A Frosty Reception: Low-cost Tactic for Bed Bug Control

Bed bugs are shape-shifters: Pinhead-sized hatchlings molt five times. Well-fed bugs look elongated, while plump round bugs are waiting for a meal. But they can wait a long time—weeks or even months. Adults are about ¼ inch long. Photo by Allison Taisey

Learn more about bed bugs and integrated pest management (video).

Coping with bed bugs would be easy if replacing your mattress were all it took. But the battleground isn’t just your bed: it’s all your other stuff too. Yes, you know you have to cut the clutter and clean, clean, clean. But you can't scrub down your laptop with soap and water, cycle it through a clothes dryer on high heat, or spray its innards with pesticides.

Alarm clocks. Bank statements. Coffee makers. Barbie dolls. Many possessions can’t be treated by a spray or a cycle in a hot dryer. Whole-house heat treatments or fumigation are pricey, and not everyone feels comfortable doing them. Even small, portable heat-killing units cost close to $300.

A new tactic is on the horizon for deployment in the battle of the bug. Funding from the Northeastern IPM Center helped Changlu Wang at Rutgers University test an inexpensive, simple method that fills a need. His research tools: heavy-duty trash bags, dry ice, and gloves. (Gloves, because dry ice—frozen carbon dioxide, or CO2—is intensely cold. The merest touch can damage skin.)

De-bugging assets

Like every critter, bed bugs need oxygen to live. When oxygen in the air is replaced by some other gas, like CO2, they suffocate. For his proof of concept, Wang tested several “controlled atmosphere” CO2 concentrations, ranging from 20 to 100 percent CO2, to see how well they killed the bugs. He found the minimum effective concentration of CO2 is 30 percent. The higher the concentration and the temperature, Wang says, the faster bed bugs are killed.

Next, he sealed bed bugs in 42-gallon trash bags along with common household items and dry ice pellets, which “melt” into a fog of CO2 at room temperature. Wang wanted to find out how much dry ice it took to kill all life stages—adults, young, and eggs—at normal room temperatures, and how long it took.

The demo's in the bag…

Results: three pounds of dry ice pellets in a heavy-duty bag, filled most of the way full with pillows and clothing and tightly tied with string, achieved 90 to 100 percent concentration of CO2—and killed every bug (regardless of life stage) within 24 hours. Dry ice costs roughly a dollar a pound and, says Wang, “leaves no residue or contamination to treated items.”

How did it work? When his trash bags filled with CO2, every egg, nymph, and adult suffocated. But because bed bugs are tough, Wang kept his bags tightly closed for a full day and night.

Now, Wang says, a private company will launch a tool kit based on his findings.

— by MARY WOODSEN

The Northeastern IPM Center promotes integrated pest management for reducing risks to human health and the environment. If republishing our news, please acknowledge the source ("From Northeast IPM Insights") along with a link to our website.