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Do foggers / bug bombs kill bed bugs?
There's no clear answer to this question, because you will
hear pest control companies argue both sides of it and there haven't been any
real studies done to show the effects. It's clear that the chemicals in
foggers / bug bombs
will kill bed bugs. Most use Pyrethrum, which is an
insecticide that definitely will kill bedbugs. The problem? Many pest control
professionals believe that using fog, and this chemical specifically, will
kill some of the bed bugs but cause others to flee through the walls. This is
a huge problem if you are fogging in an apartment complex or a hotel, two of
the locations where you're most likely to find an infestation. The fear is
that you will just cause them to spread to adjacent rooms and actually worsen
the infestation. Once the fog wears off, they'll just crawl right back in -
and now you've got separate infestations in all the nearby rooms as well. It's
also not clear that fog can get into all the cracks that a bed bug can hide
in.
I would recommend that you avoid using foggers on bed bugs. Definitely don't
do it yourself. A pest control company might want to use it, and that can be
OK if you're in a house where they can't spread anywhere else, but I would be
very reluctant to use fog in any other environment.
Sources and Useful Links:
http://www.bedbugcentral.com
http://medent.usyd.edu.au
http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/tims
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