Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Tools/ideas for fighting bed bugs
bed bug traps
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willow-the-wisp
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Posted 5 years ago
Fri Jun 22 2007 15:01:01
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You can make a lot of home made bed bug traps (to supplement a PCO's efforts) if you know these things;
Bed bugs like to live
In corners, under things and inside things.
They like clothing--especially zippers and seams.
They LOVE cardboard!
It's too late for me to try this now--but I would do this in a "NY minute."I'd get plastic bags and put them in the corners of rooms--especially near the bed ... I'd fill them with old clothing and cardboard--make sure it is not already infested--I'd even leave them on the floor by where my exhaled CO2 would go while sleeping ...
Each morning ... I'd seal it up and toss it in a double plastic bag.
By doing so--you can use the clothing you feel you must throw out to actually help you throw out some bed bugs too!
I believe that up to 25% of bed bugs are carried around in our infested clothing. Why not set such a trap--they move at night and they sleep by day. They like to hang around the bed--in clothing.
Does this make sense?
PS since they don't like plastic--you'd need to leave an overhang of inviting items to get them to go into the bags -
wantmyskinback
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Posted 5 years ago
Fri Jun 22 2007 17:20:10
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Interesting.
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ofallthebeds
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Posted 5 years ago
Mon Jun 25 2007 16:01:55
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Hmm... I used to just throw my clothes is some sort of semi organized pile at night next to my bed... NEVER AGAIN! It really was all folded neatly... I just for some odd reason did not put it in it's rightful place... my closets were jammed packed too... there is nothing in them now... after I washed or tossed things out.
Has anyone tried this?
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willow-the-wisp
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Posted 5 years ago
Mon Jun 25 2007 19:33:52
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I have done similar things and had some success--I just never thought to put it directly under where my c)2 would be exhailed, or in the corners of the room. It's not like I knew what I was doing as I was doing it: in other words ... I've tried it and used lightloy blowing heat into the trap too. I think I had some success.
If i got 1 out of ever y8-12 bugs, I say it was well worht the cost of old clothing I am ready to "toss" anyway .... some cereal boxes and some toilet cardboard rolls. They LOVE that stuff--so why not put it where they hang out around the bed BUT NOT TOUCHING THE BED--and in the corners of the rooms.
For similar reasons, I reccommend that we vacuume inward, toward the bed and inward, towards the corners--that's where the bugs like to hang out+ they love cotton and cardboard to hang out in+ you've just isolated the bed and so ...
(so now you have "homeless bed bugs").
It's worht a try.
I also sprayed thegas with 91% r alcohol before iwrapped them in the early morning. Set out late at night too--like after 9 pm -
willow-the-wisp
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Posted 5 years ago
Mon Aug 13 2007 22:25:34
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However, hey … What about a swing hassock over the bed as a way to not be bit but stay in a room as bait??? Could this be done entrepreneurially??? I think and I hope so!!! You could hang over the bed and set traps on the bed and, actually catch them right beneath you! They would all wind up under you at some point during the night. That may be a good place to put the pheromone traps once they are out!
Alternatively, until such time, say.... put some heavy plastic with De on it ... or, some PCO chemical used which the bugs supposedly cannot detect but is legal and lethal to have it on the bed under you? Alternatively, how about just cardboard for them to decide to make the center of your bed their new home? It's but a few ideas as one way of several, needed simultaneously, and all working in harmony, to kill off the persistent little buggers! -
tiredandsleepless
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Posted 5 years ago
Mon Aug 13 2007 22:59:11
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I have to say these sound like very innovative interesting ideas...
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your host
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Posted 5 years ago
Mon Aug 13 2007 23:11:05
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A hammock, Willow? They could walk across the rope your hammock hung on, and bite ya.
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your host
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Aug 14 2007 0:12:02
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I personally would not bother with the "trap" idea. Decluttering, not adding temporary clutter, is likely to help you see bed bugs.
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buggedinbrooklyn
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Aug 14 2007 1:20:53
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quote from nobugs - "I personally would not bother with the "trap" idea. Decluttering, not adding temporary clutter, is likely to help you see bed bugs."
I have to agree.
the tryed and true methods work the best.here's a thought if you wana kill bedbugs...how about being the bait?
using sprays or dust in the areas that you sleap or rest in the most, and force them to cross the chemicals to reach you.no offence to anyone who loves isolation, or so called traps.
but once they reach the area that the CO2 is atracting them, they can tell that a nice warm blood sorce (food) is right there.
why would a bedbug then crall into a bag, when the food sorce is outside the bag?now they might enter the bag after a feeding to hide and rest in order to digest the meal, but not to go feed on your old socks...sorry, but that idea is silly to me.
with much respect,
buggedinbrooklyn -
willow-the-wisp
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Aug 14 2007 12:55:24
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Hi all: After biting YOU, they MIGHT JUST perhaps crawl into the bag (WITH BED BUG FRIENDLY MATERIEALS and "start" a new harborage closer to the food source--that's why.
This is a good idea for bed bugs that are not on the bed and have to do some work at getting to you. Q. If you flipped a light on in the middle of the night, would bed bugs run all the way across a room or dive into the first dark inviting place they found for protection?
A. I don’t know but I'd try it before tossing the idea out.The hammock would be freestanding hung on a STURDY METAL FRAME.
That FRAME would be isolated TO KEEP BUGS OFF YOU, BUT ALSO ATTRACTED TO YOU WHILE STILL UNDER YOU--NOT ON YOU.With all due respect, I find it a better option than sleeping in a bed full of poisons that some people here suggest you do, and allow yourself to be bitten by Bed bugs, who will continue to lay eggs and perhaps not die at all.
Since bed bugs love to live under the mattress you could even isolate the bed but put a cardboard trap under the mattress.
The 18th Swedish bed bug slat was in part effective. These slats were like a wooden rolling pin with drilled holes in them. Corks, which plugged up an opening at either end, were used to keep the bug in the dark hollows.
One only had to lift up the sheets and expose the bugs to a light source--I've heard some of them dived for cover into the holes.
Bed bugs evolved in caves they have poor vision, but they sure know the difference between light and dark--they can see a black hole in a bit of wood and perhaps they see it better than they see a well lit object?Donno--think it is entirely possible.
of course my goal is to kill bed bugs in all ways that are safe: So ultimately I say that you can have your PCO applied poisons, and use your homemade/store-bought traps too!
When the pheromone product comes out this will become plain. You could for example but some of it into the Swedish rolling pin that you'd take into an isolated bed with you. here, after 10 days you'd be sure you had no bugs on the bed--provided you cleaned it our every day there is no reason not to put such traps on the floor around the bed:
pheromone traps do not just have to be glue traps.
You'll see.
Until then, I vote for 95% of the time sleeping on an isolated bed (with a few exceptions) and remaining in the room during the daytime as much as possible, to keep the bugs from scattering. I’d keep my contact killer handy on those days too!We recently had a report that bed bugs can create up to 15+ eggs over a 10-day period from a single mating session. That is the ultimate point—the eggs are what keep the infestations going, so no bites = less eggs and bugs in the long run.
I hope my “entrepreneurial’ readership increases, and that not only the scoffers leave comments.
You know … people have every right to comment on my ideas and they can make suggested improvements on these ideas too.I’m not offended but just wanted to point this out.
BTW--I've killed hundreds of them--and this was mostly mechanical and with OTC Products less harsh than professional chemicals on and around my bed.
If I did have a PCO? I'd nearly insist he not spray my matress and I'd cover it correctly. I also certainly would never undo a 100% isolated bed, just becase A PCO told me to so, so he/she he could spray it.
I'd personally go out and get another PCO.
That's just me.
So who else has some other innovative bed bug trap ideas???? -
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 1:48:48
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Willow,
I take issue with some of what you're saying:
"This [trap idea] is a good idea for bed bugs that are not on the bed and have to do some work at getting to you."
The thing is, Willow, you cannot claim it's a good idea. No one has tried it and there is no proof it will work. As I have said in my PMs to you, privately, I am concerned about many of your recommendations which are purely speculative. Lots of people read your advice and assume these are good ideas. And they take energy, as do the tried and true ideas. But they may not work.
You also say, "The hammock would be freestanding hung on a STURDY METAL FRAME.
That FRAME would be isolated TO KEEP BUGS OFF YOU, BUT ALSO ATTRACTED TO YOU WHILE STILL UNDER YOU--NOT ON YOU."Again, you have not tried this. You never explained that the hammock should be isolated, or how. A hammock simply slung, can be walked on by bed bugs.
To everyone else, I hear from entomologists who are working on bed bug traps. Traps per se are not a bad idea. But let's just recommend things here that we know to work.
Willow, I seriously appreciate your kindness and your willingness to take time giving advice, and your extensive medical knowledge which is really useful to others here. I also like you and enjoy your "company" on the site.
But I am begging you not to speculate about possible solutions: traps, hammocks, kitty litter in the freezer, DE in the freezer, and elaborate contraptions involving taped holes, vaseline moats, and DE rings, for --you claim--getting bed bugs out of televisions, when simpler solutions are recommended and known to work.
Willow, I do not like to criticize your ideas in the forums, but I have tried corresponding with you on PM in the last 24 hours and not heard back. As I said in PMs to you, the forums were started to support the readers of the blog. We provided FAQs, and those experienced with bed bugs shared WHAT WORKED FOR THEM AND OTHERS in the Tales of Woe threads, which became the forums.
The site was not started for wild speculation masquerading as tried and true solutions. Newbites cannot always discern which advice is tried and true vs. which is pure speculation. The Bedbugger site has a reputation that's built on solid advice and solid research. That's not to say we don't make mistakes or revise what we recommend. But there's a basis for the advice. I will not sit back and have that sabotaged in the name of "people having a right to share their ideas."
When I started the forums, it came up that I had to be a "cop" in some sense, and I do not like this role. However, I am trying to keep the site useful for people who need it. And I strongly believe that pure speculation, as opposed to methods tried and known to work by many, is not good advice here.
Let me speak plainly. If the forums do not continue to support the work of the FAQs in giving good, solid advice to people who are panicking about bed bugs, then I will have to rethink hosting the forums. I would hate to take them down, since so many people are apparently benefitting, and so many of you (including you Willow) often sharing good advice.
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S
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 9:55:53
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Hey Willow and others,
I'm going to have to agree. These forums were sort of like my best friend and worst enemy during my bedbug ordeal (no offense to anyone specific, we're all a part of them together). It's great to have a constant stream of new ideas, but the new ideas aren't helpful if they don't work, or if the advice makes you more scared than informed. I know it's boring (and even annoying, perhaps) to continue to give the same advice, over and over again. Nobugs gives the same string of advisory tidbits, over and over again. She must be so bored with them! "Read the FAQs." "Call an experienced PCO." "Wash and dry your clothes on hot." Bo-ring. Yeah yeah, all the old folks here know that stuff. It can sound like a broken record for us, so perhaps we try to come up with new, more inventive methods, to make things more interesting and feel like we're making progress.
But honestly, newbites need those tried-and-true pieces of advice. They need to feel like someone's talking specifically to them, sure, but they still need to hear those same pieces of advice. And as people with a bit more experience, it is truly our responsibility to provide the best advice we know of. Here's the scale, in my mind:
1st: Something that we know worked for us. (I have very few of these, honestly).
2nd: Something that we *think* worked for us, though we can't be totally sure.
3rd: Something that our trusted PCO recommended.
4th: Something that someone we trust said worked for them.
5th: Something that a random stranger said worked for them.
6th: Something that we read from a fact sheet or bedbug expert online.This is my scale, though others may have their own. But nowhere on here do I say, "Something that we think might work." It's like, we have to work with the few facts we have, and not give people random ideas, just because they might work. People will assume everything we say to be 1st on my list (ie, something that we know worked for us). This is obviously not good.
So, that's my take. The forums are an unbelievable resource, and nothing else on the web even comes close. But you're only as good as your latest post, and the forums are only as good as the quality of everyone's advice. So before you write, make sure you can stand by your writing.
S
PS, quick update on me: no bites since the one, which was 10 days ago. I put the blanket in the drier, D-Forced the couch, and tried to live normally. My PCO and I agree that it was a bedbug bite, but that if I don't get another one soon, then it probably happened outside the house. And I can't control that. So, I am sitting tight.
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Anonymous
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 13:56:34
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I think traps are non-starters, but that's because I spent a sleepless night reading turn of the century bedbug patents and drawings, from when people had bedbugs all the time and couldn't get rid of them? (Which, by the way, makes me think that when otherwise well-meaning people say that people used to live with bedbugs without caring too much, they are wrong, wrong! The UK's Medical Research Council had a Bed-Bug Committee from 1935 to 1940. I actually think bedbugs have always been big.)
But tangents aside, I think the problem is the nature of internet forums which are probably all alike in this way! My biggest concern is new people not reading the FAQs. It's almost as if some of us think the FAQs were written by an impersonal corporate entity and the forums is where you get the "real" skinny. In fact, the forums is where you get abbreviated advice that may not be right for you at all and that ignores some other issues that may actually help you more. This is because you may not know what you really should be asking in the first place.
The reason is probably social. Some of us may need personal warmth and caring more than we need to know the facts. (OK, not me, the rhetorical me.) Not to go on about having to trudge 5 miles to school in the snow when I was new to bedbugs myself, but it's so disconcerting to see how many ignore the best available advice in favor of some hasty tips.
In any case, Nobugs, although it's very sad in many ways, this is how it works with public forums, probably, and things will remain this way, varying slightly according to the level-headedness and experience of the participants at any given time.
I disagree with your scale, S, but consider your advice sound as well as extraordinarily caring, so you must have another system you are not even aware of.
I'm glad things are under control.
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willow-the-wisp
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 15:22:11
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Dee Weber discovered by experiment and perhaps by accident that D lemmoline may be the active ingredient that is a contact killer? But has that ever been scientifically proven?
For those who do not kow the first tenet of pure science--it is keen observation and a best guess to form a working hypothesis.
I have never said any of my bed bug traps were overly helpful, cardboard on the floor--if it is de-infested first, and tossed out every day is not a lot of work, cost nor even much effort.Last week, I did soak some corragated cardoard that I had left on the floor for a trap and 3, 2nd stage nymphs dead--came out in the HOT tub water. ( I ripped the cardboard open after I soake ti for an hour.
So ... it's just 3 bugs--but if all three were to be females well, I may have tipped the balance in my war with bed bugs in my favor.
On the blog last week nobugs has claimed herself to be bossy and strait-shooting. along with "S." Nomo and Jessinchicago.
Now I'm feeling ganged up upon by a bunch of cops?
whatever--my bugs are gone and this site helped me. I'm sure my contributions those unacknoweleged as well as those that have been are not so out of whack as they have breen made to seem.
nobugs--you have misrepresented me and who really needs the hassle of dealing with a bunch of repressed--or not so repressed control freaks?Funny how it all comes together in one thread "the deadly three"
Please do not delete this comment nor your comments above--leave it as is--I'm frankly quite tired of all three of you as well. let's be real!
Chow!
PS expand your minds! -
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 15:54:59
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Willow,
I am sorry you are offended, but we're looking at this from different angles. (You misrepresented my statement about being a straight shooter, and took it out of context.)Dee discovered for herself that d limonene was a contact killer. But it was corroborated by entomologist lou sorkin that others had discovered it previously.
WIllow, you can't compare Murphy's oil soap which has been tested by MANY with ideas you have alone tried, let alone those you mention which no one has tried.
I get tearful emails and PMs from newbites who try to follow some things they're told they should try.
The bottom line is that this site is bigger than any of us. The importance of good information outweighs everything else.
I have been respectful of you Willow, but I don't think you are being respectful here.
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buggedinbrooklyn
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 18:09:28
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I originaly wanted to reply to this ultra early this morning, after what I thought was a harsh reply from nobugs, but I'm glad I waited...
you see, I originaly took this to be a debate type thread, but after rereading it, I now do not.willow, if you originaly wanted to talk about traps, or alternitive ways to get rid of bedbugs, and helping to stop the spread of an infestation, that would be fine.
but this forum is more about giving sound advice then anything else, and repeatedly, alot of your ideas are not good at getting rid of bugs, nor is the advice good at preventing the spread of an infestation.the worst part about your latest posts on this thread, is not that your asking to debate your thoughts, but that you are insistant in doing things that could be harmful to your fight against bedbugs.
and people read your posts, and will take your thoughts as a way that will work for them.you also say that it's too late for you to try the cardboard traps, then you say that last week you found 3 bugs in one of them, then you say that your bug free at this time...
WHAT???look, I'll agree that a cardbord trap that could help you kill 3 bedbugs is a nice idea in some small way...but I'm sure I killed more then that, by just rolling over in my bed while sleeping, in just one night.
3 bugs is nothing when your dealing with hundreds, maybe thousands.
it's less then half a precent.but add in bed isolation, refusal to use chiemicals in some places (like a bed), and many other thoughts that you posted here, only help with the spread of bugs to other rooms, and your neighbors...does that sound like good advice?
(even if you only have one room to live in, most people don't, and they can't force thenselfs to stay in that one room 95% of the day because they work, or goto school.)
while I agree that a good nights sleep is worthwhile in an isolated bed, I still strongly feel it helps bedbugs to seekout new areas to feed on you...and that's bad.
you could also reinfest your bed at any time by mistake, and with no chiemicals, have a reifestation of your bed.please understand that if you want to debate topics, I'm sure no one would mind...but after rereading this thread, it doesn't look like your wanting a debate.
infact, I'm not sure what your trying to get across to us?please also understand that we (all of us) only wish you the best, and are not trying to gang up on you.
we just don't want people to get the wrong idea that some of the things being said here are proactive and worthwhile in helping bugs from spreading or dieing.believe me, I wish that kleanfree alone would have killed off all my bedbugs...
but alas, I also had to use harsh chemicals to kill off the bastards.
I also had to be the bait, as sad as that might be.BTW, I do welcome any, and all new ideas...and I'm sure nobugs does too.
and I also would love to hear of anything that others have tryed that helps.
but it should be kept in a debate type thread, with an open mind that some might not like some of the ideas...maybe with good reason.above all, don't take this reply to you too harshly...we care, we realy do.
buggedinbrooklyn
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Bugalina
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 20:08:11
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buggedinbrooklyn...thank you for returning to help others. I am sorry about the the above thread but i do think we have to be very aware of what we are dealing with here. Not to go off topic but awhile back I questioned the idea of NOT isolating the bed..( after one treatment) and the reason for this was that if the bugs remain in the mattress there is no reason for them to cross over any chemical barrier...they will just suck blood and retreat back into the mattress and or boxspring...So unless the mattress and boxspring that a person is sleeping on can be chemically treated then I think that mattresses and boxsprings can only serve as "safe harborages"....The good thing ..maybe...imo..about not covering the bedding is that they will only be living in the bed ie. mattress and boxspring....so if one can wrap up the mattress and boxspring , without allowing ANY escapes, and take it out to the dumpster and throw it in...then maybe you have gotten rid of them in one fell swoop...maybe...I read some old quotes about bed bugs and one on them was an old Mexican saying ...If you have bed bugs, Burn the mattress........I think that's a better idea than continuing to sleep on it, unprotected and letting them grow in numbers...This is a conundrum to me..
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 20:11:22
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Bugalina,
The person you were talking about eventually clarified--she was not ISOLATING the bed (with legs in bowls of mineral water, etc.) She WAS protecting the mattress (i.e. with encasements). I think everyone agrees on encasements (protecting) but not everyone agrees with isolating. -
Bugalina
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 20:12:15
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Ok..that makes more sense....to me anyways..
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Anonymous
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 22:05:30
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Hi BiB,
Please don't think that Nobugs has been harsh. There is missing context here; traps, well, they're not the most egregious example of Willow's manner of dispensing advice and that's why it seems as if it's unwarranted. I am very sorry to see Willow's outburst but I have seen Nobugs try to approach him in several posts on subjects that have greater consequence without acknowledgment.
Since Willow has chosen this scorched earth path, it is as well to be frank.
It is one thing to speculate, to dream and to tinker, and quite another to give dubious advice under a mantle of authority. That is really the problem here, that there is nothing to preface something as a fanciful idea, a hope, or a vague outline of an amateur experiment. When Willow writes, he writes as if he is giving advice from a position of experience and knowledge. A loosely tied pillowcase around your neck may prevent facial bites, he will write, and you just have to wonder if there is someone out there who might follow such a recommendation--because it is phrased as a recommendation. Even if it is not clear that he himself has ever tried such a notion or thought through what the possible risks or unintended consequences may be.
I always have doubts over my own advice to others; some self-doubt is probably healthy and keeps you honest. I'm sure we try to do our best, all of us, but it is also important to know when to defer to better judgment. (Being asked politely by someone you respect is a good indication.) Then there is the simple duty of manners to one's host.
In every possible way, it is sad to see this display, but Nobugs is right to want to protect her achievements and the good that an unimaginable amount of work and effort has yielded for so many of us.
The deadly, the repressed, the philistine... what else, Willow?
Nomo
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buggedinbrooklyn
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 22:29:00
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hi nomo,
if you reread what I said, you'll find that I realised that I was mistaken in thinking that nobugs was being harsh...
I'm also agreeing with nobugs, in that proper advice needs to be given at all times.buggedinbrooklyn
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Aug 15 2007 23:08:18
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Thanks hopelessnomo, S, and Buggedinbrooklyn,
Just to be clear--my wish is to protect the site, and everyone who contributes good, sound, helpful advice, shares credit for what the site is, and how many people it helps.
You are some of those -- and I know how much work you put in here. And how you come back when you don't have bed bugs--that is a testament to your dedication. I am trying to protect the gift you, we, all of us are giving.
And Willow, too, as I have repeatedly said, you have contributed much that is positive. But we are making a group knowledge base here. And we're disagreeing about some things, and we're correcting each other on some things. I have made mistakes and had wrong ideas, and tried to correct or clarify them where necessary, as I know others have.
But we need to base our information on solid knowledge, and as hopelessnomo points out, know when to defer to better judgment. We also need to know our limits.
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