Bedbug Sentinel

Becky____Have thought of a few more areas that need to be addressed:  Return from travel precautions or steps to take to stop an infestation, and how to safeguard pets and their beds.

  • JulesNoise____Excellent. I have something about that and it is so simple but it has to be told. Many of the precautions that are imposed by the scare of bringing bedbugs home mean nothing when you have a “Co2 Bedbug Sentinel” at home.
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THE FINAL STEP

Bed bugs require oxygen to survive.  The bed bug eggs cannot develop without the presence of oxygen.  Immersion in CO2 creates frenzied behavior in bed bugs and suffocates all stages.

If purchased mattress or box spring encasements were applied after infestation, separate the mattress and box spring, and simply place one (1) pound of dry ice into each encasement and zipper shut.  With a needle, make 20-30 holes, too small for any bedbug, on the topside only and in the middle, to let air escape. Leave undisturbed for 48 hours.  Use insulated gloves to handle the dry ice to prevent skin damage.  Bed bugs and their eggs within the encasement will suffocate and die.

When no bed bugs are present in the traps, it is time to take the whole bed, or the part(s) of the bed that have not been protected by the plastic and bag them.  If purchased encasements were used on the mattress and box springs, this procedure will apply to only the frame.  If your headboard and/or foot board were covered, this procedure will apply to them also.  You’re going to bag in plastic sheeting all parts of the bed that were exposed to bed bugs.  This step will target any dormant bed bugs or eggs left.

Lay a sheet of plastic large enough to bag your items on the floor.  Place all items of the bed on the plastic sheeting.  You may need to make two separate plastic bags depending on the number and size of the items that were exposed.  Place a large folded towel or a Styrofoam cooler top on top of the items.  Dry ice is extremely cold and the towel or Styrofoam will protect your items from the cold. Never handle dry ice with bare hands.  Wear insulated gloves to handle the dry ice.  Bring the sides of the plastic sheeting up to bag the items.  Do this step to ensure your plastic sheet is large enough to draw and seal.  Before sealing the plastic with tape, place three(3) pounds of dry ice on the towel or Styrofoam on top of the items.  Seal the plastic securely shut with tape at the top.  Using a needle poke 10 to 20 holes at the top of the plastic bag to allow oxygen to escape.  CO2 is heavier than air and will force the oxygen to the top of the bag.  The needle holes allow the oxygen to escape, but will not allow bed bugs to escape.  Let the bag set undisturbed for a minimum of 48 hours.  After 48 hours, remove the plastic and vacuum all items.  Brush clean any spots on the mattress seams and remove any stains with carpet cleaner.  Assemble your bed.  Leave two running traps, at half the yeast for weak but long slow fermentation lasting up to six to twelve weeks, under each occupied bed to act as sentinels to alert — and catch — you to any future infestation.

  • (Sentinels go like this: You think that you are maintaining these bottles for nothing, so re-mixing them should not be too frequent. Low Co2 production can last a long time so it is good for that, but you still have to check them once in a while and one day you will find a single dead bedbug at the bottom of the talc dusted bowl or container when you will do your scheduled re-mix. The bedbug out of nowhere flat dead on its back in your trap after a long time without bedbugs The undetectable one that causes infestation, the first bedbug, the mother of all bedbugs! 
  • The sentinel does not alert you but catches the infestation before it starts)

The sentinel trap recipe is the same, with the exception of yeast amount.  Use one (1) teaspoon of yeast rather than two (2) teaspoons.

The use of large quantities of dry ice inside can pose a hazard; however, provided three (3) pounds is used in an undisturbed enclosed bag even if the bag is ruptured and the CO2 gas escapes is below coughing levels.

 

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Making Co2 to attract bedbugs

  • We make Co2 with yeast and sugar in lukewarm (100F)  water.

Each trap needs one envelope  (7-8 gr) of yeast and two cups of sugar.

  • With a funnel, put a full tablespoon of sugar in the bottle and the content of the envelope of yeast, add a tea cup of lukewarm water and shake vigorously until it forms some bubbles.
  • Let it sit for 10 minutes and when it forms a ring of foam
  • Fill the bottle halfway with lukewarm water and add the two cups of sugar.
  • Use an extra cap to shake the bottle and to dissolve the sugar in the water with the yeast.
  • Fill the bottle leaving a small space at the top and give it a last shake.

(Slip  the sock  down during these operations)

One thought on “Bedbug Sentinel

  1. They’re back….errr….uh….they never left apparently. As I wrote to you Jules back in January, and again in either late January or early February, we discovered a group of 12-16 bugs inside my wife’s dark pillow case. She immediately was grossed out by it and chose to go to the family room to sleep on our couch. As you said then, this was a mistake.

    That came true, as she was still sleeping there until two days ago when we discovered them on / in that couch…and MANY more than before….probably about 3x as many. We had an exceptionally cold and long winter her in central Ohio, and it really didn’t get warmer (+60 F) until last week.

    I admit, i got lazy when none of the 5 Co2 traps I made collected even one Bed Bug. Fortunately, I kept the bed bug shield set up on our bed and slept there myself, inspite of some loud ‘crinkling’ noises when I’d shift positions in bed, but I slept well otherwise. It did require quite a bit of adjusting on a daily basis to ensure the plastic never touched tthe ground and also so that the contour / fitted bottom sheet would star in place (We have a old king size mattress that is the old thickness, so all of the new sheets…are WAY too big….so this is somewhat problematic in keeping the fitted / contour sheet in place as the elastic can’t ‘grip’ the mattress due to the plastic sheet.)

    So, around the end of February, and I hadn’t replenished the C02 traps at all, my wife was sittting on the bed watching TV and spotted a BB on top of the bed. Our only thought was that it just meant we couldn’t go back to ‘normal’ yet. For whatever reason, I didn’t replenish the traps with a new mixture. Then, March 13th, my daughter had several bites. So, we again vacuumed out her entire room and got all her clothes off the floor, and disassembled her bed and vacuumed more…still, we found nothing…not even any of the peppering from the excrement.

    We have the couch isolated away from the wall and a border on the floor of Diatemaceous Earth powder in a perimeter a foot outside of the perimeter of the couch’s footprint. We removed the cushions and inspected them and put them in the drier, set on high, for 70 minutes. I also put the DE straight on the bedbugs where they were hiding, and also ”puffed’ the DE into the couch’s folds nad between the arms and back of the couch. I waited a day and then vacuumed up the dead bed bugs and immediately threw out the vacuum bag, sealed in a plastic bag outside of it.

    I then inspected the couch’s piping / trim and in the small crevices, etc.,…and killed with my hands at least another 40. I waited till that nite and re-inspected and found another 10, and killed them also, and again this morning, where I got 6, including a juvenile. The DE is still there.

    Additionally, I made some ‘guards’ with plastic, slick-finished picnic plates with a square small/low profile tupperware type container (the cheap Kroger brand alternative) fitted inside the plate. I also wrapped the outside of the tupperware containers with double sided scotch tape, and placed our other upholstered chair’s legs in the tupperware containers. I figured, that way, they would have to crawl upside down on a smooth / slick overhand of the plate, then travers the edge, then down to the tupperware and then up that slick wall, pausing to get over the double sided tape, then have to traverse another overhang to then get to the chair or ottomoan wood leg.

    With the six present this morning, I put them in a ziploc bag and then put them on one of the plates…they could not get up the slope to the rim. And that is the SECOND barrier…to escape. I observed them for 40 minutes and none of the six were successful. I also placed some of the tape on the plate and it did get them stuck for a moment, but then they 3x got themselves free. Also, they generally paused and went another route whenever they saw the tape.

    In spite of all of this, I am going to consider the professional heat treatmen of our whole house, which is only about 1550 sq ft, and all on one level, so it should be an easy job. I’ll at least get a quote.

    Now back to setting up my CO2 traps again…this time on the outside of the perimeter of the DE around the couch. Also, I put our daughter’s bed legs and our bed legs in those plastci plate / tupperware guards,

    I believe you said to change the total drape / cover of the mattress and boxspring to the contour sheet with the plastic on the boxspring only, with the 1-2 foot curtain of plastic duct taped around the contour / fitted sheet. Hopefully the duct tape will stay gripped to the sheet.

    MANY thanks! Further advice!?

    Also….one suggestion on the newly desigend website, which is much better btw….can you put a more obvious link to the customer feedback / replies on the home page?

    Thanks!

    Riley Grattan
    Columbus, OH

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