Thursday, June 26, 2008

Bedbugs for > one year now

Our apartment is infested with bedbugs for > 1 year. An exterminator has come three times, but with no succes. Sometimes, I spray the sides of the room with anti-lice poison, with temporary success. And the knowledge that bedbugs can hide everywhere, has made us quit desparate. But there is hope: we are going to move to a new home. It's now the landlord's problem.

However, we were facing a new problem: to get rid of the bedbugs in our belongings. You can barely see them, the nyms, the eggs. How to deal with this?

We have considered several options:

+ dry air heating (> 60 degrees celcius for two days)
+ freezing (minus 20 degrees for two weeks)
+ gamma irradiation

Dry heating
Main advantage of dry heating, is that there is some evidence that it works. For example, I know from a transport entrepeneur who had a truck with three Polish truck drivers, who did 24 hours shifts in the truck (and slept half of the time). Bedbugs were hiding within the (expensive) electronic equipment, and the only option was to store the truck for a weekend in a paint dry warehouse. The disadvantage of dry heating is, that it is hard to find a company who is willing to hire their heating warehouse to you. Why on earth would they do this?

Freezing
I've seriously considered freezing. Every professional tells me that -20 degrees celcius for 2 weeks should be enough to kill bed bugs, nymps and eggs. However, I couldn't find any scientific evidence, or posts on the internet that this will indeed do the job. Furthermore, it is very hard to secure that everything that is put in a freezing sea container, will indeed remain minus 20 degrees celcius for the whole period. Lastly, paper stuff such as photoalbums will become wet and fungi can start growing. Prices of renting sea containers start at 60 euro's / day.

Gamma irradiation
The main advantage of gamma irradiation, is that it destroys DNA of insects such as bedbugs and cochroaches. It kills the eggs and nymphs as well. However, that's the claim of irradiation companies, but what's the evidence? A lot of sources refer to one key paper, published, believe it or not, 50 years ago: "Effects of Gamma Radiation on Some Insects Affecting Man", by M.M. Cole, Journal of Economic Entomology, Vol 52, Issue 3, Pages 448-450. Does anyone know any better evidence?

It shows the amount of gamma radiation required to cause 100% mortality within 24 hours after radiation, for several insect species. However, it doesn't state the absolute number of bedbugs, the 100% mortality corresponds to. Units are in (r) [Rontgens??]

Bed bugs, nymphs - 172,500 (r) - 100% killed in 48 hours
Bed bugs, males - 180,000 (r) - 100% in 24 hours
Bed bugs, females - 180,000 (r) - 100% in 24 hours
Bed bugs, eggs - unknown

Now here is my first question: gamma irradiation companies express their radiation in Kilo grays. Sterilisation of wipes etc. is done with 25 k gy.

How much kilogray should we need to kill bed bugs and their eggs?

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