Since we work in the bed bug control industry, we frequently get asked what the best bed bug treatment is.
A quick online search will produce tens of millions of results on this subject. One can find pest management professionals extolling the effectiveness of their pesticides and heat treatments right alongside do-it-yourself guides that show readers how to eliminate these pests themselves.
We understand the fact that when people discover evidence of bed bugs in their living spaces, they can get desperate in their attempts to eradicate the pests as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, unless people truly know what they’re doing, their efforts to eliminate the bed bugs are likely to be futile. That’s why our recommendation is for people to contact their local pest management professionals (PMPs) as soon as possible to take care of the problem.
So, what is the best bed bug treatment? We think it’s the Aprehend® treatment as applied by a PMP, but let’s explain more about this.
Why We Don’t Recommend Bed Bug Home Remedies
The first decision homeowners or apartment dwellers should make when they encounter bed bugs is to call a pest control company. That’s because these professionals know how to conduct a thorough inspection and identify hidden harborage sites. This brings us to our first point.
When people attempt bed bug home remedies first, they often focus on spraying the bed bugs that they see. In fact, chemical insecticide sprays purchased at home improvement stores only kill bed bugs on contact. But this deals with just part of the problem, missing all the bed bugs hidden in inaccessible harborages.
Homeowners will never be able to find and reach every bed bug in all the places where the bugs hide during the day, nor the eggs that may be hidden in nooks and crannies. One bed bug can lay up to 500 eggs, so only killing the bugs you see will never solve the problem. The same logic applies to washing clothes and sheets in hot water; this simply won’t take care of the entire problem.
Of course, the other issue is that many bed bug populations today are becoming resistant to some of the most commonly used chemical pesticides, such as those composed of pyrethroids and neonicotinoids. Homeowners may find the bed bugs they sprayed directly with insecticides on their mattresses or box springs have not died or even been slowed down at all.
What does all this mean for PMPs? When it comes to bed bugs, it is usually up to the professionals to communicate to their customers that home remedies most often do not work on all the bed bugs in a person’s home or apartment and in many cases actually make it worse
To eliminate bed bug populations completely and truly, a professional needs to come in, use appropriate methods, and then advise the customer on how to prevent bed bugs from returning.
Which Bed Bug Treatments Work Best?
Due to bed bugs’ chemical resistance in recent years, PMPs are turning to other forms of bed bug treatment, such as whole-house heat treatment or Aprehend®.
The heat treatment method for bed bug control involves PMPs coming into a dwelling with industrial-strength heaters and fans and raising the temperature to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
This temperature kills bed bugs in all their life stages. However, achieving this extreme temperature requires powerful specialist equipment and fans to ensure that all areas of the room reach the correct temperature for the appropriate amount of time. It requires a trained professional to perform the treatment.
Even the heat method may require a follow-up visit to ensure complete eradication. Another option is for PMPs to use heat in conjunction with Aprehend®.
Our product uses fungal spores that bed bugs pick up as they move across the Aprehend® barriers placed strategically around possible feeding sites. Within 4 to 7 days after contact, the bed bugs that have picked up Aprehend® spores will die.
We have found over the years that many PMPs now prefer to treat their customers’ bed bug infestations with Aprehend®, or some combination of Aprehend® and heat or other liquid treatments. This proves to be the most efficient way of eliminating an entire population rather than just the bugs a customer has found.
PMPs who use Aprehend® tend to save on costs by eliminating bed bugs in less time. Professionals who want to try our product can buy a 16-oz. bottle of Aprehend® and discover what makes us better than all the rest.