Cooper Pest evaluates ozone treatments for bed bugs, finds current methods ineffective

nobugsonme — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:25:08 +0000

Lots of people would rather avoid traditional treatment methods if possible, for a variety of reasons. Many folks don’t like the idea of pesticide sprays. Some may have medical reasons for avoiding them. And everyone would like their bed bugs eradicated as soon as possible.

So it’s no surprise that methods like Vikane gas and thermal treatment appeal to many. Ozone has been mentioned in the past as one of several possibilities for treating bed bugs, but up until now, except for one reader’s informal experiments, we hadn’t seen any actual data about its effectiveness in eradicating bed bugs.

Cooper Pest has now run several tests using ozone treatments of a bed bug-infested single family home and a bed bug-infested office space.

According a post on Bed Bug Central (Cooper Pest’s blog) on 3/27,

None of the treatments were effective (no mortality was observed). Based upon our observations we have significant concerns regarding the ability to generate, and hold high enough concentrations of ozone, to achieve mortality within a structure. There are additional concerns regarding the ability of ozone to effectively penetrate all of the environments used as harborages by bed bugs. At the current time we do not view ozone as a viable alternative for treatment of structures infested with bed bugs.

Although it does not sound like ozone is a good option right now, Bed Bug Central noted that it may show itself to be useful in containerized treatments, for example. More research is in order.

It’s great to finally have some data on ozone’s effectiveness. Thanks, Cooper Pest!

More on flea market nightstand: new ozone treatment for bed bugs

nobugsonme — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:27:38 +0000

This is interesting: the St. Charles woman whose flea market nightstand left her bedbugged? She did not use Vikane or thermal treatments to clear her bed bugs, as we’d speculated. The $3000 treatment was a new one: ozone, piped into her home. According to the Beacon News, a Chicago Suburban news source, she first tried RAID, then conventional treatment of the one infested room:

Proud as she was at talking the seller down to $10, she had no idea the deal included a throw-in of the little creatures, which infested her daughter’s room within 72 hours. She immediately took the table outside and saturated it with Raid, then called an exterminator.

Yes, the exterminator, using heavy chemicals, got the bugs out of her daughter’s room.

“But they just migrated to our bedroom,” she said. “And then they were in the couch, on the floor where the cat lies, everywhere.”

We’ve heard you have to have the whole home treated for this reason. But instead of proceeding with conventional spraying, Thor found another option:

While extermination did not work, Thor discovered a new treatment from a company she happened to find working in her neighborhood.

Clean Zone, of Lisle, uses artificially made ozone to eliminate unwanted living organisms — from bugs to mold and bacteria. The company has machines about the size of a golf bag that actually create ozone, the kind we have naturally in our atmosphere.

They seal up a house or building, turn the machines on and go away for a while. The treatment area fills with ozone, which takes all oxygen from the air, effectively killing anything that needs oxygen to live.

Perhaps the best thing about the ozone treatment is it is natural, not chemical. After the treatment is over, the machines are turned off, the rooms unsealed, and within two hours the ozone converts to oxygen.

This is CleanZone’s information on their methods.
This one is completely new to me. I’d love to hear more from our bed bug experts and PCOs whether they know anything about these ozone treatments.

Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com » ozone

Cooper Pest evaluates ozone treatments for bed bugs, finds current methods ineffective

More on flea market nightstand: new ozone treatment for bed bugs