There probably are several choices for low toxicity control, one of which is to incorporate d-Limonene into good hygiene management. It happens that I visited a house fairly recently that had bed bugs, but we apparently got rid of them without much trouble. That bedrooms had hardwood floors, so we swept the floors, vacuumed the cracks and crevices, and washed and dried the hard surfaces (I forget the detergent that they used, but it probably was Murphy's oil soap with some Orange TKO added). All the bedding and washable soft materials were washed in hot water, were cleaned otherwise, or were removed. After the hard surfaces dried, we sprayed a mild TKO solution in all the cracks and crevices and on the bed frame (and probably some on the mattress/box spring). They either sealed the bottom of the box spring with plastic sheeting or they put dust mite covers on the mattress & box spring--I forget which they did. I know they added and/or increased the dust mite barriers on the pillows and mattress. Finally, we sealed/filled in any objectively obvious cracks or spaces in the joints, walls, or ceiling that we could find. Since then, there has been no more biting and no bed bugs have been detected in periodic nightime UV inspections since then. As an added bonus, there apparently wasn't a dust mite issue afterward either. Obviously, if there's carpet involved, it probably should go--for a variety of reasons. The d-Limonene approach is but one angle or part of an overall approach, but it apparently worked.
As for the hand-wringing over DDT, that sounds a bit like a different chord of the general absurd drumbeat to bring DDT back. Rachel was right; they should admit it and direct their energies toward something positive, such as eliminating DDT worldwide. Persistent poisons are not a cure for lazy housekeeping or a substitute for good home management, although I suppose they could eliminate the careless homeowner.
_________________ In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they aren't -- lament of the synthetic lifestyle.
|