Bleach for bedbugs: are bedbugs afraid of it and won’t it be harmful for the family?

How to prevent bedbugs?

Bedbugs are insects that feed on blood. They are nocturnal, and the rest of the time they prefer to hide from view. Parasites do not like sunlight and artificial light, so they try to hide from it, often choosing human housing. They make their way not only into wooden houses, but also do not stop in front of stone buildings, so their appearance no longer surprises even residents of high-rise buildings.

Bedbugs settle in warmth and away from lighting. As a shelter, they prefer to choose pieces of furniture, baseboards, walls and wallpaper, as well as book bindings. The appearance of several individuals already poses a significant danger - thanks to very rapid reproduction, over time, a whole colony of blood-sucking insects can appear within the walls of your house. And if you don’t take care of how to get rid of bedbugs in your apartment while there are only a few of them, in a few months you will not be able to do without a special team of exterminators.

What do bedbugs look like?

There are about 40,000 species of bedbugs in the world, not all of which are considered pests. At home, bed bugs are most often found, but they cannot be called harmless.

Bed bugs grow to sizes of 9 mm, but males are usually a couple of millimeters smaller than females. The flat body of the bug can be yellow, brown or dark brown, depending on the saturation of blood. The insect's head has a proboscis, with which bedbugs pierce the skin and feed.

Instead of teeth, there are bristles on the upper and lower jaws of bedbugs, and the jaws themselves perform two main functions in nutrition: through them not only blood enters the insect’s body, but also saliva is released for the bite.

Unlike fleas, bedbugs cannot jump high, but the tenacious notches on their legs and low weight are no less serious advantages. Thanks to them, the parasite can move along vertical planes, crawl along walls, ceilings and penetrate into a person’s home.

Peak bedbug activity occurs between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. During this period, it is much easier for him to get close to a sleeping person or pet to eat. It only takes 10 minutes for the insect to get enough blood for the next 5 days and hide until the next meal. When a bug becomes saturated with blood, its body grows, and its predator functions and reaction speed decrease. Therefore, it is during the period of satiety that he is most vulnerable and clumsy.

A good sense of smell is a bedbug’s secret weapon. He is able to sense a person at a distance of several meters.

Bedbugs reproduce rapidly - a female is capable of laying about 5 eggs in just 1 day, and more than 500 in her entire life. Such hordes settle in certain places:

Behind the baseboards
Inside and behind cabinets
In upholstered furniture
In carpets
In picture frames
In sockets
In cases with clothes
In the spines of books
In ventilation systems
In household appliances
In beds

Since pests like to hide in secluded corners, before getting rid of bedbugs in an apartment, they check all hard-to-reach places.

Insects live up to 14 months and during this time they can flood an apartment and become a real disaster for its residents.

How dangerous are bedbugs to humans?

Bedbugs are not just unfavorable neighbors, but dangerous creatures. In one night, a bug can make 7-10 painful bites that cause irritation and itching. In addition to the fact that bedbugs feed on human blood, they are carriers of allergies, infections and diseases that can lead to serious complications, including death.

The main danger of such a parasite appearing in the house is their hidden lifestyle and the absence of painful sensations after a bite in some people. Since bedbugs are active and feed at night, detecting their presence in the house during the day can be extremely problematic. All people react differently to bites: some experience redness and distinct marks, while others do not feel any discomfort at all.

Bedbug bites can lead to:

Skin redness
Itching and scabies
Urticaria
Dermatitis
Allergic reactions
Asthma
Anaphylactic shock
Insomnia
Skin infections

Despite the fact that bedbugs feed on blood, they cannot transmit HIV infection to humans during feeding.

Children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to parasite bites, since many medications are contraindicated for them. If allergies develop, you should immediately consult a doctor to get appropriate help.

Pets can also become victims of bedbugs. Most often, insects attack small animals - rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, parrots. Dogs and cats are less likely to be attacked due to their thicker skin and denser fur. Redness, bumps and lumps appear at the bite sites, and hair may fall out. But these signs do not always indicate bedbugs - other insects can also be the culprits. Only a veterinarian can point out the source and advise how to get rid of fleas or ticks.

Efficiency

Bedbugs are afraid of the chlorine smell, and if bleach or solution gets directly on the insect's shell, you can count on its death. When someone is interested in whether it is possible to remove bedbugs with bleach, the answer for them will be encouraging.

This can be achieved by pouring bleach directly onto the bug infestation or treating the area where insects accumulate with a chlorine solution.

With such manipulations, a minimum number of parasites are destroyed, and survivors avoid subsequent contact with the harmful powder. The smell of chlorine will repel them.

And when 3-4 days have passed after treatment, the surviving parasites will begin to attack people again. If the owners are interested in whether bleach helps against bedbug larvae and eggs, then the answer can also comfort them. Even they cannot withstand contact with powder.

Why do they appear?

The existence of bed mites is inextricably linked with the proximity of people, whose epidermis is the main source of nutrition for these parasites. Human housing is ideal for dust mites - optimal temperature and humidity are constantly maintained.

Ticks most often appear in bed because it is here that a person leaves most of the particles of dead epithelium that fall off the body.

Another favorable factor for ticks is the accumulation of dust in which females lay eggs. The less often the house is cleaned, the more bed parasites will appear there. Each female is capable of laying about 20 eggs at a time.

Mechanism of action on bedbugs

Chloride of lime is a dry, white powder with a distinct, pungent odor. It contains a minimum of 28% chlorine. When the powder comes into contact with water or air, the chlorine quickly evaporates.

Chlorine powder is stored in a dry place in a container with a tight lid. And the solutions are in dark glass bottles.

When treated with bleach with local exposure, it is possible to achieve the death of parasites due to their receiving burns incompatible with life.

Bleach helps against bedbugs and their offspring due to the following effects:

chlorine compounds get on the chitinous shell;
when interacting with moisture, acidic compounds are formed;
they destroy the parasite's shell and it dies.

Chlorine has a similar effect on the dense shell of eggs laid by bedbugs. But it is not possible to detect them and treat them with chlorine, since the eggs themselves are very small (up to 1 mm) and translucent.

Grandma's advice

Such a question as: how to get rid of bedbugs using folk remedies is very relevant today, since people have been trying different ways for a long time to get rid of these vile parasites.

Kerosene in cans for bedbugs

To combat bedbugs at home, you may need the following things:

Boiling water;
Kerosene;
Turpentine;
Vinegar;
Sagebrush;
Transformer oil;
Steam generator.

To get rid of bedbugs, you can use one of three effective recipes.

For the solution you will need to mix kerosene and turpentine, one hundred milliliters each, and twenty grams of naphthalene.
You need to mix turpentine with water in a ratio of one to ten. To obtain an emulsion, you need to add no more than forty milliliters of green soap and half as much kerosene to the solution;
You need to make a solution using forty milliliters of turpentine, twenty grams of phenol and three grams of sacilophic acid.

Any of the resulting solutions should be used to thoroughly treat the furniture, especially the mattress and bed.

Ridding a sofa from bedbugs at home

It is worth noting that sometimes people do not save at all with the help of folk remedies for getting rid of bedbugs; they spend many times more, since they do not know about the effectiveness of ready-made chemicals.

Pros and cons of the product

In some cases, bleach kills bedbugs and also has a number of other advantages:

purchasing a bleach solution or this substance in powder is not problematic and inexpensive;
bleach may be an effective temporary measure until the insecticidal service arrives;
the product is easy to use.

Chloride of lime in the open air quickly loses its disinfectant properties, so it is better to use it in dissolved form.

In addition, the product has significant disadvantages:

bleach is toxic to humans and pets;
If used carelessly, damage to furniture and decorative items is possible;
the substance has a sharp, specific odor that is difficult for many to tolerate.

This product is quite difficult to use locally, since it is difficult to determine where exactly the bedbugs are located - they are carefully hidden in the apartment.

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How to use

People without professional training can use bleach only for the purpose of repelling insects by smell. It is not advisable to try to destroy pests with this product. To clean the room from parasites, special attention should be paid to their nests.

Bleach can be sprinkled dry behind the baseboards. But it is better to use an aqueous solution of bleach to treat living space. A disinfectant solution is more convenient to use than powder. After proper treatment of the room, you can count on a decrease in bedbug activity.

To prepare a bleach solution, take 1 kg of the chemical compound and 10 liters of tap water.

Sequence of solution preparation:

Add a small amount of water to 1 kg of bleach in an enamel bucket and mix thoroughly with a wooden stick.
Then add so much more water to obtain a volume of 10 liters.
The bucket is covered with a tight lid and kept for 24 hours.
The settled liquid is carefully poured into a dark glass container and tightly closed with a lid.

Places where insects accumulate are treated with a bleach solution. A blood-sucking insect will not voluntarily crawl towards a chlorine solution, and a person cannot handle each insect manually.

If you properly treat the room, you can temporarily suppress the activity of bedbugs, but after a few days they will begin to bite the residents of this room with renewed vigor. To completely get rid of such parasites, this method must be used in combination with another.

Before starting processing, a person must make an effort and find bedbugs (a special concentration of insects).

Then you need to mechanically collect all the pests and their metabolic products. It is recommended to pre-treat their former habitats with boiling water, and then carry out chlorine disinfestation.

After handling the chlorine solution, you should also thoroughly vacuum all living areas, paying special attention to the far corners and niches. At the end, the bag should be thrown out of the vacuum cleaner.

After this, it is recommended to wash all floors and panels with bleach, and then additionally repeat the procedure by adding tincture of wormwood to the water.

When is it time to take action?

If you find bites on your skin, you need to think carefully. You shouldn’t immediately think about how and with what to kill bedbugs - you need to make sure of their presence. First, you should carefully examine the mattress or sofa, as well as all the nooks and crannies in the bedroom. It is almost impossible to notice small eggs, but adult insects usually sit side by side during the day in their nest, without running away from there.

There are other “symptoms” of the appearance of bedbugs:

Blood stains on bed linen.
Black crumbs (excrement) near the bed.
The presence of skins that are shed by the larvae.

Bites on the body are also quite unusual. As a rule, the bug leaves a “path” of 3-5 bites, this is the only way it is completely saturated. Typically, such marks can be seen on the neck, arms, chest and other open places.

Industrial products with chlorine

Chlorine compounds are actively used in the chemical industry for the production of insecticides:

Chlorpyrifos. The product is not intended for home use. It can only be used by trained exterminators. The premises are treated by irrigating contaminated surfaces and areas of high concentration of bedbugs. While working, specialists must use personal protective equipment.
Chlorpyrimark. The compound is highly toxic and is classified as a professional disinfectant. After treatment for another 45 days, the insecticide has a detrimental effect on all domestic parasites and their larvae.
Sychlor. This insecticide paralyzes the nervous system of insects. After treatment, the premises remain in effect for 45 days, so larvae that hatched later than the treatment period can also be destroyed. Depending on the degree of infestation, they use their own concentration of solution, which is used to spray the nests of bed bugs.

After treating the room with professional products, surfaces that people will touch are thoroughly washed with soap and soda solution (door handles, countertops).

It is possible to get rid of bed bugs at home, but not always!

Bed bugs are dangerous insects. They multiply quickly. Therefore, it is not easy to get rid of them. Bed bugs often hide in clothes, bedding, chairs, and mattresses. In order to reproduce and maintain their life cycle, they feed on the blood of animals and humans.

Description of bed mites

Although the bed mite is small in size, it can bring great trouble to a person with its presence in his bed.

Appearance and habitats

The bed tick has a flattened body, barely reaching 0.5 mm in size. It is protected by a durable chitinous cover that is resistant to water. The parasite moves on 4 pairs of thin legs equipped with sticky suction cups, providing the insect with stability on any surface.

Mites live in dust. With its particles, parasites penetrate into the cracks of upholstered furniture, become clogged in beds, pillows, and mattresses. Mites also settle in closets where bedding is stored. They may end up on bookshelves.

The main conditions for the existence of bed mites are a room temperature of at least +200C and high humidity.

How is it dangerous for humans?

Dust mites do not bite, so they cannot injure human skin. But this does not mean that they do not pose a health threat. The waste products of the parasite are dangerous for people.

The tick digestion process involves enzymes that break down epithelial particles. These proteins are then excreted from the insect's body in feces.

Conjunctivitis

Antigens present in excrement provoke an allergic reaction in humans. An allergy to bed mites manifests itself: