Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Reader questions (do not fit into other categories)
Bagging things AND drilling in walls
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 5 2007 11:43:30
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Two questions. Thanks to anyone and support to everyone who is also going through this.
1. I have vacuumed and bagged everything I own (books, shoes etc.--I have hot washed/dried/dry cleaned/bagged all clothes too but am not worried about them for the moment) and am now worried after reading posts that there still might be a bug in a bag. I am told that if I spray the contact or residual insecticide IN the bag and re-seal it, that should kill anything in there. How true is this?
2. Does anyone have experience with hole drilling and silica gel in the walls? My PCO finally did this for me after 4 months of spraying and still finding dead bugs around. They seem to think this will really do the trick. Thoughts???
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nightshirt
senior member
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 455
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 5 2007 13:33:39
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my pco used de in the wall outlets and that worked. if they are in the walls you need to caulk every crevice and crack to permanently close off your apt from the internal apartment walls. is this what you were doing that silicone thing for?
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 5 2007 13:58:12
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Yes. I was told that this would prevent them from coming in from another apartment as well as kill them in the walls if they were hiding there. Because this sounds too good to be true, was just curious if others had knowledge on this....both the pest people and the landlord company seem to have high confidence in this. (In addition to the multiple sprayings they have done).
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nightshirt
senior member
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 455
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 5 2007 15:34:06
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i dont know about that i will be interested to see what other people have to say about siliconing. fyi - my method works too! i also caulked all around the baseboards, inside closets, everywhere and now my apt is totally isolated. a relief.
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Thu Sep 6 2007 9:38:44
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thank you--caulking sounds like a good idea, too. :)
anyone else experienced with the gel???
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1. Spraying a residual into a bag: I did not do this, and frankly, it is scary to me. It can be dangerous to use pesticides in ways they are not labelled to be used. It can be dangerous to have contact with pesticides on your skin, which you will when you remove the stuff. I don't know but it may also damage your stuff. I have heard one or two people recommend this, but my basic feeling is it is dangerous.
I tell people that if you bag your stuff for the duration of treatment, it must stay bagged for 18 months. If you do not bag it throughout treatment, but expose it, bed bugs can come out to bite you, cross residual, and die. This is all covered in the FAQs on treating/dealing with your stuff, and you might find some good information there.
As far as spraying a contact kill in the bag: this will not work unless you drench everything. Contact killers only kill bed bugs if directly sprayed.
2. Don't know anything about silica gel. Maybe others will. One NYC PCO was drilling holes and filling with DE, I think.
If you want to know about silica gel, I'd ask at thebedbugresource.com, where Sean and other PCOs will know more about treatment protocols.
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Thu Sep 6 2007 14:54:05
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Thank you so much nobugsonme! :)
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Silica gel is probably amorphous silica gel (a synthetic desiccant). I guess we're more familiar with the name Drione, which contains silica gel plus pyrethrins (plus synergists).
By the way, Drione is not the fresh-water diatomaceous earth (DE) we typically recommend for self-treatment here. (In addition, I usually recommend only the food-grade DE, which is as safe as it gets. However, many prefer a type of DE-plus-pyrethrins, which is yet something else. I guess there is an overwhelming variety of DE and DE-like products.)
We always feel the need to remind people of this, Drione does not equal DE, but that's because many use the terms interchangeably, sometimes to disastrous effect.
This article by William Quarles in PCT might help with all the distinctions. Bedbugger also has a great DE faq here.
But, yes, Drione and the like are typical bedbug-fighting products.
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Thu Sep 6 2007 16:12:40
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Hi. I'm not really sure what the name is but I was told by my PCO (who drilled the holes and put the powder in) that it was silica gel. I will try to find out more, and thank you for the link to the article.
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I'm sure there are other brands. Drione is just the brand we hear most often here.
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buggeroff
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Joined: Jul '07
Posts: 180
Posted 2 years ago
Thu Sep 6 2007 16:18:03
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What hopeless said.
My tub of Drione says it's mostly amorphous silica gel and, despite its name, it is a powder, not something gooey. This material is inert (not chemically active), but it is still bad to inhale because the little crystals can lodge in the lungs and damage the tissue. I think it is really only safe to use in the spaces between the walls - which a person can reach either via electrical outlets and light switches or, more thoroughly, by drilling holes in the sheet rock. But I also think that using this, or something like it, is really important to prevent or slow the movement of BBs from one apartment to another.
Does your PCO have a plan to patch the holes, or is that your job?
I didn't spray inside the bags. The clean laundry is clean and the things I could not launder I am willing to live without for long enough that the BBs will die on their own. I could see (maybe) spraying things like shoes or books or tchatchkes that you can't launder, letting them dry and then bagging them in the hope that the residual kills the BBs faster than just plain bagging. I don't think I'd count on it, but I can't really give you a good reason why not.
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downonbugs
newbite
Joined: Sep '07
Posts: 17
Posted 2 years ago
Thu Sep 6 2007 16:18:22
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Thank you again! I missed the DE faq before because I did not realize it meant silica gel.
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