How to get rid of bed bugs: ways to combat blood-sucking pests

What is turpentine and where to get it

Coniferous plants (spruces, pines, larches and others) contain a large amount of essential oils. To extract them, they use the distillation method. The result is a clear, light yellow liquid with a strong odor and antibacterial properties. This is turpentine.

You can buy turpentine at a pharmacy, hardware store or art supply store. Artists use it to remove old paint and dissolve varnishes. Turpentine is used to make ointments for rheumatism, bruises, and to treat other diseases.

Precautionary measures

Turpentine should not be left in areas accessible to small children. The essential oils that make up the substance are toxic and can cause allergies and dermatitis. If you drink a small amount of turpentine (about 15 ml or more), you can be poisoned.

When you work with the substance, take the following precautions:

• wear rubber gloves;
• In case of contact with skin, wash off with warm soapy water;
• do not allow ingestion;
• do not inhale fumes.

Be sure to use a respirator and gauze to protect your airways. Wear glasses, as essential oils have a strong effect on the eyes. If you decide to use turpentine against insects, then buy purified raw materials and do not use sulfate turpentine, as it is highly toxic.

Compositions against bedbugs based on turpentine

There are several recipes for preparing products that can repel or destroy bedbugs. In addition to turpentine, each of them also contains some other strong-smelling substance. Here is an example of one of the compositions:

• turpentine 150 ml;
• grated laundry soap 50 g;
• ammonia 50 g.

All three components are mixed, after which the solution is poured behind the baseboards, where bedbugs often live, and the floor near the bed is wiped with it.

There is a widely known recipe in which turpentine and kerosene are taken in equal quantities, and then dissolved in the composition (for every 100 ml of kerosene, 25 g of naphthalene). Kerosene is added for a reason. It envelops the insect's body and closes the respiratory ducts. As a result, the bug dies from suffocation. But for the product to be 100% effective, it must definitely get on the chitinous cover.

Sometimes green soap and a small amount of boiling water are added to mix the ingredients.

There are recommendations to add denatured alcohol or any other alcohol, but such advice should be taken with caution. Alcohol evaporates quickly, spreading toxic substances into the air. As a result, the person processing the premises may burn their respiratory tract and become poisoned.

Preparing for room treatment

In the retail chain, turpentine is presented in containers of various capacities

• Move furniture, remove mattresses.
• Make sure there are as few hard-to-reach places in the house as possible.
• Carpets need to be taken outside so that direct sunlight kills all the living creatures hiding in them.
• Be sure to put all food items in the refrigerator.
• Before processing, it is recommended to do wet cleaning.
• It is advisable that there are no children or pets in the house at the time of spraying the drug.

How to use

If you find a bedbug in your house, carefully inspect the place where you sleep. Turn over and check the mattress, look into the cracks. If no insects are found, it means they have settled elsewhere and crawl onto the bed only at night. In this case, you need to take turpentine or a composition prepared on its basis and wipe the legs of the bed. So, at 2-3 you will scare away bedbugs. During this time, you can find a more effective product or call a disinfectant service.

If you have a large volume of solution, you can spray it from a spray bottle in the corners of the room, near the bed, along the walls. It must be remembered that the composition can leave marks on wallpaper and upholstery.

To carry out the treatment more carefully, you need to put on gloves, a gauze bandage and wipe the parts of the bed frame, sofa, and armchairs.

It is there, closer to a person’s sleeping place, that bedbugs like to live. For ease of application, use a brush or sponge.

Since the vapors of the mixture are toxic not only to bedbugs, but also to humans, it is advisable to leave the room for 10 hours or a day. After this, you should ventilate the rooms. After 5-6 days the treatment must be repeated.

This is interesting

The process of industrial production of resin is called tapping. It occurs in several stages:

• tree preparation;
• applying special wounds to the trunk - reworkings;
• collection of resin.

Comparative table: Composition of oleoresin turpentine produced in different countries

Important! The most favorable period for collecting ingredients begins in May and ends in September.

Advantages and disadvantages of using turpentine

Turpentine has been used since pre-revolutionary times to repel bedbugs. Of all the available remedies, it was considered one of the most effective. And today I use it if for some reason I cannot purchase modern insecticides.

The method also has disadvantages.

• Turpentine can leave traces that are difficult to remove. It should not be applied to carpet, clothing, or upholstered furniture.
• The smell takes a long time to dissipate, and particularly sensitive people find it difficult to tolerate.
• During the preparation of the composition and surface treatment, care must be taken. There are cases of poisoning by turpentine vapors.

What about efficiency? This is the main question that worries many and is the meaning of action against bedbugs.

One treatment is not enough to remove all insects. The product must be applied several times with an interval of 5 days. There are positive reviews about the effect of turpentine against bedbugs, but there are not as many of them as we would like.

Basically, the composition only temporarily repels parasites. Sometimes it is poured into the cracks, and when the stupefied bedbugs run out, they are collected with a vacuum cleaner or poisoned from a can of some inexpensive commercial aerosol. But the laid eggs remain intact, and young larvae hatch from them.

In order to get rid of insects for sure, you need to use more modern drugs. Many of them are not as dangerous to people as a mixture of mothballs and turpentine. In addition, there are substances that act on bedbugs at all stages of development. This allows you to solve the problem in just one, maximum two, treatments.

Source

The most effective folk remedies for bedbugs in the apartment

Bedbugs are harmful blood-sucking insects that cause discomfort to humans. When they appear in an apartment, you should act immediately; this is the only way to prevent their rapid spread. Use folk remedies to quickly get rid of them.

There are insects that strive to settle closer to humans and live at their expense. Bedbugs pursue this goal because people and animals are their main source of food.

Such a neighborhood cannot please anyone, therefore, when they are discovered, it is necessary to urgently seek means of elimination. Exterminators are confident that folk remedies for bedbugs in an apartment only help with initial localization.

Preventive actions

To prevent the appearance of bedbugs, it is necessary to create “unfavorable” conditions for pests. This can be achieved by observing sanitary standards:

1. Keep your apartment or house tidy.
2. Carry out cosmetic repairs in a timely manner and eliminate holes in baseboards, floors, and walls.
3. Regularly inspect possible nesting sites for parasites.
4. Be careful when purchasing used furniture.
5. If insects are found, immediately carry out extermination measures.

Destruction of bedbugs in the house using folk remedies

Today, there is a huge list of folk methods that can be effectively used to eliminate bedbugs from homes. There is no universal recipe, so any option can fully demonstrate its effectiveness only in a certain situation.

Our mothers and grandmothers also tried to get rid of bedbugs using folk remedies, so it is not surprising that they will be able to tell you several effective and time-tested recipes. Unfortunately, previously there was no such assortment of different chemicals, so the problem was solved using improvised substances.

Popular folk remedies against bedbugs

The best folk remedies against bedbugs were prepared from the following ingredients:

• turpentine;
• kerosene;
• water brought to a temperature of 100 degrees;
• frost from 20 degrees;
• vinegar;
• transformer oil;
• poisonous plants for bedbugs;
• steam treatment using a steam generator.

Creation of unsuitable climatic conditions

These insects are distinguished by their tenacity. When it gets cold in the house, bedbugs decide to postpone reproduction for a more opportune time - and go into suspended animation. They can spend about a year in a state of hibernation. And as soon as temperature conditions improve, the bloodsuckers will immediately awaken from sleep and begin to reproduce with the same intensity.

• Freezing. Exposure to low temperatures in order to eliminate creeping reptiles is relevant for the northern regions of the country. To kill linen insects, you need to freeze them for at least two days. Eggs, larvae and adults die when the air temperature remains at −30°C for a long time. At the same time, adults and nymphs die faster, and eggs, due to the presence of a dense shell, die more slowly. If you have such an opportunity, remove furniture and personal belongings from the house and leave them in the cold for a couple of days. If the manipulation does not harm the heating system, open the windows wide and let the house freeze. However, in their reviews, users do not rank this method among the effective ones due to difficulties with implementation.
• Heat. In the heat, bedbugs die faster. But for this you need to create real desert heat so that the air temperature is about 50°C. You can use a heat gun for this purpose. But renting such equipment costs money. You can process things in an automatic dryer. But this will not save furniture, carpets, baseboards and niches under windows from bedbugs. Another option for influencing nests is dousing them with boiling water. But where is the guarantee that you have found all the bedbug hiding places?

Essential components help fight bedbugs just as well as flora representatives. An oily liquid with a pronounced and extremely unpleasant aroma of lavender or rosemary for a bloodsucker will become a strong irritant for an uninvited guest. Essential oils of nettle and tea tree are no less effective. Therefore, choose the scent that you find most pleasant.

The fact remains: folk methods alone will not fix the problem. Especially if the house is infested with pests. Various measures must be used in combination. New generation modern insecticides are the best options available today. And the means, tested by time and generations, will consolidate the result and protect the house from repeated occupation by bedbugs.

The best folk remedy for bedbugs at home: proven recipes

Harmful insects can be quickly and efficiently eliminated by using one of the recipes of folk experts.

• You will need turpentine for bedbugs (9 ml), which is diluted in water (100 ml). To improve the effect, kerosene (15 ml) and green soap (40 grams) are added to the composition.
• Mix turpentine (100 ml) and kerosene (100 ml). Additionally, add 20 grams of naphthalene to the solution.
• We prepare a composition of phenol (20 grams), salicylic acid (3 grams) and turpentine (40 ml). The resulting emulsion must be thoroughly treated with bedbug-infested areas. The procedure should be repeated until no trace of the parasites remains.

Use of substances with a strong odor

Folk remedies for bedbugs at home are not limited to only poisonous herbs. It was noted that bedbugs cannot continue to exist in the presence of a pungent odor. That is why it is advisable to use the following substances:

Ammonia against bedbugs is used to treat premises. To enhance the effect, it is recommended to add a little naphthalene to it. Remember that a person should not stay in the room for a long time after treatment. If necessary, we recommend re-processing after 5 days. Thanks to the pungent odor, all insects will be destroyed, even those located in hard-to-reach places. When processing, make sure to wear personal protective equipment so as not to harm your own body.

Fish oil for bedbugs is a proven remedy over the years, especially if you are sure that insects get into your apartment through cracks from neighbors. Parasites are eliminated by smearing the composition on all places where a large concentration of them is suspected. The effect can be noticed within 24 hours after use.

Vanillin against bedbugs perfectly demonstrates its properties in combination with soda. Before use, they must be mixed in a ratio of 1:5. The smell will cause discomfort to insects, but will not disturb humans. When they die, the remaining product can be easily removed using a regular vacuum cleaner.

Mechanical methods

The most common are two mechanical folk methods. To implement the first, you will need a vacuum cleaner, to use the second, a steam generator. In the first case, bedbugs can only be “collected” in a garbage bag built into household appliances. In the second, kill insects, and not only sexually mature ones. One bad thing: both methods will steal a lot of time from the home “exterminator”, without giving any guarantee of effectiveness.

Vacuum cleaner

Peculiarity. By combining the mechanical method with the chemical method, you can get a pretty good result. To lure bedbugs out of the hiding places in which they are safely hidden, you will need ammonia. Bloodsuckers cannot stand the smell of this liquid. It is enough to place saucers with a smelly liquid near places where insects accumulate, and the living creatures will immediately begin to leave their homes. You can make the composition stronger.

What we do

1. Prepare the emulsion according to the following recipe: mix 100 g of denatured alcohol and 50 g of ammonia.
2. Pour the emulsion into a spray bottle and spray the room.
3. We turn on the vacuum cleaner, remove the brush attachment, and use the tube to quickly collect insects that have awakened from the aroma spreading throughout the apartment into the dust collector.

Steam generator

Peculiarity. The method is environmentally friendly, accessible and easy to implement. And also quite effective. It is noteworthy that the steam generator is capable of eliminating even eggs by destroying their shell. True, the method cannot be used near outlets. And condensation settling on the surface of the furniture can negatively affect its upholstery and further operation.

What we do

1. We turn on the steam generator and start from the most remote places: we steam curtains, cornices, joints of walls and furniture, niches behind paintings, cracks and other hard-to-reach locations.
2. Then we proceed to textile processing.
3. We carry out liquidation activities daily for several weeks, paying special attention to places where insect nests have been observed.
4. We refrain from wet cleaning until the treatments are completely completed.
5. We carefully inspect all things and pieces of furniture so as not to lose sight of a single parasite.

How to repel bedbugs?

Naturally, it is better to prevent a problem than to work on eliminating it later.
Today, there are a number of technical means that will help repel blood-sucking parasites. They must be combined with various preventive measures:

• bed bugs thorough and systematic cleaning of each individual room;
• repairs should also be carried out regularly, since bedbugs can settle in various crevices;
• bed linen in the bedroom should be changed at least once a week, and washed at high temperature;
• if bedbugs have settled in the parquet, then they can only be gotten rid of by completely replacing it;
• Do not keep old things at home, as they attract vermin.