[MindMe]

1) don't pick up used furniture

2) Freezing will kill them but it has to be a solid 2+ weeks of freezing. Most insects can recover nicely from a couple days of freezing.

3) Heating works but you need 2+ hours of 40c. Not everything heats up evenly and you have to pretty much heat up the whole building. If it gets too warm in one local area for a bed bug, it will simply scurry away.

4) If you travel, don't put your luggage etc on a bed. Bed bugs like to live close to their source of food, ie you. You luggage is a great place for them to hide and go home with you.

http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/how-to-inspect-your-hotel-room-for-bed-bugs/

5) Don't believe the hype that "if we only brought back ddt!" etc. Bed bugs are back, in part, because they've developed huge resistance to most chemical pesticides, like DDT.

6) There are a billion hucksters out there trying to sell you woo like sonic devices or homeopathic blah blah. If there was a simple solution, it would be flying off the shelves of Canadian Tire, not being sold by a witch doctor's flyer on the side of a bus shelter.

7) Trust academic sources for advice, not woo crap like whale.to or Natural News.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef636.asp

 

[W. K. Lis]

Bedbugs video:

[video=youtube;4qx751dNw7Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qx751dNw7Q[/video]

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

5) Don't believe the hype that "if we only brought back ddt!" etc. Bed bugs are back, in part, because they've developed huge resistance to most chemical pesticides, like DDT.

I'm certainly not advocating the use of DDT but it would work on bed bugs, they never developed a resistance to it. DDT was banned decades ago due to threat to human life (namely, cancer), wildlife and the environment.

 

[MindMe]

I'm certainly not advocating the use of DDT but it would work on bed bugs, they never developed a resistance to it. DDT was banned decades ago due to threat to human life (namely, cancer), wildlife and the environment.

http://www.skepticnorth.com/2010/09/all-about-bed-bugs-2/

My source says no. They started to develop resistance back in the 1940s.

Complicating matters, the knockdown resistance mutation that confers tolerance to pyrethroids also confers resistance to DDT and vice versa, as both chemicals act by targeting sodium channels. Overuse of DDT in the 1940’s and 1950’s may have predisposed bed bug populations to later develop resistance to pyrethroids.

Another source:

http://membracid.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/new-research-on-bedbug-insecticide-resistance/

Offers a good summary of a peer reviewed paper about bed bugs and their likely resistance to ddt

Because DDT has been used indiscriminately to control many insect pest species including bed bug, the widespread and frequent use of DDT is likely to have predisposed bed bug populations to pyrethroid resistance through the neuronal insensitivity mechanism.

I'd be curious if you're aware of any scientific literature that tests directly the hypothesis that bed bugs lack resistance to DDT these days.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Very interesting yet frightening articles. I stand corrected.

 

[Nels_TO]

SP!RE:

DDT is bioaccumulative and concentration travels up the food chain - so it will eventually accumulate those at the top (predators, humans, etc).

AoD

Just to add to your point, the absorption of DDT tends to concentrate in fatty tissue, and hence is very difficult to eliminate from living systems (animals, humans). Toxicity levels increase as the bioavailability increases. DDT has long been recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization; hence the ban on its usage.

 

[drone]

well,environmentalists wanted us to get closer to nature...how much closer can you get than sleeping and being eaten by bugs, after they banned almost every substance that was effective against bed bugs

 

[Automation Gallery]

Ontario declares $5 million war on bedbugs

Ontario is pouring $5 million into the fight against bedbugs in a new push to curb infestations that have been on the rise for years,

More.....http://www.thestar.com/news/bedbugs/article/918775--ontario-declares-5-million-war-on-bedbugs?bn=1

 

[W. K. Lis]

Ontario declares $5 million war on bedbugs

Ontario is pouring $5 million into the fight against bedbugs in a new push to curb infestations that have been on the rise for years,

More.....http://www.thestar.com/news/bedbugs/article/918775--ontario-declares-5-million-war-on-bedbugs?bn=1

Except the landlords will still have to pay the HST on the infestation control and the infestions control itself for each apartment. Would be better if the HST was dropped on controlling bedbugs as a start.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Money is just one aspect of the issue - throwing money at the issue isn't going to solve the problem by itself. I don't see any tough policy choices being made in this news release.

AoD

 

[NikoS]

I agree that there has to be a policy change that makes some aspects of the BB removal process mandatory and buildings should be notifying their tenants.

For apartments, the adjacent units (above, below, and either side) need to be sprayed at the same time otherwise they will come back. I got them from a new neighbour and they didn't mind having them (they preferred the bites - which they thought were mosquitos at the end of october - over treatment) so I had to move because they were just going to come back! I had allergic reactions to their bites... I remember the first bite - the burn and itch was horrible...

 

[Automation Gallery]

Now this is scary

Bedbugs linked to flesh-eating disease have been found in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Bedbugs laden with antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can lead to flesh-eating disease have been found in the Downtown Eastside.

Dr. Marc Romney found three DTES patients had three bedbugs full of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which in its most virulent form can cause flesh-eating disease) superbug and two bedbugs that carried the VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, which can be dangerous to immunocompromised individuals).

“These insects may act as a hidden environmental reservoir for MRSA and may promote the spread of MRSA in impoverished and overcrowded communities,†warned Romney, St. Paul’s medical director of infection prevention and control and a specialist in infectious diseases.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/health/B...own+Eastside/4767922/story.html#ixzz1M7ausKyR

Study finds new bedbug worry

A finding of a dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria in bedbugs in western Canada could raise concerns in U.S. urban areas that have experienced a resurgence of the blood-sucking insects in the past decade
.
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/0/study-finds-new-bedbug-worry/47081656/1

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/05/11/bedbugs-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-vancouver.html

 

[PinkLucy]

That is scary, because to date it has always been said that bedbugs aren't "dangerous", but this could change all of that -- which could mean there'd be more concerted efforts to get rid of the little suckers.

 

[Automation Gallery]

That is scary, because to date it has always been said that bedbugs aren't "dangerous", but this could change all of that -- which could mean there'd be more concerted efforts to get rid of the little suckers.

Yeah, i say bring pesticides back to eliminate these critters.

 

[BSH]

I had some BB's last year.
Exterminator quoted me $ 3-5 hundered.
Seen the orik exterminators at the institution I work at.
Spoke to him, this is what he said.

Unless the place is really bad, you dont need a exterminator.
Go to home hardware (crappy tire doesn't have it).
Get Wilson brand PRO Aerosol spray.
It has a blue lable and about $15/b can.
It is a professional strength insecticide. (and yes bedbugs are specificaly and independently listed on the can.)
This stuff works but stinks.
Spray as it says on can, close windows and doors and leave it for a day. then air out room.
Repeat treatment again after 3/4 days.
Any pets, get them out too.

I asked him if he was sure this would work.
he said.

Their bugs. you spray them, they die.

I did this and have never had a problem since.

Hope this helped.
BSH