Will plastic bags suffocate bed bugs?

There is nothing as mind boggling as bed bug infestation. Unlike rodents that are quite bigger and can be easily eradicated with proper care, bed bugs on the other hand are trickier because of their minute sizes and how easily they are known to spread around the house.

Prior to this time, especially in the 90's, the use of pesticides like DDT recorded great success in eradicating bed bugs to a large extent that they become nonexistent in the infested place. However, as the years went by, it was discovered that these pesticides have lost their potency to killing bed bugs. Apparently, bed bugs, like viruses, evolved and devised resistance to the harmful chemicals that are used to destroy them before now.

This creates the need to come up with newer and more efficient ways to eradicate bed bugs in an infested place and so far, a couple of methods have been tried out.

According to an article published in The Journal of Economic Etymology, it was discovered that bed bugs have lower chances of survival when subjected to Ultra Low Oxygen conditions and higher temperature. The scientists in the study placed bugs in different jars of varying oxygen supply and temperature. Eventually the result proved that bed bugs died in all jars but it was more effective in the jar with the smallest oxygen supply and highest temperature.

This study further gave perspective and clearer insights on how best to approach curtailing bed bug infestation.

In that vein, people started trying to use plastic  bags to put in bedbug infested items with the hope of killing them. While this might seem like a viable idea, there are lots of faults with it:

• Some bags are not totally airtight. This is a factor of the porosity of the bag. For such bags it will be an effort in futility to try to suffocate bed bugs in them.

• An airtight plastic bag still has oxygen in it. The oxygen in the bag, even after it is tightly sealed, is surprisingly sufficient enough for the bed bugs to survive on.

• The clothes that are isolated in the bag have a way of trapping oxygen which could be harnessed by the bed bugs to survive.

So, while you might think you are doing well trying to suffocate the bed bugs in a bag, you will end up discovering that the bugs are still waxing stronger regardless.

At this point you may ask, if plastic bags do not completely help eradicate bed bug infestation, what then are they useful for?

Plastic bags so far are more useful as a preventive measure in the event of bed bug infestation. When bed bugs are discovered early, you could use plastic bags to isolate the affected items. This way, you tend to help limit the spread to a great extent.

If the affected items are clothes, it makes it even easier to do away with the bed bugs. All you have to do is pack the bug-infested clothes in a plastic bag and take them out to do the laundry, then sundry or dry in a dryer thoroughly before putting them in a fresh plastic bag. As we have already emphasised earlier, bed bugs do not survive under extremely high temperatures, so sun drying would really go a long way.

What better alternatives are there to handle bed bug infestation?

Since we have already been able to establish that plastic bags and insecticides do not really contribute that much when trying to eradicate bed bugs, it would suffice to proffer some effective solutions that you could try when next you go on a quest to eradicate bed bugs.

Vacuum Cleaning

The idea behind using vacuum cleaning is not to completely kill the bed bugs, because ideally, vacuum cleaning doesn't. What it does however is to suck up as many bed bugs on the carpet or rugs and dispose of them outside when the contents of the vacuum cleaner are eventually emptied. The good thing about this strategy is that it helps cover a wider surface area and can help a great deal in decreasing the population of the bed bugs.

Steam Cleaning

With our emphasis on how higher temperature could make living unbearable for bed bugs, you should understand where we are going with this.

When steam cleaning, increase the temperature to about 150 degrees for maximum effect and watch the bed bugs die in no record time.

A combination of Vacuum Cleaning and Steam cleaning will eradicate bed bugs faster than when you apply just one of both methods. It's bed bugs infestation that we are on about, you need to combine as many strategies as you can to get the maximum eradication effect.

In conclusion

Will plastic bags suffocate bed bugs? Not really. Are there better ways to eradicate bed bugs? Of course. And I am sure this article has covered it extensively.