How Effective are Insecticides?

Bed bugs are on the rise and two insecticides commonly used to kill bed bugs are becoming less effective against them, according to a study  published today in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

After the ban on the most powerful pesticides such as DDT, exterminators have been increasingly relying on two chemicals—chlorfenapyr and bifenthrin. Ameya D. Gondhalekar, one of the study authors and a research assistant professor at the Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management at the Department of Entomology at Purdue University has been studying whether bed bugs were developing defences against these chemicals.

Gondhalekar and his team exposed 10 different groups of bed bugs collected from different parts of the country to each of the chemicals in a glass vial. After several days, they examined how effective the chemicals were at killing the bed bugs.

While most of the bed bugs were wiped out by the chemicals, three groups continued to thrive after being treated with chlorfenapyr, and five groups were still kicking after being treated with bifenthrin. That means that while some bed bugs will respond to these chemicals, others won’t—and it’s likely that more and more bugs will become resistant over time. This is just more evidence that this pesticide-only approach to controlling bed bugs isn’t really working.

Your best attack on be bugs is heat as bed bugs and the eggs are incinerated at 45C / 115F.