Bed bugs are a growing source of aggravation, especially in the developed Western world, because bedbugs were largely wiped out there by the late 1950’s. This means that most people under 50 years of age had probably never seen a bedbug until after 1995, when they made a big return. Their numbers are still increasing quickly, so a lot people are turning to thinking about killing bed bugs.

This is due to two main issues: their natural resilience and their resistance to contemporary household chemical pesticides. Their natural resilience is due to a waxy coating on their bodies which protects them from contact pesticides to a large extent and their resistance to chemical pesticides is probably due to the fact that they were exterminated in the West in the 1940’s and 1950’s by the widespread use of DDT.

The waxy coating of bedbugs blocks their rapid dehydration, which is why they can lie inactive for up to five months waiting for a fitting host to come along. It is also the reason why a lot of contact pesticides are unsuccessful. Therefore, one of the techniques for killing bed bugs is getting rid of that waxy coating.

People knew this 150 years ago, but they did not have the technology to actually take advantage of the information. People often used to put down crushed dried leaves or sharp sand. In the 19th century, lime, ash and diatomaceous earth were used to erode the outer waxy coating. The latter was particularly effective and has seen an increase in usage over the last few years as an option to chemicals.

One way of killing bed bugs that will not work is catching them and crushing them, even if you did put sticky insect bands around the legs of your bed. Bed bugs cannot fly, but they would still get at you. They are not disinclined to walking up to the ceiling and dropping on to you.

If you want to try chemical insecticides, then there are three basic types. The first sort attempts to mimic the effects of diatomaceous earth. It is a spray that includes pulverized glass or silica mixed with a contact pesticide. This does not sound a healthy environment for humans or pets either though. Breathing powdered glass or silica seems like bad news.

Contact insecticides have limited effect, partly due to the waxy layer, but also because to be effective they have to be strong and this makes them a repellent, which means that the bedbugs will just avoid it if they can.

Insect growth regulators are effective at killing the young, which is fantastic, but the adults can live for about a year, so that is not so good, unless you are thinking about a long world cruise.

Professionals frequently use steam these days, because none of the bed bug’s life stages can survive temperatures above 45c, so you could try this technique by hiring a steam wall paper stripper or a hot air paint stripper for the weekend and going over your walls and woodwork. In fact, if all your wall paper and paint is going to fall off, you may as well combine the session with your next redecoration.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with bed bugs extermination. If you are interested in this, please go over to our website now at Picture Of Bed Bugs for further details.

It is doubtful that you grew up with bed bugs and the chances of you having come across one over the last fifteen years is still reasonably slender, but the chances are increasing. In some parts of the world’s inner cities, the incidence of bed bug encounters has risen by up to 100% per annum since the year 2000. Another report says that of 700 hotels surveyed, twenty-five percent of them had issues relating to bedbug infestation.

The key problem with bed bugs is their detection. Not everyone gets a reaction to bed bug bites and if they do, it can take up to nine days to develop. That means that you could easily blame a motel for the infestation, when you were bitten thousands of miles away on a different continent.

This can be a real difficulty if you travel a lot. Then there is the reality that bedbug bites are not easily perceptible. There is no red spot in the middle of the lump as with mosquito bites, but they are often in a line of three, just like flea bites.

The good news is that although bedbugs are capable of transmitting human diseases, they never have done so far to now. However, it is a terrifying possibility, if it ever were to take place.

The bad news is that they are hardly affected by normal domestic insecticides. This is because bed bugs have become virtually immune to the average insecticides available on the shelf in your supermarket. Bedbugs also have a waxy top coat, which inhibits surfactant pesticides from being totally successful in destroying them.

Therefore, the most effective bedbug killers attempt to remove this waxy top coat. Some bedbug sprays do this by including powered glass or powdered silica, which attaches itself to that waxy coat. As the insect squeezes itself into narrow crevices, the powder abrades the wax. This then permits the insecticides to do their job. The downside of this methodology is that it will take several days to get rid of them.

Professional bedbug exterminators use steam to get rid of an infestation these days. This is because no stage of the bed bug’s life, egg, nymph or adult can survive temperatures above 45c. If you want to try getting rid of your bedbugs yourself, you could hire a wall paper steam stripper or buy a hot air paint stripper. These will produce a temperature sufficient to destroy bedbugs.

The locations where bedbugs like to go into hiding are behind loose skirtings and architraves, in cracks in plaster and behind tears in wall paper. Their number one favourite of all time though is inside a ripped or torn mattress. They like to be as near to their victims as they can, which is something to keep in mind, when you go looking for bed bugs’ hiding places.

The other way of solving your bed bug problem is to call in the experts. This is also the best, if the most pricey, way of doing it, but at least you will know that your bedbug problem is over and you should have a guarantee too.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with bed bugs spray. If you are interested in this, please visit our website now at Picture Of Bed Bugs for more information.