Home > Dry Ice > Buy Dry Ice - Consumers > Uses & Applications > Get Rid of Bed Bugs Do you have bed bugs? Find out by making a bed bug trap with dry ice. Bed bugs are attracted to the heat of bodies and to carbon dioxide, which is the gas exhaled by humans and animals. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide and can be used as bait in a bed bug trap. Make sure to follow all dry ice safe handling precautions. To get rid of a small population of bed bugs or test to see if you have any present, you can build an inexpensive trap with the following ingredients: Testing for bed bugs is best done at night, as bed bugs prefer the dark. Use a large pet food bowl of the type with sides that prevent it from tipping over. Apply fabric to the sides of the bowl with tape, giving the sides a rough surface for bed bugs to climb. Turn the bowl over, creating a moat or channel in which the bed bugs can fall. Rub talcum powder on the insides of the moat so the bed bugs cannot escape. On the upturned bottom of the bowl, place a large insulated beverage cup.
Using gloves, fill the container one-half full with dry ice. Leave the top open. DO NOT close the container or the dry ice could build up pressure. Turn off the lights and leave the room for an hour or more. The CO2 gas sublimating from the dry ice will attract bed bugs. The bed bugs will crawl up the sides of the bowl and be trapped in the moat.Bed Bugs Remedy DiyNatural Remedies For Bed BugsBed Bug Remedies SpraysHome RemediesHome Remedy For Bed BugsIck BedbugsHow To Get Rid Of BedbugsMery BedbugToxic NiceForwardbedbug spray non-toxic, save your money and don't hire an exterminator--you'll have to do all of this anyway!FREE SHIPPING ON QUALIFYING ORDERS $49 OR MORE Prices, promotions, styles, and availability may vary. Our local stores do not honor online pricing. Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Lowe's reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted.
Hot Shot Interceptor 4-Count Disposable Bed Bug Traps Item # 648889 Model # HG-96319 for pricing and availability. Place 5-ft from sleeping areas, including beds and other furniture Early identifier of bed bug infestations Contains no killing agent Unit of Measure Quantity Maximum Coverage Area (Sq. Feet) Recommended for Bed Bugs Recommended for Japanese Beetles Recommended for Stink Bugs Recommended for Yellow Jackets For Use in Kitchens For Use in Bathrooms For Use in Pantries Community Q & AIt just might be the solution to the bed bug infestation that's exploded in the city the last couple years. And what's more, you can do it yourself. Less than 20 bucks. It may look like an ordinary cooler, some dry ice, some talcum powder and, an upside down pet dish. But one Rutgers professor says when combined these four ingredients can take a big bite out of a bed bug infestation. "It's a very exciting discovery." Dr. Changlu Wang heads up the urban entomology department at Rutgers University.
There, he's been studying bed bugs for nearly 3 years. He knows how quickly, even the smallest bed bug can put a bite on a victim. You can see, in just seconds, it turns blood red as it feeds, then when done after only a few minutes, it scampers away to hide. Dr. Wang's bed bug trap starts with an ordinary pet bowl - turned upside down. But, the key ingredient? Key, because it releases carbon dioxide or C-O-2. "Carbon dioxide draws bed bugs," says Dr. Wang. "From the room to the bed." We release carbon dioxide every time we breathe. And Dr. Wang says that rings the dinner bell for bed bugs. So how do you build a bed bug trap of your own? First, use any kind of fabric and line the outside of the pet bowl. This will make it easier for the bugs to climb up. Once over the side they get caught in the middle area. Dr. Wang says you should brush it with talcum powder. That will make it slippier so the bugs can't escape. Lastly, fill a small cooler - or even a coffee travel mug with dry ice and open the top to let a little C-O-2 vapor escape.
And place it in the middle of the over-turned pet dish. Chang put it to the test when we were there. First, he filled the cooler with dry ice and opened the top to let a little C-O-2 escape. And put it in the middle of the upside down pet dish. Then he set loose about 10 bed bugs and left the room. Just three minutes later, a third of the bed bugs, attracted by the dry ice, started scaling the pet dish's side and falling into the trap. Dr. Wang wasn't surprised, he used the technique in many contaminated apartments. He says after just one night, one trap he used caught 500 bed bugs. "It is a very useful and can be very valuable too because it is very easy to do." One note, Dr. Wang says in order to be effective, you have to leave the trap in the room alone for as long as a week. That means humans should limit their time in the room since they breathe out C-0-2, and will compete with the trap. Also, put in new dry ice and empty the trap about every 8 to 10 hours. Dr. Wang believes this system, which works principally as a monitor to detect bed bug activity, can eventually get rid of 80% of bed bugs.
He cautions it works best with smaller populations. But, when confronted with large infestations, it may have to be combined with a professional pest control service to wipe out the problem completely. Right now there's no patent pending for this device. But Wang says one of the big pest companies had taken note and might be coming out with it's own at home kit. Story by: Nina Pineda Produced by: Steve LivingstoneBedbugs may seem like simple little creatures, with tiny legs, squat bodies and stupid bitey faces. But bedbugs are also social animals, capable of complex, pheromone-based communication. By tapping into this tendency toward teamwork, researchers are working out a better way to draw invasive bedbugs out of their pillow-topped lairs, says Chemical and Engineering News. More than just a nuisance, bedbugs can in some cases actually be tiny little terrors, their bites capable of spreading disease, sowing anxiety and instantly evaporating the value of a matching mattress/box-spring set.
Step one to eradicating bedbugs from your home is confirming they're there. Yet bedbugs are tiny beasts, and catching one can be difficult. As part of recent research, scientists have isolated the pheromone that bedbugs use to tell each other they've found a good place to set up camp, says C&EN: Bedbugs, the team found, release histamine in their feces and in their cuticles, the skin they shed after a blood meal. This sort of waste accumulates in the bugs’ favorite hiding spots, often near a food source. By combining this newly identified compound with a concoction of other pheromones, the scientists think they've unlocked a way to draw bedbugs out of their hiding holes and into a chemical trap. The researchers tested their bait in bedbug-infested locations around Vancouver and found that their pheromone blend not only lured bedbugs into traps, but also kept them there, a crucial and challenging step in detection. Why Did Greenland's Vikings Vanish? Andrew Jackson Was a Populist Even on His Deathbed