Bed Bug Treatments

Here are range of articles on bed bug treatments and how to get rid of bed bugs. The articles are listed in chronological order, with the most recent articles first.

Bed bug treatments

Carrying out a successful bed bug treatment requires a thorough inspection for bed bugs before starting the treatment, using a range of products to achieve control and monitoring for bed bugs after treatment to ensure elimination of all bed bugs.

Generally, bed bug treatments need to be carried out by a professional pest manager as inspecting for bed bugs takes some skill and they have access to a range of specialist bed bug products and equipment. Often more than one treatment will be required, at the very least a follow up inspection after the treatment has had a chance to work is required before declaring the room bed bug free.

Pest manager should follow the Bed Bug Code of Practice.

Bed bug products

There are a range of chemical bed bug products, including sprays, aerosols and powders. However, as there are high levels of resistance to insecticides in many populations of bed bugs, particularly for insecticides applied to surfaces to dry out and act as a residual treatment. The use of heaters to eliminate the bed bugs can be a useful alternative – specialised heaters are used to raise the temperature in infested rooms to over 55^oC for at least 4 hours.

Regular inspections for bed bugs should be part of any house-keeping regime in the hospitality industry. Bed bug monitors and bed bug traps can be useful for aiding detection and the use of bed bug mattress protectors can help in preventing infestation.

Bed bug research

With bed bugs and resistance to chemicals, both major issues for the hospitality and pest control industries, there is a lot of active research on bed bugs, understanding their behaviour, resistance mechanisms and potential new bed bug control techniques.

More information on bed bugs …