Non-Toxic Bed Bug Treatments
Bed bugs are becoming more and more resistant to the chemicals we use to kill them. Modern bed bug populations are highly adapted to live through the insecticide sprays; we are essentially weeding out the weak and speeding up their natural selection process.
But that can easily be stopped with a non-toxic bed bug treatment. Since DDT was banned (and it was the most effective bed bug treatment out there), people have been focusing on the ultimate non-toxic bed bug treatment that will get the job done.
About the Bugs: These critters can lay anywhere from one to five eggs a day — that’s more than 500 in a lifetime! They have been known to travel over 100 feet in a single night, but only live within 8 feet of their main food source: People.
Preventative Measures: Bed bug hatchlings are so small that they can often pass though a stitch hole in a mattress. To better detect the bugs, here are a few tips.
- De-clutter your home in order to give bed bugs fewer places to life and hide.
- Wrap your mattress and box spring to eliminate your bed as a potential hang out spot for the bugs.
- Repair or remove any peeling wallpaper.
- Seal and cracks found around baseboards and floors.
Non-Toxic Bed Bug Treatment List:
- Thermal remediation for bed bugs is a great organic bed bug treatment and possibly the most effective. Heat can kill bed bugs at any stage in their life, from eggs to adults and requires the infested room to be held at a temperature of 140 degrees for two hours, or 130 degrees for three hours.
- Steam is great for quickly yet efficiently killing bed bugs that you have access to. If you know where they crawl out of, concentrate the steam there. This should not be used as a way to completely eliminate the bugs, but it is a great way to spot treat an area.
- Cold-pressurized CO2 snow will also be able to eliminate bed bugs. The insects can withstand a wide range of temperatures, from nearly freezing to 122 degrees. But this CO2 snow drops temperatures down to -108 degrees and shoots pressurized CO2 into cracks of baseboards.
- Diatomaceous Earth has been around for awhile and is still a great non-toxic bed bug treatment that won’t cost a fortune. The material is a drying agent that, when applied to an affected room, will continue to work for days or weeks after. This isn’t necessarily a chemical, but it works by sticking to the bed bugs and eventually breaking down their waxy protective layer, causing them to dehydrate and die.
Depending on what type of non-toxic bed bug treatment you choose, it is always best to hire a professional bed bug treatment company to ensure that you have gotten rid of all the bed bugs in your apartment, hotel, or home.
