There have been a number of recent national news reports (on National Public Radio, in Time Magazine, on CBS News and Fox News) about a study stating that Bug Bombs Do Not Work on Bed Bugs and Customers Should Not Bother With This Approach.
The articles reference work by Dr. Susan Jones a professor of entomology at Ohio State University. She is releasing a paper “Ineffectiveness of Over-the-Counter Total-Release Foggers Against the Bed Bug (Heteroptera: Cimicidae).” Her research demonstrated that total release aerosols are not very effective in killing bed bugs. (The article will be published in the June 2012 Journal of Economic Entomology.)
What her work shows is that total release aerosol foggers – a.k.a., Bug Bombs – don’t work!
To Bell Environmental this isn’t news- which is why we warn bed bug victims that they should steer clear of this method. Bed Bugs aren’t an insect you can or should try to bomb or fog away!
As the FTC says, bombs can make the problem worse because bed bugs tend to cluster in small areas. When an area is bug bombed, for example, bed bugs scatter, which may expand their infestation throughout your home or office. Bell Environmental has written about how bug bombs do not solve bed bug issues. Virginia Tech entomologist Dr. Dini Miller, inspected a residence where a victim “set off ten bug bombs in his apartment, and when that didn’t work, he followed up with 30 more…. The walls were so sticky with the residue, and yet live bedbugs that had fed the night before are crawling around while we’re standing there talking.”
We’ll take this one step further. While the study looked at three over the counter products used for fogging residences, commercial fogging solutions don’t work on bed bugs either.
At best, fogging has dubious effectiveness on bed bugs as the pyrethroid chemicals do not kill most populations of bed bugs. The bugs may even be able to metabolize the chemicals. In addition, the fog may not penetrate the tiny cracks and crevices that bed bugs inhabit. At worst, fogging can damage furniture and stain electronics and glass with a light coating of oil and drive bed bugs further into hiding. The fog may also drift into areas where you don’t want it to go. Click Here for more details on why fogging doesn’t work on bed bugs.
And for more information on bed bug solutions that are safe and effective, Click Here.