Destruction of bedbugs: reviews from people and important practical nuances

Self-extermination of bedbugs in the house is quite a difficult task for an unprepared person. Although it is generally accepted that bed bugs can be poisoned in the same way as cockroaches, this is only partly true. Bed bugs actually die from exposure to the same aerosol insecticides and sprays that destroy cockroaches, but no amount of gels, poisoned traps, baits with boric acid and various folk remedies (for the most part) will help destroy them.

The reason for this lies in the specific feeding habits of bed bugs. These insects can only pierce the skin of humans and some domestic animals and then suck blood. They will not eat various baits or run into placed houses with odorous attractants, and this should be taken into account first of all by those who decide to take on the task of exterminating bedbugs on their own.

Reviews from even experienced parasite exterminators clearly demonstrate all the difficulties in fighting them.

Review

“I know first-hand what killing bed bugs is like, and when I read other reviews, it makes me laugh. She poisoned them herself, first in the first apartment, then in the second, then in her mother’s house, and this summer - in the country. Tenacious creatures, they are not always destroyed the first time. Previously, dust helped very well - we scattered it along the baseboards and under the beds when we left home. Then it was banned. At my mother’s, I poisoned bedbugs with Cucaracha. It smells bad and needs to be diluted in a certain concentration. She brought me out twice, with a week break between them. In the second apartment, when I needed to poison, I couldn’t find Cucaracha, I bought Get, I liked it better because it has no smell. You spray everything with it once, and then you don’t need to wash the floors for a week. And that’s all, you just collect dead bedbugs. But Goeth is expensive. Therefore, when bedbugs later appeared at the dacha, I bred simple Karbofos. And this is what I will say - this is the best remedy in general. It smells, of course, but it reliably poisons bedbugs, and it costs a penny. I don’t think I’ll ever run into them again, but if that happens, I’ll poison them with Karbofos.”

Elena Pavlovna, Moscow

Signs of bedbugs in an apartment

Bed bugs are blood-sucking insects that feed primarily on human blood. They settle in private houses, apartments, hotels and other premises where people sleep. You can understand the presence of bedbugs by the following signs:

• Bites on the human body. They are discovered in the morning: bedbugs only bite sleeping people. They are usually arranged in rows because the insects make several bites in a row. The area of ​​skin around the bite becomes red and swollen. There is severe itching in this area.
• Blood stains on the bed. Blood from a wound from a bug bite does not stop flowing immediately. When a sleeping person tosses and turns in his sleep, she smears herself on her underwear and bed. Therefore, in the morning you can see a few drops of blood on the sheet and blanket.
• Smell. A house infested with bedbugs smells of dampness, mustiness, and fermented fruit. The more bed bugs there are in an apartment, the stronger the smell. If the owners get used to it, then the guests will definitely feel it.

The surest sign that bedbugs live in an apartment is the detection of the insect itself. To see a living parasite, you need to lie motionless at night for a long time, not sleep and wait for bites. Dead bedbugs are easier to spot. They are usually found crushed in bed in the morning. Bedbugs that are saturated with blood become slow and clumsy. Therefore, a sleeping person can accidentally crush them by simply turning on the other side.

Bedbugs have a flat, round body, slightly pointed at the back and colored brown. They have 3 pairs of legs and one pair of whiskers. Body length reaches 5–6 mm in males and 7–8 mm in females. Females are more rounded than males. Bedbugs that have drunk blood take the shape of an elongated oval and acquire a dark brown, almost black color.

Attention! In an apartment where bed bugs live, you can also find shells from eggs and shells shed by larvae. The first have a length of up to 1 mm and the shape of an elongated oval. The shells look like husks, colored in different shades of brown.

Characteristics of the drug Blockade Antiklop

Blockade Antiklop is a professional insecticide against bed bugs, used by both professional disinfectors and the public at home. It has a light yellow tint and a faint fragrance; the active ingredient contains 5% acetamiprid.

Acetamiprid is a neonicotinoid insecticide that acts on postsynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the central nervous system, resulting in seizures, paralysis, and death.

The product belongs to class 3 of moderately hazardous substances when administered into the stomach and to class 4 of slightly hazardous substances when in contact with the skin. The residual effect of the drug on surfaces is insignificant.

A working aqueous emulsion is prepared at the rate of 10-50 ml per 1 liter of warm water. The working solution must be used within 6 hours from the moment of preparation. Consumption rate 100 ml per 1 m2.

Where do bedbugs hide in an apartment during the day?

During the day, parasites hide in their hiding places. They crawl out only at night, when there is no frightening activity in the premises. Therefore, it is difficult to find where bedbugs live. But they always settle closer to the place where a person sleeps. After all, bedbugs are slow insects. The less time the pest spends searching for food, the higher the chances of survival.

Parasites cannot fly, so they cannot travel long distances. They move along surfaces with the help of their paws. A hungry individual covers a distance of 1 meter in 1 minute. It takes her from 4 to 10 minutes to find a free area of ​​skin, bite through it and drink blood. After saturation, the speed of the insect decreases by 2–2.5 times to 0.4–0.5 meters per minute. Therefore, even those bugs that live under the mattress will need from 6-8 to 14-16 minutes to saturate.

Bed

Bed bugs usually hide in the bed structure. For parasites, this shelter has ideal conditions due to its close proximity to humans. They often live in the following places:

• the space between the mattress and the headboard (headboard);
• the inner space of the mattress (if there are unsewn holes);
• bed frame, slats.

In rare cases, bedbugs hide under sheets, behind and inside pillows. They live under the bedding, if the bed is never remade, the pillows are not moved, but they sleep on them.

Sofa

The second most popular place where bed bugs live in an apartment is the sofa. Usually bedbugs infest it if they sleep on it. Here's where insects can hide from humans:

• Spring block. Bedbugs enter through damage to the upholstery. They will not be able to gnaw holes in the tissue on their own due to the structural features of the oral apparatus.
• Upholstery folds, gaps between the horizontal and vertical parts of the sofa.
• Drawers - If the space under the sofa is used to store things that are rarely taken out, bed bugs can take up residence there.

Attention! If people do not sleep on the sofa, bedbugs very rarely infest it.

Soft chair

Upholstered furniture provides good shelter for bedbugs. But insects are even less common in chairs, because people don’t sleep on them. They are rarely found even in a reclining chair used for sleeping. After all, due to daily assembly and disassembly, bedbugs run the risk of being noticed. If they still decide to settle in the chair, then they crawl under the upholstery, into the folds, and into the storage box.

Furniture and the space behind it

All objects in the apartment move. This does not apply only to furniture, which is moved only when the interior is updated. Therefore, the space between the walls and the back wall is a habitat with suitable conditions for the life of bedbugs.

Here's where you can find insects:

• behind the closet;
• behind the chest of drawers;
• behind the wall in the living room;
• behind the bedside table;
• behind the bed, sofa, chair (if they are located against the wall).

You can see bedbugs not only behind furniture, but also inside it. Pests hide in closets among bedding and underwear, clothes, and other things. For bedbugs, it is important that stored items are not disturbed. Otherwise, they will find a quieter place.

Interior decoration

Crevices in the floor, walls and ceiling are secluded places where bedbugs hide. They create colonies:

• behind the baseboard;
• under the wallpaper;
• on carpet;
• under MDF panels;
• behind door jambs;
• under a suspended ceiling.

Bedbugs usually live under the decoration in the bedroom in the immediate vicinity of the bed or sofa. But when there are a large number of individuals, they hide in remote places. The older the finish, the higher the likelihood of it becoming infested with parasites.

Interior decor

Bedbugs in an apartment hide even behind decorative elements. Very often during pest control they are found under paintings, photographs, panels. Bed bugs can be found under wall or floor carpet.

Interior textiles

Curtains and curtains become a habitat for bedbugs if they are thick, dense, and have many folds. It is important that the curtains are not touched. If they cover a window that is regularly opened, bedbugs will not dare to settle in them.

Wiring and electrical appliances

Sockets, switches and electrical appliances are rarely inhabited by bed bugs. But sometimes this happens. Therefore, they also need to be checked before pest control treatment, which will help get rid of pests in the house.

What is the lifestyle of bedbugs?

A parasitic lifestyle is characteristic of both sexes. Leads a nocturnal lifestyle, and during the day hides in the cracks of walls, baseboards (upper and lower), under wallpaper, in the grooves of furniture, mattresses, sockets, books, parquet, clothes, beds, electronics, in dark and warm places, in bird cages and animals. But with severe hunger and a large population of bedbugs, they crawl out and attack even during the day. Bedbugs do not have communal nests, but they do gather in safe, dark places near food (humans). These places can be visually identified by dark spots of bedbug excrement, along with which their eggs and shed skins of larvae can be found. Bedbugs take root well in almost any room, regardless of its sanitary condition. In the dark, bedbugs come out of their shelter and attack a person (suck blood on open areas of the body), usually from 12 o'clock to 8 o'clock in the morning. Bedbugs feed exclusively on blood.

The average lifespan of bedbugs is one year; maximum - up to 14 months. In the absence of food, bedbugs can fall into a state of suspended animation, in which, at sufficiently low ambient temperatures, they remain viable for more than one year. In unfavorable conditions, bedbugs are able to migrate between rooms through ventilation ducts, and in the summer - along the outer walls of houses. An adult bug travels over 1 m in one minute, a nymph (bug larva) - up to 25 cm.

Bedbugs have a well-developed sense of smell and drink blood at all phases of development. To move to the next instar, the larva must drink a full portion of blood; only after this can another molt occur. The first instar larva drinks about 1 mg of blood per feeding; subsequent ages are correspondingly larger; an adult female drinks up to 7 mg. Usually feeds regularly every 5-10 days, mainly on human blood, but can also attack domestic animals, birds, rats and mice. In rural areas, they often crawl from infected bird houses (sparrows, swallows, wagtails, etc.) into houses.

Bedbugs are able to survive in a limited temperature range. Adult bedbugs do not tolerate sudden drops or increases in ambient temperature. Like the larvae, at -17°C they live only for a day; at +45°C they die after 45 minutes

Rating of places for bedbugs to nest in an apartment

Here is a rating of places where house bugs live in apartments:

Place for a person to sleep (bed, sofa) - 71%. Moreover, in 35% of cases you will find bedbugs in the spring block, in 26% - in or behind the mattress, in 10% - behind the headboard or in the frame.

Upholstered furniture (sofa, armchair that is not used for sleeping) - 22%.

Wall finishing (under wallpaper, panels, in cracks) - 3%.

Floor covering (carpet, carpet, baseboard) - 2%.

Wardrobe, bedside tables, chests of drawers - 1%.

Electrical appliances, electrical wiring components and other places in the house that are not typical for bedbugs - 1%.

How to find bedbug hiding places in your home

To get rid of bedbugs, first look for their nests. Since in 7 cases out of 10 bedbugs in an apartment settle next to the place where a person sleeps, the search begins with the bed or sofa. The following signs will help you find where insects live faster:

• Smell . Take a sniff. Try to find a room in your apartment that smells stronger of fermented berries. In most cases this will be the bedroom.
• Excrement s. Dark, almost black spots can be found near the nest - this is digested human blood.
• Husk. Bed bugs molt 5 times during their life cycle from hatching the egg to reaching sexual maturity. Therefore, reddish-brown husks often fall out of the nests in the form of small shells that the larvae have shed.

In an apartment, bedbugs often make not one, but several nests. They may have different localizations. Therefore, you need to inspect all the rooms in the apartment, all upholstered furniture, cabinets, decoration and other items. Finding bedbug habitats is an important step in the fight against parasites.

Mechanical methods

The most common are two mechanical folk methods. To implement the first, you will need a vacuum cleaner, to use the second, a steam generator. In the first case, bedbugs can only be “collected” in a garbage bag built into household appliances. In the second, kill insects, and not only sexually mature ones. One bad thing: both methods will steal a lot of time from the home “exterminator”, without giving any guarantee of effectiveness.

Vacuum cleaner

Peculiarity. By combining the mechanical method with the chemical method, you can get a pretty good result. To lure bedbugs out of the hiding places in which they are safely hidden, you will need ammonia. Bloodsuckers cannot stand the smell of this liquid. It is enough to place saucers with a smelly liquid near places where insects accumulate, and the living creatures will immediately begin to leave their homes. You can make the composition stronger.

What we do

1. Prepare the emulsion according to the following recipe: mix 100 g of denatured alcohol and 50 g of ammonia.
2. Pour the emulsion into a spray bottle and spray the room.
3. We turn on the vacuum cleaner, remove the brush attachment, and use the tube to quickly collect insects that have awakened from the aroma spreading throughout the apartment into the dust collector.

Steam generator

Peculiarity. The method is environmentally friendly, accessible and easy to implement. And also quite effective. It is noteworthy that the steam generator is capable of eliminating even eggs by destroying their shell. True, the method cannot be used near outlets. And condensation settling on the surface of the furniture can negatively affect its upholstery and further operation.

What we do

1. We turn on the steam generator and start from the most remote places: we steam curtains, cornices, joints of walls and furniture, niches behind paintings, cracks and other hard-to-reach locations.
2. Then we proceed to textile processing.
3. We carry out liquidation activities daily for several weeks, paying special attention to places where insect nests have been observed.
4. We refrain from wet cleaning until the treatments are completely completed.
5. We carefully inspect all things and pieces of furniture so as not to lose sight of a single parasite.

Questions and answers

People who encounter bedbugs in an apartment for the first time have a lot of questions. Let's look at the most popular questions and answer them.

Once the nest is found, can we not look anymore?

No. The number of bedbugs could increase, and their colony could split. With a rapid increase in numbers, insects spread throughout the apartment. To get rid of bedbugs at home, you need to find all the places where they live.

Mikhail D.E.

Exterminator, 15 years of experience

Ask a Question

If you find a nest far from your sleeping place, there is a high probability that it is not the only one in the house. Check other hiding spots closer to the bed. After all, bedbugs colonize remote areas after the food source has run out of free nesting places.

The nest was found and destroyed. Will bedbugs bother you anymore?

Fighting bedbugs using the “sneaker” method will not give a positive result. Physical destruction only helps to curb population growth. And treatment with household insecticides in the form of aerosols only affects larvae (nymphs) and adults (imagoes). Insecticides do not affect eggs. Therefore, after a few days or weeks, new individuals will appear from them. Because of them, the treatment is carried out again. Otherwise, the apartment will be re-infected.

Local control of bedbugs in found nests is ineffective. Disinsection of all premises will be required with the involvement of a specialist from the sanitary and epidemiological station. With the help of modern technologies for spraying insecticides, complete destruction of bedbugs is achieved.

Herbs against bloodsuckers

“Poison” does not come from the word “grass.” But if you think about it, you can identify an obvious connection between representatives of the flora and the destruction of parasites. It is not possible to eliminate bed bugs with the help of plants, but it is easy to scare them away. The table will tell you which herbs can “poison” blood-sucking insects.

Table - Plants against bedbugs

Plant repellents work well as preventive measures. But they are not able to drive bedbugs out of the house once and for all. Most likely, the insects will find a secluded corner, protected from unpleasant herbal odors. And when the “insecticide” plants lose their aromatic properties, the pests will return.

It is useless to fight bedbugs with garlic. Insects are not disgusted by its pungent smell.