When we find bedbugs, we all want to find the panacea way of killing them. But the problem, many of these DIY bedbugs killing solutions you find on the Internet do not work — they are myths.
There are a lot of methods that do work in killing bedbugs, from natural ways of getting rid of them to using harsher chemicals, You can do it yourself, or hire a professional. But whatever methods you choose, below are 8 methods you need to avoid, as they will not exterminate your bedbug problem, and will only end up wasting your time and your money.
Myth #1: Ultrasonic Sound Emulators will drive out bedbugs
Ultrasonic sound machines don’t work for driving away bedbugs. Period. If they did, every house in America would have them built-in to their homes to keep them pest free. Don’t just take our word for it, an academic journal called Journal of Economic Entomology did a study on their effectiveness against bedbugs. Here’s what they concluded: “Our results confirm that commercial devices producing ultrasound are not a promising tool for repelling bed bugs.” So save your money and buy products that have proven to be effective.
Myth #2: Talcum Powder will dry them out
Talcum powder works great on your baby’s bottom. It does not work on bedbugs. The idea here is that talcum powder has such as strong absorption rate that it sucks the moisture out of the bug. If talcum powder was really that strong, would you spread it on your body or your baby’s body. Probably not. Sure, it will dry you out, but it won’t pull the moisture out of you.
Where talcum powder shines is using them in the traps that you put under your bed’s frame. Not because it does anything to kill the bedbugs, but because the coating on the sides of the trap from the talcum powder prevents the bedbug from crawling back out of the trap. So when you wake up in the morning, you will actually if you have caught any bedbugs (a great way to find out if you have them). See our recommendations pages for bedbug traps.
Myth #3: Rubbing Alcohol is an effect method for killing bedbugs
Rubbing alcohol, or Isopropyl, is not an efficient or effective way of getting rid of bedbugs. If you buy a product with high enough alcohol percentage (over 90%, which is the same percentage that you want to use to clean electronics, FYI), it will probably kill bedbugs, but it will also make your house flammable. Anything less than 90%, like the 50% solution you find at your typical dollar stores are not high enough in alcohol percentage to be effective. So while a 90% alcohol solution will kill bedbugs on contact, it is highly flammable and therefore is not an effective method. And again, anything less than 90% just has not proven to be effective at all. Here’s an article written in Science News you can read.
Myth #4: Use tea Tree Oil To Kill Bedbugs
The myth goes that using a natural tea tree oil will kill bedbugs because they hate the oil so much. While, using the oil may help prevent bedbugs from entering the area where the oil has been spread. It will do nothing to kill them. And even if it prevents them for a while, they will just return when the oil wears off.
If you are looking for a temporary solution to keepng them off your furnityre, then tea oil may do the trick. But if you’re looking for a way to kill them, then see our recommendations page or read our article on natural remedies for killing bedbugs, and forget about using tea tree oil. It does not work.
Myth #5: Bedbugs Hate Mothballs
Moth balls probably prove to be a minor irritant to bedbugs, but there is little research that says that they do anything to kill the bedbugs in your home. In the same article that showed that rubbing alcohol isn’t the most effective DIY bedbug control, it showed that mothballs also didn’t work as advertised. In fact, in the study it concluded that mothballs killed less than half of the bedbugs exposed to them over a week’s period. Here’s an article written in Science News you can read (same article as linked above in the rubbing alcohol DIY blurb).
Myth #6: Baking Soda will dry them out
Baking soda is a miraculous product. It cleans clothes, teeth, removes odor, and of course, helps with baking. What it does not do is dehydrate bedbugs. Have you ever known baking soda to pull moisture out of something? Sure, it clogs well when wet. But it doesn’t actually pull the moisture out, and that’s what the claim is.
Baking soda doesn’t wick moisture from something, when baking soda comes in contact with liquid, it begins to break down. It will do nothing to dry out bedbugs.
Myth #7: Use Dryer Sheets to destroy bedbugs
You’ve all heard this tale before, right? Put dryer sheets under your bed and bedbugs hate them so much they will leave you alone. While it may be true that bedbugs hate dryer sheets, it will not deter them as much as you might think. They will just go around the dryer sheet, or under the dryer sheet, or climb up on something else that dryer sheet isn’t covering and make their way over yo your bed. The truth is, bedbugs love your blood more than they hate dryer sheets. And you know what they say, love is greater than hate.
Myth #8: Bedbug Foggers or Bombs Will kill bedbugs
Will bedbug foggers kill bedbugs? Sure, if they come in direct contact with them? Will bedbug foggers come in direct contact with bedbugs? Probably not. One of the reasons bedbugs are so difficult to eradicate is because of their tiny size. They are great hiders. And bug bombs just don’t have the reach that is needed to be effective. If a bedbug crawls under a tissue paper, the fogger will not kill them. If they crawl into a crack, the fogger will not kill them. If they hide in any place that does not get directly touched by the poison coming from the bomb, the fogger will not kill them. There are so many better resources you can choose from.
To read a thorough researched article, read this one on Journal of Economic Entomology.
Find Natural and Organic Methods for dealing with bedbugs
If you are looking for what natural and organic methods actually work on controlling, eliminating and killing bedbugs, then please see the article we wrote on this website called: How to Kill Bedbugs Organically Without Chemicals. You can also find manually natural methods on our recommended resources page.
