Bed Bug Traps – Detect, Trap & Prevention
Find out how bed bug traps, monitors, and interceptors can help to detect, trap and prevent bed bugs and their bites!
No one wants to consider the possibility that their home and bed may be harboring bed bugs and similar pests. Unfortunately, the fact is that anyone’s home is a potential breeding ground for bed bugs. Sanitation is not necessarily the issue; bed bugs are gifted hitchhikers and it just take a visit to an infested hotel room or apartment, or purchase an item from a store where the pests have taken up residence to have a bad infestation problem back home.
If the event that you suspect or is unfortunate enough to be bitten by unknown bugs in your sleep, you can use bed bug traps to help detect and confirm the presence of these tiny bloodthirsty critters. The traps can also be use as an excellent tool to prevent bed bugs from spreading, because once they are detected, one can take the necessary steps to exterminate them from the house before an entrenched infestation can occur.
Following are 3 popular types of bed bug traps that can help detect, control and eliminate the little vampires:
- Bed bug traps
- Bed bug monitors
- Bed bug interceptors
Do-It-Yourself Bed Bug Traps
Bed bug traps can be constructed at home through a relatively simple do-it-yourself process. Assemble the following items:
- Plastic pet dish
- Thermos (1/3 gallon)
- Talcum powder
- Small brush
- Fabric strips
- Glue or tape
- Cubed dry ice
Invert the dish and glue or tape your fabric strips to the sides, fully covering the edges. If you use glue, allow it to dry overnight before use.
Using the extra-small brush, adhere some powder below the dish grooves. This will keep the bed bugs from climbing up and escaping. Go to a hardware store or other source of dry ice, and have them fill your thermos.
(Important: Always use gloves when handling the dry ice. To allow some of the pressure of carbon dioxide to escape while returning home, open the valve at the top of the thermos slightly.)
Place the thermos on top of the flat section of the flipped-over dish, and set the trap in the room you believe to be infested (it should be near the bed, not on it). Before retiring for the night, fully open the thermos spout. Overnight, any bed bugs that may be present in the room where the trap is will be attracted to the carbon dioxide that is released as dry ice warms. The carbon dioxide will flow downward and become concentrated at the bottom part of the trap. Attracted to its source, the bugs will crawl up the sides and be trapped in the trough of the dish.
In the morning, take the thermos away and check to see if you’ve trapped any bugs. If you have, transfer the trap to the freezer and leave it there for an hour; this will kill them. Repeat the entire procedure (you’ll have to get fresh dry ice each time) until no bugs are left.
Important safety tips:
- Never handle dry ice without gloves.
- Do not use more than one trap in a room.
- Keep away from children and pets.
- Do not store in an enclosed space.
- Be sure the valve is slightly open during transport and fully open overnight.
Bed Bug Monitors
Bed bug monitors are another excellent means of early detection of bed bug infestation. These devices may alert you to the presence of bed bugs before anyone in your household suffers a bed bug bite. They can also be used in rooms that have been treated for bed bugs to be sure none of the pests return.
A simple monitor for placing under the mattress to monitor and trap bed bugs.
These monitors usually uses active heat signals or pheromone to lure any bed bugs that may be present in a room or mattress. Once the pests approach the source and enter the monitor, they are trapped in much the same was as in the homemade trap.
Bed Bug Interceptors
Bed bug interceptors do precisely what their name implies: they create a barrier which prevents bed bugs from climbing up the bed. They are especially useful for early detection and trapping of bed bugs that are trying to climb onto the bed from nearby furniture or other locations.
Stop bed bugs with interceptors. Learn more here…
Another form of interceptor that is commonly used is the bed bug mattress protector, because they prevent bed bugs from burrowing into mattresses and bedding and are recommended for use by pest control experts together with other bed bug interceptors and monitors for the ultimate protection against these nocturnal, bloodthirsty pests.
Prevention is always better than cure. So if you are worried or suspect bed bugs are in your home, make use of bed bug traps, monitors or interceptors to help confirm the presence of these tiny critters as well as prevent them from spreading until the necessary steps are taken or professional help are called in to exterminate these pests.
You May Also Be Interested In:
How Do You Get Bed Bugs — A look at how do you get bed bugs and how they are spread.
Bed Bug Pictures — See and identify what do bed bugs and their bites look like.
Bed Bug Control — Practical home bed bug control methods to treat, prevent and kill bed bugs.
