Hacker News Reader

Comment by acidburnNSA | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know of there's truth to the Rachel Carson/DDT-ban side of the bedbug story? It goes like this: DDT is extremely effective against bedbugs. Just smear a little around your bed and the bed is protected for decades. People did this and that's why we all grew up hearing but not understanding "don't let the bedbugs bite". But we were going nuts with DDT, spraying it into trees up and down every road, killing birds and causing other problems. Rather than a measured response like stopping widespread spraying, we banned DDT outright. Now we have bedbugs.

It just sounds like bedbugs are so horrible that some dabs of DDT might be appropriate. Is that way off base?

View on HN

At the time of the ban, insects were becoming resistant to DDT anyway, so it's unlikely that it would still be effective today if it had remained in use.

Permethrin is actually a more appropriate pesticide for bedbugs but unfortunately they are mostly resistant in the US at least. I have found literally 'baking' a room to 120F + for 30+ mins is the most effective way to eradicate bedbugs. Amazon search (360 propane heater), and don't die of CO poisoning or burn your place down. For a more tempered approach, you can try setting up 'safe zones' with boundaries of double-sided sticky tape, smeared vaseline, or diatomaceous earth. (you can kinda tell they've co-evolved with us ey!).

>Permethrin is actually a more appropriate pesticide for bedbugs but unfortunately they are mostly resistant in the US at least.

So you're saying it's ideal, except that it doesn't work? That would seem to be the opposite of "appropriate."

> you can try setting up 'safe zones' with boundaries of double-sided sticky tape

I hope you're careful enough to draw a three-dimensional boundary, because bedbugs crawl up the wall to drop themselves off the ceiling into the bed.

I haven't had a problem with bedbugs but bought a powerful ozone generator a few years ago. It seems to help with dust mites, oder and generally sanitize. It's run a couple of times a month while at work. My understanding is these can kill bedbugs if you get the concentration up high enough. Be careful, especially in an apartment. Ozone can be hazardous. It degraded back into breathable oxygen pretty quickly but you don't want to stay in the room with it or have it bleed over to the neighbors and damage their lungs or anything.

https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Commerical-Industrial-Air-Deo...

Interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566141

Diatomaceous earth is great stuff for nuking arthropods from orbit. Carpet bomb and then vacuum it up later.

Just wear a particle mask when handling it; it's safe to eat but not to inhale.

Why are bedbugs so horrible? They're irritating and hard to deal with, but they are not very dangerous. Certainly not to the point where you'd destroy the environment to protect against them. DDT isn't even the only way to deal with them.

Not everyone has a mild reaction to bedbug, when it give you 10cm diameter marks that stay for months, and itch like hell it really threaten your sanity. DDT used sparsely won't threaten the environment.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com