more success with localised heat treatment. There are a number of ways to go about this:

• Steam - A steam cleaner or steam wallpaper remover is ideal for this. Keeping the steamer on the highest setting, apply constant heat and pressure to any and all affected areas. This is not limited to the bed—the carpets and curtains may also be infested, and any cracks or gaps in the walls or floorboards serve as happy little bed bug shelters. Repeat this for as long as necessary (which may take weeks for a thorough eradication), and make sure to keep the room well ventilated—replacing beg bugs with mould isn't a great improvement.
• Tumble dryers - Shoving your infested blankets and pillows in a clothes dryer for twenty minutes will reliably kill bed bugs. Unfortunately, it will do nothing for any bed bugs in the mattress or other parts of the room, and the cleansed objects will be quickly re-infested if bed bugs remain elsewhere.
• Hot boxes - These devices are large, heated boxes designed to apply heat treatment to larger objects, such as mattresses and box springs. Pest control services often rent these to the public at moderate prices. Alternatively, you may like to use the Australian summer to your advantage and wrap your belongings in black bin bags or other heat-absorptive materials, leaving them outside to 'bake'. Unfortunately, this doesn't affect any bed bugs in immobile objects or furnishings, and you might not want to rip up your carpets.

Bean leaves

A traditional remedy favoured in the Balkans of Eastern Europe, spreading the leaves of the kidney bean plant around your infested room or rooms can be remarkably effective. The kidney bean leaves bear sharp, microscopic hooks that snag and fatally wound passing bed bugs—a suitably nasty death for such a horrid pest. However, you're going to need a lot of bean leaves to effectively police a whole room, and unless you're a kidney bean farmer you may want to use this as a complementary treatment.

Freezing

Contrary to what many will tell you, the average home freezer will kill both bugs and eggs if set to the lowest temperature possible. However, you need to leave your infested belonging in there for a long time, possibly weeks, and like hot boxes they are limited in what they can accommodate.

Diatomaceous earth

This bizarre, highly versatile powder can be used as an effective bed bug killer, and like the bean leaves it gives them a satisfyingly gruesome death, The grains of diatomaceous earth are so small and fine that they damage the exoskeleton of bed bugs on contact, causing the bug to desiccate and eventually die of dehydration. 

Diatomaceous earth can be had relatively cheaply, but to effectively cover all affected areas of a room you will need a substantial amount. You should also be careful what kind of diatomaceous earth you buy—heat-treated varieties will be ineffective, as the grains are too large. You should also strive to keep the room's ambient humidity as low as possible in order to speed up the process.

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