BED BUGS. How bad are they in Van?

[blackcad]

That diatomaceous earth sounds dangerous.

Diatomaceous earth is one of the safest natural products in existence to control insects ...... it has worked against them for 100's of millions of years....it is so safe that there is even food grade diatomaceous earth....Having said that...it is unbelievably fine...and I wouldn't want to breathe in any dust like that........so if you use it....apply it in a slurry with water sprayed though any type of spray bottle. Once the water dries, the material will remain without creating dust.

 

[myselftheother]

Diatomaceous earth is one of the safest natural products in existence to control insects ...... it has worked against them for 100's of millions of years....it is so safe that there is even food grade diatomaceous earth....Having said that...it is unbelievably fine...and I wouldn't want to breathe in any dust like that........so if you use it....apply it in a slurry with water sprayed though any type of spray bottle. Once the water dries, the material will remain without creating dust.

DE is great, but like all pesticides it has to come in physical contact with the bug in order for it to work. Heat treatment is very effective, but extremely expensive as it takes a lot of time and equipment. Most effective way to eliminate bed bugs is a combined treatment of heat and chemical 3 times over a 6 week period, every two weeks. Heat to kill the eggs and instars deeper in the mattress, and chemical means to kill the survivors, and as the life cycle of bed bugs takes two weeks for eggs to hatch, two more treatments, two weeks apart.

DDT doesn't work on bed bugs or most bugs and insects anymore as they've built a resisitance to the point of being ineffective. DE is fine, but be careful of its use as it is a pesticide, and there is no food grade DE. Again, it's only effective if the bed bug comes in contact with it....as it's meant to dry out the bed bug by attacking it's exoskeleton, it does replace it's moisture through feeding on the host, so again it's effect is limited.

 

[blackcad]

DE is fine, but be careful of its use as it is a pesticide, and there is no food grade DE.

Myselftheother...before you post something that completely contradicts a statment of fact that I made....maybe you should do the slightest of research....... just type in "food grade diatomaceous earth" in a google search and look at the results..according to you I made that up and it doesn't exist?

eg http://www.canada-bedbugs.com/food-grade-diatomaceous-eart/

And as far as being "careful of its use as it is a pesticide"..... It is pretty damn safe....Did you know anything used to kill insects, weeds etc.....can be labelled as a pesticide...Including mixtures of soap and alcohol (eg Safer's Insecticidal Soap)...and mechanical devices as simple as fly-swatters (they used to have a PCP (pest control product) number in Canada and were thus "pesticides"..... Just avoid breathing the dust of the DE..apply with water...and it is pretty darn effective.....it doesn't just attack the exoskeleton of the bed bug...it destroys it (they can't heal you know).

 

[lenny]

Where is DE sold?

 

[lenny]

Home Depot, Rona, possibly Stupid Store, Wal-Mart or CT

Stupid Store? LOL! Are you making this shit up as you go ;

 

[myselftheother]

Myselftheother...before you post something that completely contradicts a statment of fact that I made....maybe you should do the slightest of research....... just type in "food grade diatomaceous earth" in a google search and look at the results..according to you I made that up and it doesn't exist?
eg http://www.canada-bedbugs.com/food-grade-diatomaceous-eart/

And as far as being "careful of its use as it is a pesticide"..... It is pretty damn safe....Did you know anything used to kill insects, weeds etc.....can be labelled as a pesticide...Including mixtures of soap and alcohol (eg Safer's Insecticidal Soap)...and mechanical devices as simple as fly-swatters (they used to have a PCP (pest control product) number in Canada and were thus "pesticides"..... Just avoid breathing the dust of the DE..apply with water...and it is pretty darn effective.....it doesn't just attack the exoskeleton of the bed bug...it destroys it (they can't heal you know).

First of all, where did I say that you're making it up? Hmmm? If you actually read my post you will see that I was refering to DDT as not effective.

Secondly, with any pesticide, or dust that has a registered PCP number you really ought to handle with care, food grade or not. Even though the Gov't website says you can feed it to your cats and pigs, I really wouldn't want to recommend that you sprinkle some on your oat bran. It's still a sillicate.

BTW, I can contradict anything I deem contradictable. So there.

 

[blackcad]

First of all, where did I say that you're making it up? Hmmm? If you actually read my post you will see that I was refering to DDT as not effective.

I read your post...and YOU said "there is no food grade DE"..after my post that referred to it. That is not true..it does exist....and is very common. That is why I wrote "according to you I made that up and it doesn't exist".

Secondly, with any pesticide, or dust that has a registered PCP number you really ought to handle with care, food grade or not. Even though the Gov't website says you can feed it to your cats and pigs, I really wouldn't want to recommend that you sprinkle some on your oat bran. It's still a sillicate.

I do not disagree..that's why I've mentioned the dust precautions. As far as sprinkling some on your oat bran...you probably already are. Food grade DE has long been used to prevent insect infestations in agricultural grain storage facilities......thus the name "food grade DE". Previously chemicals like Methyl Bromide were used but are since no longer registered for that application.

BTW, I can contradict anything I deem contradictable. So there.

Absolutely, but what you contradicted was that Food Grade DE exists.....it does and is well known. It is not a matter of debate. It seems a little silly for both of us to be going back and forth here in such an innocuous post but you claimed that something I wrote was not true.

Cheers