Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Bed bug science, "experiments," etc.
20 mule borax vs bedbugs
(6 posts)-
denverbugfighter
newbite
Joined: May '09
Posts: 9
Posted 6 months ago
Fri May 8 2009 22:27:56
#
Login to Send PM
Hello everyone, I hope this helps....
I once was infected with fleas in another state and I learned about 20 mule borax, which was a successful treatment to eliminate them. There's a lot of people asking if it works just as well with bedbugs, but no one ever seems to give a response on the Internet. So, I took it upon myself to conduct an experiment to test it's effectiveness. I captured a live bedbug and placed the blood-sucking, heartless creature in a jar. Here are the results to date (05082009) -
The first assumption -
20 Mule Borax creates a barrier that bedbugs will not walk over.
How I tested this is by putting the borax down on one side of the jar, in a thin line, but it was one quarter inch high. I did it like this so if the bug was really afraid of the borax, it had plenty of room to stay away from it. The result? It appeared that the line of borax was nothing more than something for the bedbug to crawl over. It walked right on top of it, even staying on the top for a long period of time. Disproved.The second assumption -
20 Mule Borax kills a bedbug within a few days because it will cut them, hence dehydrate them to death.
How I tested this is simply by waiting. Since the first test was definitely over (bug wasn't afraid of it) I poured about an inch deep of 20 mule borax into the jar, completely covering the bedbug initially. I left it alone for 4 days. The results? Nothing! The bug continued to walk all over, and live on the borax with no slow in its pace. Disproved.The third assumption -
20 Mule Borax laid on the carpet before vacuuming will chop it into pieces once it enters the swirling vacuum chamber.
How I tested this is by pouring the jar with the borax and bedbug directly into my vacuum chamber and running it for exactly 60 seconds. I think this "myth" might not be true if you have an old style, strait to the bag vacuum. However, I'm only saying that based on what I can see as a difference between the two, I did no experiments to back that. The results? Instant death? No. However, the bug appears to be very injured and can barely move around. I thought it was dead right away. I actually put it in my hand and saw some life, trying to suck blood out of me. I threw it back in the jar alone, no borax at this point. Its legs appear to be half shriveled, as you would see in a dead insect. The only difference is, the legs are still moving when I blow on it or shake the jar a little bit. So, what do I make of this test? Within 15 minutes of conducting this experiment, the bedbug was completely back to life and running around the jar, mad as hell. I think it was simply dazed from spinning around and around in my vacuum at unknown (to me) revolutions per second.My analysis -
20 Mule borax is a great product for so many uses in life. I've had great experiences with it and will continue to use it for them. However, this product has zero effectiveness against bedbugs.
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, I'm not a scientist by any means. I'm a person, just like you, fighting to find an answer to this bedbug problem that is running ramped across the world. My apartment is infested with these creatures and I'm doing everything I can to control them. I'm going to post another topic about everything I have done, but this one is long enough. If you have questions for me, PLEASE ask. Within two days I'll have more posted. I just wanted to conduct this experiment because I was trying to search it, and found nothing relevant to this topic. It's a loss for me, but a saving of time and money for you.
Contact me at:
denverbugfighter at(@) gmail.com
PS, I will put steam into the jar tomorrow and kill this insect I'm just waiting 24 more hours, hoping for better results. Why? Because borax is suck a cheap treatment. If I do not respond to this article 24 hours from now, nothing else happened. Which, I'm pretty sure it won't. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped.
-
Hey, this is a cool study you put together. This will probably help a lot of people remember that borax doesn't kill bedbugs. Thanks for posting your results!
-
spideyjg
oldtimer
Joined: Jul '08
Posts: 1,405
Posted 6 months ago
Sat May 9 2009 15:50:40
#
Login to Send PM
Sounds to me like a well designed experiment and regardless of the fact you are not a scientist that doesn't negate your results.
Jim
-
MyWorstFear
member
Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 266
Posted 6 months ago
Sat May 9 2009 22:41:01
#
Login to Send PM
Interesting experiments! Thanks for posting them and the results. Your first experiment reminds me of one I did with an ant. I read that ants hate cinnamon, so I sprinkled a circle of cinnamon around a live ant. For the first 60 seconds, I thought "wow, it really works" as the ant would not walk over the cinnamon and was going in circles looking for a way out of the cinnamon circle. However, after 60 seconds, I think the ant just said to itself "screw it, I'll just walk over the damn cinnamon" and that's exactly what it did, totally unharmed and off on its merry way until I killed it the old fashioned way....
by stepping on it! -
dottie
junior member
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 70
Posted 6 months ago
Sun May 10 2009 15:21:03
#
Login to Send PM
I can't read the complete posts but 20 Mule Team eradicated my horrid 2006 flea infestation immediately. I can swear by it.
-
denverbugfighter
newbite
Joined: May '09
Posts: 9
Posted 6 months ago
Sun May 10 2009 15:49:23
#
Login to Send PM
dottie - 25 minutes ago »
I can't read the complete posts but 20 Mule Team eradicated my horrid 2006 flea infestation immediately. I can swear by it.I agree! That's what the very first sentence of my post says. I got rid of my flea infestation in just 2 treatments using 20 Mule Borax. The point of this post was to test it's effectiveness against bed bugs, not fleas. I was hoping to have the same results.
Reply
You must log in to post.
