Hi
There are no bespoke bed bug traps/attractants at any supermarché or bricolages. BB’s are attracted to carbon dioxide, moreso where you are still for extended periods, so beds and sofas.
Monitoring traps are easy to make, the simplest form is a small rectangle of corrugated cardboard between the headboard and the mattress. After a BB has eaten, it will hide away in a safe spot, corrugated cardboard is ideal, they are easy to inspect for eggs, blood spots live insects and casts (shed skin).
Notes:
Only live BB is proof that you have BB.
If you have BB tell prople visiting or when you visit that you might have a problem.
Look at your hand; 1 thumb as a BB, 4 fingers as a fly, flea, mosquito and cockroach. Your fingers can kill you with their borne pathogens, but nobody worries about them. Your thumb cannot kill you as BB neither carry or transmit anything apart from paranoia, but the poor thumb has the worse reputation. I’d rather have a BB than a cockroach.
Sleep tight, don’t let the fly vomit on your food to mix metaphores!
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I recently stayed in a hotel which is dog friendly. I like dogs, I do not like their fleas. I was savaged by them. I actually saw them, there were so many. I complained but got a " well you can’t prove they were already here", implying I had bought them with me. “So, they waited until I arrived at your hotel to bite me”, I replied. To which I got the usual shrug.
How do hotels know dogs staying in their rooms are flea free?
They don’t, but responsible places clean thoroughly after all guests, and even more so after animals. You don’t suddenly get an infestation of fleas! Tends to mean poor cleaning over a long period of time so the fleas hadn’t been eradicated and were desperate for food.
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Yuk, and myself and hubby were the new hosts. My skin is crawling. It was a chain hotel and looked ok.
Hi Rob
Thank you for your information regarding the dreaded bugs. Very grateful for your input and specialist knowledge.
Must have been awful in the Navy in years gone by, if that saying about sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite, wss true
Ironing the mattress with steam seems a good way of dealing with pests.
In France, this has been proved to be a false story launched by Russian trolls. Sure it’s the same in UK. Putin has forgotten nothing of the basics of psychological warfare learnt in the KGB. Anything to divide people and make them feel uncomfortable.
And psychological earfare is only a prelude to the real thing.
And of course, he can rely on the Reform 5th Column - that’s patriotism for you…
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Here’s an example of one of my bed bug traps, placed headboard end between the slats and the mattress.
The bed bugs will hide in the corrugations. and surrounding resevoir.
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Just read about Sniper 1000 still being on the market despite being banned from sale as it is toxic and can kill. It’s still being sold for exterminating bed bugs but is also potentially fatal for humans too.
What are your views on this Rob le Pest? I am sure you must have come across this product.
Ooh, that’s a new one on me, never heard of it, research says banned since 2013. There are a few rogue companies who are buying it or supplying it from overseas, but they are very naughty and will get a mighty slap if caught, as will anybody using it.
For bed bugs, I only use steam (Cimex Vaporetto) which is a concentrated steam at 180°C but it’s very expensive, and Diatomaceous Earth (DE) Fr. Terre de Diatomée. BB are highly resistant to many insecticides, DE is 100%natural, 100% effective on 100% insects.
I’m 100% bio regarding BB.
British PC’s are still bemoaning that Ficam D was banned, it was a miracle cure for wasp/hornet nests. They are kaffuffely-gobsmacked when I tell them that I have never used it, not even on Asian hornets. I’m a cheapskate, I use my distributors’ own brands.
Sorry, we can’t call them Asians anymore, luckily they have yellow legs because you can’t call them by their principal colour either!!
That product sounds dreadful. Especially as it has been banned and not to mention very dangerous too. Let’s hope it gets seized and not available to anyone for use against BB
I wouldn’t use anything like that. Natural products and use of steam cleaners or a strong suction vacuum cleaner sounds preferable as well as the natural earth you have mentioned
Does that make them ‘hornets of colour? World has gone mad!
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