Review of the most effective and powerful anti-bedbug remedies for room treatment

• By Vil Malinoshevsky
• About bedbugs

Simply getting bedbugs out of your apartment and getting bedbugs out of your apartment forever are two different things. The very presence of this word - “forever” - in a question from any of our clients already clearly indicates that the person has already fought against bedbugs, has already spent money on such a fight and still has not eliminated the bedbugs.

We have such clients - 7 out of 10 who apply. That is, most of those who order bedbug removal from us have previously tried to poison them, but were unable to remove the parasites permanently. And when they find out what they had to do to stop seeing bedbugs, they shake their heads sadly - 15-20 minutes could have saved them several months of endless struggle with parasites.

You can see bedbugs on the walls either at night or after baiting them from neighbors

And most likely, each of these people had situations when the bedbugs seemed to be killed, they seemed to disappear from the apartment for a while, but then they appeared again. And this was repeated several times - once they were destroyed, they appeared again, the second time - they appeared again, and so on endlessly.

The reasons for this are actually simple and understandable to most people. And the solution to this problem is not as difficult as it seems. We have a huge number of cases and reviews of people who, having done basic things, got rid of bedbugs forever. Moreover, for this they did not need any super-effective means, and there were even cases when people got rid of bedbugs even without means. How it's done?

What to do to get rid of bedbugs forever

To get rid of bed bugs forever, you need to protect your apartment from bed bugs entering it in the future, simply - you need to block the paths through which bed bugs get into the room on their own. And after that, it will be enough to destroy all the bedbugs once and forget about them.

This, on the one hand, is obvious to any sane person: make sure that new bugs do not get to you, and you can easily destroy those parasites that already live with you by almost any means, even without means. We have such examples.

On the other hand, no matter how obvious it may be, no one does it. Why? We don't know ourselves. We suspect that people are being lazy. But it’s surprising that people aren’t too lazy to poison bedbugs in their homes three or four times, and it’s hard to seal the cracks near the pipes with silicone. We have processed thousands of apartments in Moscow and the Moscow region, during all this time we have seen at most several dozen people who consciously took the right measures to protect their homes. For such people, the usual high-quality, good treatment destroys bedbugs forever, and new parasites no longer appear on them.

The overwhelming majority of people do not do this, that is, they do not protect their apartment in any way from the penetration of bedbugs in the future. As a result, they can poison the bedbugs themselves using various means, or they can call services and they will even undergo good treatment, they will successfully destroy the parasites, and after a few weeks or months, from the troubled neighbors, the bedbugs will again get into the apartment and everything will repeat.

General characteristics of products used to combat bedbugs

Bed bugs are obligate parasites. They feed exclusively on the blood of humans and warm-blooded animals. These pests simply cannot feed on anything else. Therefore, no baits or gels or similar substances are effective on them (unlike cockroaches).

Thus, bedbugs can only be killed with contact-acting drugs. In other words, those that are in direct contact with the insect’s body. Intestinal poisons are not used in the fight against these bloodsuckers.

What is more important – protecting your apartment or a powerful tool?

At the same time, it is important to understand that if you protect your apartment from the penetration of new insects, then you can kill the bedbugs that you already have by almost any means. Call exterminators - good, conscientious ones - they will completely destroy your bedbugs in a couple of hours. If you tinker with good drugs yourself, you’ll spend a day or two on such complete destruction. Even if you just squash the bedbugs with your fingers at night, you will be doing it faster than they reproduce, and within a few months you will have squashed them. This is not a joke, actually.

For example, we have students who live in a bedbug-infested dorm. Our laboratory assistant bought live bugs from them to experiment with the products. At some point, the students even stopped poisoning bedbugs - it was simply profitable for them to catch these bedbugs at night and sell them to an eccentric who pays money for this nasty thing. Do you know how it ended? There are no bedbugs in the dorm! Our tester has not been able to buy bedbugs from students for six months now. The guys check the beds at night, go to their neighbors, check their beds - and there are no bedbugs. Everyone was caught. This hostel has not been disinfested for a year; the bedbugs were not poisoned with anything, they were simply caught by hand.

This is not as surprising as it seems - as a rule, several dozen bedbugs live in an ordinary infested room. Several hundred parasites per room at home is already a lot; people cannot live in such a room. And catching or squashing 40-50-60 bedbugs is not that difficult, it just may take a long time. It is much easier and faster to poison them with chemicals.

That is, if new bedbugs do not enter the apartment, it practically does not matter what means you use to fight them - you can get them out with some diligence. The only question will be how quickly this will happen.

If you don’t protect your apartment from bedbugs, you most likely won’t be able to get them out forever using any, even the most powerful, means. Insects will constantly reappear and the fight against them will turn into such an endless carousel.

From here, by the way, we draw the opposite conclusion - if you have already poisoned bedbugs several times, and even more so, this was done for you by specialists, and you were unable to defeat these insects, this means that you simply did not isolate your home from your neighbors’ apartments. Somewhere there is some hole or gap that you did not find. This does not mean that the products you used were ineffective (although this can also happen). And this does not mean that the exterminators who worked for you and after whose work the bedbugs disappeared for a while worked poorly (although this is possible). This most likely means that bedbugs can get into you, and they take advantage of this opportunity. Deprive them of this opportunity and you can get rid of them forever.

Moreover, often doing this - protecting your home from bedbugs - is not so difficult. Sometimes this takes 10-15 minutes, sometimes it takes an hour and a half. There are situations when such insulation of an apartment is a big problem, but they are actually rare. In most apartments this problem is solved in half an hour.

Medilis Anticlops

• Made in Russia
• Completely ready-to-use spray with a volume of 250 milliliters
• Active ingredients – imidacloprid 0.2% + cypermethrin 0.25%
• Price ≈ 500–600 rubles

Suitable for local treatment, has a prolonged effect of up to 3 weeks on non-absorbent surfaces, up to 7 days on absorbent surfaces. According to the manufacturer, it has a moderate odor and is effective on eggs. The product was developed specifically for bedbugs that have already developed resistance (immunity) to other drugs.

How to prevent bedbugs from entering your apartment

As a rule, bedbugs enter apartments through the following routes:

• Joints of heating pipes with floors and ceilings. Here, between the pipe and the concrete, there is often a gap through which bedbugs or their nymphs can crawl. Moreover, such pipes are located in the bedrooms near the sleeping places, that is, in fact, the bug needs to crawl several meters to find itself in a new apartment.
• Sockets - bedbugs often move between apartments along electrical wiring grooves. Therefore, during processing, we usually unscrew the sockets and look into the sockets. Very often there are bedbug nests there.
• Doors that do not fit tightly to the frames, especially if the door leaf is old or does not have a rubber seal.
• Ventilation not covered by a fine mesh grille.
• In the warm season - windows, even metal-plastic ones with a mosquito net. Between such a mesh and the window frame there is usually a narrow gap through which mosquitoes cannot fly, and bedbugs can easily crawl through.
• Finally, just holes, cracks or cracks in the wall, sometimes covered with wallpaper.

Here the video shows an apartment where bedbugs lived in all the sockets:

Finding such places is the most difficult part of the task. It’s just that house bugs rarely accumulate in such places, and once they get into a new apartment, they immediately take up residence in the beds or sofas. But no one, except the owner of the apartment, knows this housing, the walls and pipes here better than him. That is, all such places need to be checked and then blocked off. For this:

• The gaps between the pipes and the concrete must be sealed with silicone sealant. It is advisable to do this with all pipes in the apartment, including in the toilet and bathroom - occasionally bedbugs penetrate through these rooms, but in any case, insulating these cracks will prevent the migration of cockroaches;
• Remove the sockets, pour insecticide into the groove and close the cartridge with a new socket with closing holes. The gap between the socket body and the wall is also sealed with silicone sealant;
• If there is no rubber seal on the front door, it must be attached around the entire perimeter of the door leaf. This, by the way, will protect against various noises from the entrance;
• On the ventilation holes you need to install grilles with a mesh size of no more than 1 mm, preferably less. The gap between the grille and the wall is also sealed with silicone;
• Gaps, holes and cracks in the wall are sealed with putty. Sometimes you have to remove the wallpaper to do this, but this is still easier than poisoning bedbugs over and over again.

The hardest part is to insulate the windows. Here, sealing rubber bands can also be attached to the mosquito nets if the net itself is firmly attached to the frame. But often this is not required, because bedbugs rarely make their way into new housing along the outer walls of a building.

The situation in one of the apartments: bedbugs and cockroaches enter the housing en masse from the ventilation, leaving an abundance of excrement and chitinous residues on the corners

Agree, these measures are clear and accessible to everyone. But they actually work wonders.

K-Otrin VG 250

• Country of origin: Austria
• Beige water-soluble granules in individual bags, packaged 2.5 grams, 16 pieces per box
• The main active ingredient is deltamethrin 25%
• Price of 1 sachet 2.5 grams ≈ 200–300 rubles

The prepared solution is applied with a brush to the surface or sprayed through a sprayer. Insects begin to die 15 minutes after contact with the drug, the prolonged effect lasts up to 3 months, the product leaves no traces. One 2.5 gram sachet is enough to treat a room of up to 70 square meters.

Several cases from practice

In March, four months ago, we worked in Mytishchi; a woman herself removed bedbugs from an apartment for two years, but did not remove them. Twice exterminators worked in front of us, each time they killed the bedbugs, but after a month or two they appeared again.

We checked our order database, half of the apartments in this building are or were infested, that is, one of the neighbors constantly has bedbugs.

During the treatment, the exterminator got confused, checked everything, found two cracks in the heating risers, and a crack in the box in the toilet where the toilet flush goes into it. The woman immediately sealed these cracks with sealant during treatment. Four months have passed. Not a single parasite was seen in the apartment. The customer is happy, her children and no one bites her, she recommends us to friends, says how well we carry out the treatment. But in reality, the whole secret was in this sealant putty.

Standard organization for introducing heating risers into a room - in the gap between the pipes, bedbugs could skip (if they could jump)

There was an interesting incident in another apartment. It was a dead-end apartment in an old building, and it was very well renovated, literally perfect walls, perfect joints, ceilings, ventilation grilles. And a person has the same problem: it turns out that there are no bedbugs, but after a month or two they appear. He poisons himself, orders treatments - the result is the same.

We checked all the risers and sockets in the apartment - everything was sealed, everything was clean. We looked at the front door - there was no rubber seal on it. A good metal door, solid, but without elastic. They started checking it with a sheet of paper, and it turned out that when installing it, the box moved a little. It is not visible to the eye, the curvature occurred on the side opposite the hinges, that is, this curvature does not affect the opening and closing in any way. But there is a gap.

The next day the customer went to the market, bought an elastic band for the entire perimeter of the door for 200 rubles, it cost 200 rubles. He glued it on. This was after the New Year, more than six months ago. After this he has no bedbugs. Not because we carried out the treatment so well, not because the product was 12,000 rubles per liter, but because they can no longer get to it.

And there are many such situations. Somewhere you need a cheap tube of silicone for 150 rubles. Somewhere an elastic band costs 200, somewhere a grille costs another 200. Plus, it takes half an hour to do it. And that’s it, then carry out normal treatment and forget about bedbugs forever.

There are, of course, cases when bedbugs are reintroduced by people themselves. But in reality, if a person once had bedbugs in his house and was able to get rid of them, then this is usually such a negative experience that in the future, in situations where bedbugs can be accidentally brought in with things or furniture, the person will be extremely careful to prevent this. Did not happen. He will wash things, check bags after trips, will not buy used furniture, and most likely he will not bring bedbugs into his home.

Specifics of a private house

For this reason, by the way, it is somewhat easier to remove bedbugs forever from a private detached house. Simply because bedbugs themselves do not move between individual buildings and cannot crawl here from neighbors, even if there are any cracks and holes in the house. That is, either you bring bedbugs into the house yourself, or they don’t get here at all. People always bring bedbugs to the same dacha themselves.

On the other hand, it is usually more difficult to exterminate bedbugs in houses due to the larger area and the greater number of hiding places there. Sometimes old houses have wooden floors under which bed bugs need to be very carefully treated with insecticides.

As a rule, in a private house it is not possible to remove bedbugs on your own forever precisely because here a person cannot find all the hiding places of the bedbugs and poison all the insects. After treatment, surviving bugs continue to reproduce and gradually restore their numbers.

But in any case, this is a solvable problem, because all this can be done by a conscientious sanitary service specialist, and with great desire and diligence, you can do it yourself.

GET suspension

Price 1000 rubles.

The Russian drug is considered one of the best remedies for bedbugs. A water-based microencapsulated suspension destroys various types of dangerous insects. The chemical is available in 100 ml plastic bottles and contains the active ingredient chlorperifos.

GET causes paralysis of nerve impulses in adults and subsequent death. When the microcapsules land on the parasites’ feet, they cause infection of the entire colony.

Pros:

• Safe for people and pets.
• Does not contain allergens.
• It has a neutral odor and does not leave stains.
• The duration of action is up to six months.

Minuses:

• The poison is effective if all places where the parasites live are disinfested. Bed bugs will emerge from untreated areas within a few days.
• High price.

In what cases is it impossible to get rid of bedbugs forever?

But there are also rooms in which it is practically impossible to eliminate bedbugs forever. These are not so much premises as establishments - hostels, hotels, apartments for daily rent, where new people constantly spend the night. Some of these people, completely unintentionally, can and regularly do bring bedbugs in their bags and belongings. It is almost impossible to prevent this by organizational measures and in such rooms, treatments must be done regularly.

Here, for example, is the destruction of bedbugs in a hostel:

It was possible to destroy them, but it is impossible to guarantee that they will no longer be here.

Your situation is most likely not the same. Most of our viewers are residents of ordinary apartments, where there are no new guests, where bedbugs are rarely brought, and where these insects most often get into on their own. Accordingly, before processing, you need to understand where they are coming from and block this path.

Ecokiller

Price 400 rubles.

This environmentally friendly, domestically produced product is absolutely safe for people, animals and plants. Ecokiller contains specially processed diatomite (a rock based on diatoms). Despite the modest content, the effect of use was excellent - when the drug gets on the chitinous shell, the destruction of the shell of a small pest begins. Ecokiller is available in bottles (for small apartments) and bags (for large rooms).

Pros:

• Can be used by allergy sufferers.
• It is not addictive to bedbugs because it does not contain toxic chemicals.

Minuses:

• Has no effect on eggs.
• It pollutes the surface, so cleaning will require a powerful vacuum cleaner.

When do you need to look for and eliminate ways for bedbugs to enter your apartment - before or after treatment?

It is best to look for such places where bedbugs enter the apartment before treatment.

Firstly, before treatment, it is easier to see where the bedbugs are coming from - where there are most of them, that’s where they most often come from.

Secondly, if the places of their penetration are blocked after treatment, there is a risk that some isolated individuals will climb into the room during this period of time from treatment to the isolation of these very places. If a product without a strong residual effect was used for the treatment, these isolated bedbugs may survive.

Top 5. Phenaxin

Rating (2021): 4.42

163 reviews from resources were taken into account: Yandex.Market, Ozone, Otzovik, IRecommend

The best price-quality ratio "Phenaxin" is sold at an average price of 80 rubles, and the drug shows high efficiency in killing bed bugs. According to users, this particular insecticide ideally combines cost and quality.

• Characteristics

  Average price: 80 rub.

• Country Russia
• Active ingredient: pyrethroid fenvalerate, boric acid
• Validity period: up to 4 weeks
• Smell: no
• Weight: 125 g
• Toxicity to humans and animals: low toxic (hazard class 4)

Fast and effective destruction of bed bugs is guaranteed. This product copes with insects within 3-4 weeks, and its residual effect period is the same. The drug is odorless, has a fourth class of toxicity, which means it is practically harmless to people and animals. However, basic precautions should be taken. The first day after treatment, it is advised to leave the room, and then ventilate the apartment for at least 4 hours. The packaging is enough for a fairly large area; processing is carried out in several stages. User reviews confirm the effectiveness and recommend Phenaxin.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Virtually non-toxic to humans
• Packaging is enough for a large area, high efficiency
• Sticks to walls and other vertical surfaces
• Convenient spray bag for even distribution

• Re-processing required
• Must be left for a day for greater effect.

The apartment is protected. How can I get bedbugs out of here now?

In order to kill bedbugs after completely insulating an apartment, you need to use means and methods that actually kill them. These products can be very powerful, and with proper treatment, bedbugs can be destroyed in an hour and a half. There may be weaker remedies; you will have to tinker with them for several days, or even weeks. But it is important that they destroy bedbugs and that you use them until you destroy all the insects that are already in the apartment.

In fact, less depends on the product than on the quality of processing. A good, experienced exterminator will kill bedbugs with a spray can bought in a supermarket; it will just take longer than with a cold fog generator and a professional product. And if you make ridiculous mistakes, then even the most powerful drug will not be able to remove bedbugs.

Many people actually make mistakes at this stage. Someone tries to poison bedbugs only in the sofa, and some of the parasites hide behind the baseboards and then from there they crawl around the apartment again. Some people use folk remedies that don’t work at all. There are folk remedies that kill bedbugs. They do this more slowly and worse than specialized insecticides, but in general they kill, and they can get rid of bedbugs. But many people use things that are obviously ineffective.

For example, all the products that are designed to repel bedbugs do not work. Various herbs, essential oils - all these are completely useless toys. Just like ultrasonic or magnetic resonance repellers. By the way, we tested them recently - completely stupid things. It is important to understand that bedbugs cannot be driven out of a living space; they will never leave an apartment in which there are people. You either destroy them or you feed them. If you remove everything from the apartment, leave bare concrete walls and floors and move out yourself for a month or two, then yes, bedbugs will begin to spread among your neighbors. If you need to leave the apartment in a habitable state, then you will not be able to get rid of bedbugs from it. They can only be destroyed here.

Some people even search the Internet for spells and prayers to repel bedbugs. We do not know of cases where a person, by conspiracy or prayer, would drive bedbugs out of his home. Chemistry works infinitely more reliably.

It also happens that people inadequately evaluate the effect of the product. For example, a person takes some whitewash or vinegar and tries to get rid of bedbugs with it. Indeed, if you drip vinegar or bleach on a bug, it will die. But if you spray them on the mattress or baseboard, it will not have any effect. Accordingly, a person thinks that he is treating with a good product, but in fact, most of the bedbugs in his home remain unharmed.

Similarly, by the way, with temperature. Bedbugs really die at a temperature of +50°C in 10 minutes, but this temperature should not be near the handler, but near the bedbug, right in its hiding place. Many people forget about this, do not warm up sofas and baseboards, but bedbugs survive there safely.

It happens that even an effective remedy needs to be applied twice in order to destroy the larvae the second time. The person does not do this, and a few weeks after a single treatment he begins to be bitten again.