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Organic bed bug control | (Read 1096 times) |
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bgreene
Posts: 6
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July 09, 2010, 12:51:58 PM |
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My college aged son if fighting bed bugs that he may have inherited when he moved into his new apartment. I read the great flea control thread and was wondering if anyone has had any luck with diatomaceous earth killing bed bugs?
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 5600
missoula, montana
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July 09, 2010, 01:08:22 PM |
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While I have never had to deal with bed bugs personally, I have heard from a lot of different people that say diatomaceous earth works great and the the chemical army is lame - frequently needing to be used over and over.
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Brenda Groth
Administrator
Posts: 1860
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July 09, 2010, 07:28:16 PM |
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i would try 20 mule team borax, full strength on everything..let it sit a long time and then vacuum it well and throw out the bag, and then retreat immediately..let is sit again and then vacuum in a day or so..
2 treatments will work with fleas..not sure about bedbugs..
can't hurt to try
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 5600
missoula, montana
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July 11, 2010, 09:48:23 PM |
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I think borax is great for mold control and getting odd smells out of laundry. It seems that I do think of borax as a solution for a lot of things. And I know that it works really well as bug control. About as well as DE. But! It is toxic. Just mildly toxic. I would gladly eat a quarter cup of DE but I would not eat a quarter teaspoon of borax.
I would not be comfortable putting borax on a mattress that I intend to lay on a lot later on.
But ..... I suspect many people would be quite comfortable doing so.
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Emerson White
Posts: 489
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August 18, 2010, 05:19:28 AM |
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I'm going to disagree with you on the efficacy of the chemical army. The highly toxic chemicals that were common place in the household in the 40's up on through the early 80's were highly effective on bed bugs , so much so that they were nearly eradicated from the continent (even though spraying was cut way back in the 70's and 80's the residuals kept on keeping on up until the mid 90's). The truth is that we now have fewer bed bugs than we did in the 30's but everyone is just getting reacquainted with them.
They are difficult to deal with with out the highly toxic chemicals, but should be dealt with. a steam cleaner will help to get them out of the folds of furniture and curtains, vacuum, DE, sticky barriers on the legs of beds and couches. bed bugs are elusive but fortunately very unlikely to pass diseases from one person to another. Cleaning out the clutter and sealing cracks and holes in woodwork can also work for reducing insect infestation. Be sure he washes his sheets regularly.
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Nature will always move towards a balance, unfortunately part of that process is that high concentration of vegetables in your garden going to pests and disease striking one or more trees in your perfectly balanced stand of trees.
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Joel Hollingsworth
Posts: 1623
zone 10: Oakland, CA
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August 18, 2010, 09:04:37 PM |
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I wonder if the residuals are still with us, only the bedbugs have evolved to resist them.
I recall reading that malaria would have been eradicated in the 1970s if DDT's effectiveness had not been squandered by farmers. DDT on bednets and the eaves of houses would not have been a problem for birds of prey, either.
I expect future generations will be angry at us for trivial use of penicillin and related compounds, too.
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"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
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 articles by paul wheaton: [raising chickens] [lawn care] [Sepp Holzer] [cast iron]
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