Sunday, December 31, 2006

One "Expert" Opinion on Foggers

By now it is fairly well known that foggers, or "bug bombs" as they are often called, do little to get rid of bed bugs. It is often said that foggers not only do not kill bed bugs but simply disturb them and cause them to scatter, only to return once the fogger has worn off. But many people use these anyway to kill roaches in their homes whether or not they have bed bugs. An anonymous poster who claimed to be a pest control technician and recently commented on my June 23 post had the following to say:

As a pest control tech of 11 years I wish you good luck. A warning though....use
the wrong product (repellents) and it's all over for you. You will push those
bedbugs up into the walls and they can lay dormant a lot longer than the active
in most pesticides.


If you've ever used foggers before (like I have) to kill roaches and you have this comment can especially be applied to bug bombs.

After reading this comment, it dawned on me that the bed bugs, holed up within your walls waiting for the fogger's spray to disappear, could easily spend this quiet time breeding and laying eggs. Long story short, if you have bed bugs AND roaches in your home, consider using a non-repellent (like a direct insecticide) to deal with your roach problem.

Merry Christmas, by the way, and Happy New Year!

1 comment:

Bugged Out said...

Just to set things straight...

I didn't use the air quotes ("Expert" Opinion) to question the expertise of pest control professionals. I used it to question the expertise of this particular pest control professional who decided to post anonymously. This poster's advice sounds logical to me, but I just wanted to remind the readers that whether or not this commenter's status as an actual pest control professional remains to be proven, so the advice should not be accepted as such.

A tip to experts offering any advice on Bugged Out or any other blog, for that matter: Posting your actual name, company and place of business in the post lends far more credibility to whatever you're commenting about than if you post anonymously. What can stop any anonymous poster from claiming they are a pest control professional? I could easily post anonymously and pretend to be anyone I want. So just keep that in mind as you post.

Later.