Sunday, January 1, 2012

Native Remedies For Bed Bugs

By Owen Jones


There are numerous historical solutions for conditions, including insect pests, that society in general has forgotten about. The funny thing is that lots of of the chemicals used in these circumstances are derivatives of the original native or historical remedies. For instance, permethrin, ons of the best insect deterrents, is manufactured from chrysanthemums

Bed bugs have been present in the Americas since the Eighteenth Century at least, but before that they had ticks, fleas and other insect pests and. natural remedies were found to control the numbers of these bugs and they were found to work on bed bugs too.

Most people forgot about these old treatments with the widespread use of DDT during and after the Second World War. DDT was so effective at killing insects that there appeared to be no need to use the old solutions, because the old remedies frequently need continuous use to get effective, whereas chemical insecticides are far more powerful.

Although bed bugs were virtually eradicated from the West, the same was not true in Africa and most of Asia, where DDT was not used much. It is supposed that the resurgence of bedbugs in 1995 came from Africa and Asia, due to increased long-haul travel and migration.

Evidence for this theory is partly based on the fact that hotels are hit more than average with bed bug infestations when compared to the average Western home. Most people in the West will still pick up bugs from hotels and public transport such as trains, planes, taxis and buses.

Any pesticide that you use to destroy bedbugs has the same problem to contend with. Bedbugs have a 'thick' waxy coat which prevents the insecticide from contacting the insects' skin, soaking into it and killing it by one means or another.

If you can wash or scrape this wax off, your problem is much easier. Diatomaceous Earth or rough sand will do this, if the bugs are made to crawl through it to squeeze into their homes.

These gritty substances will scratch the wax off over time - a couple of days to a week - so that natural insect control agents like chrysanthemum, neem, thyme and some other oils can get at them to do their job.

I do not know what the native people used in your country because I do not know where you live, but you are able to find out easily. Pine oil, cedar oil and teak oil are other natural substances derived from trees that ward off or kill insects.. The trees use these oils to deter insect colonies boring into themselves.




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