Posted by: hit.the.hot March 15, 2010
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Unlikely extremely negative reviews for other supposed bedbug killers, I can assure you that this stuff kills 'em DEAD. The catch-22 is that they also find it repellant, so they will run away from a sprayed area. The secret to success is spraying a wide area *around* the location with the infestation (a "cordon sanitaire" in military lingo), and THEN go after the bugs themselves. When they try to flee, they will run up against the chemical barrier you laid down first.
Del Pharmaceuticals sells a 6 ounce can of what they call "Pronto Plus" for six bucks. As far as I have been able to determine, this is exactly the same product as 10 ounce "Pronto," but at nearly twice the price. The problem I ran into with plain "Pronto" is that the last couple of ounces wouldn't spray out of the can, so I effectively had 8 ounces of usable insecticide.
I have tried regular ant & roach sprays on these d___d critters and they do NOT work -- bedbugs have a different physiology (and a grotesque life cycle - look 'em up on the net; there's at least one full web site dedicated just to them -- Cimex lectularius is their scientific name).
READ THE LABEL DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY! Spray and leave the room while it works its mojo to avoid poisoning yourself.
The bad news about Pronto is that however much you buy, you'll always discover that you need at least two extra cans, so buy it in quantity. I have not found its claim to be lingering to be quite true: you'll slaughter dozens of the things with the first spraying, but you must repeat the spraying every few days to guarantee that you have killed all of the little vermin. On furniture, use your eyes to look for tiny pinpoints moving across fabric -- those are nymphs and they, too can suck your blood. Scoop 'em up and dump them into the toilet. The good news is that bedbugs apparently cannot swim at all, unlike roaches and other insects. If you see a live one crawling on a piece of paper, gently lift the paper and keep turning it so the bedbug stays on top (they have a powerful grip); then flick it directly into your toilet bowl. More bad news is that they can live for up to 140 days without feeding (starvation actually EXTENDS their lifespan!), so keep extra cans handy for future eruptions. The tiny transparent bugs you may see when you have a bedbug infestation ARE bedbugs -- just ones which haven't sucked up your blood to fill their grotesque bellies -- kill them without mercy. (Sorry, Gandhi!)
If you have the vermin in your carpet, get a vacuum cleaner which filters particles through water, or use a steam cleaner to get rid of them. If you have a lot of books, just assume that the bed bugs are within the spines or under the covers, or inside the dust jacket, so just vacuum the bejeezus out of all of your books (on LOW, or you'll rip the pages or damage the binding). Speaking of vacuum cleaners, if you don't have one which uses a water filtering system and can't use steam (on books, for example), then TRY to get a vacuum cleaner with a multi-stage HEPA filter to keep from spraying minute bug bits into the air -- these can trigger severe allergic reactions in some people.
Other useful devices are hair dryers -- the vermin dehydrate and die at about 120 degrees F or thereabouts, and hot tumble dryers -- half an hour in that should kill any in your clothing and bedding. (They LOVE to hide during the day -- under fitted sheets, inside pillow cases, in you school backpack, in your pants pockets, etc. If you don't stop them quickly, they will over-run your whole home.)
C. lectularius CANNOT swim. If a bedbug gets onto your skin, first try to gently shake it off into a toilet bowl, or scoop it up (gently!) with a piece of paper and dump it in the toilet (make sure it hits the water!). If possible, just thrust the whole area where the bedbug is under a powerful stream of water, as in a shower or a high-pressure kitchen or bathroom faucet. DO NOT GRAB A BEDBUG WHICH IS ON YOUR SKIN!!!!! These things are EXTREMELY vicious and will ACTIVELY defend themselves instead of running away. Yanking at a bedbug crawling on your skin is an invitation to it to bite you and hold on until it dies, and it WILL make you bleed. Bedbug bites are VERY slow to heal, and if one's sucked your blood for a while, the itchy mark it leaves behind may last two or three months (maybe longer).
If you develop a histamine reaction (localized swelling) take as much benadryl or vistoril (hydroxizine) as your doctor will allow -- it reduces the swelling and stops the itching for hours if you take a large dose. DO NOT (!!!) drive or operate machinery if you are taking an antihistamine. If you develop a pronounced allergic reaction (hives, difficult breathing, etc.) call 9-1-1 or go to a hospital emergency room IMMEDIATELY -- allergic reactions can cause shock and even death.
It is highly advisable to use a HEPA air filter in any room with bedbugs or mites to remove their feces and other nastiness from the air. (I use a Holmes Model HAP 240.) DO NOT get one of those silent, "ionic air cleaners" such as the Sharper Image sells -- they are all but completely useless; get something with a HEPA filter and make sure it's big enough for the room you want to refresh. DO change the filter regularly, especially if anyone in the dwelling smokes (tobacco, weed, whatever -- the air filter will clean the tiny pollution particles out of the air as long as it's kept clean and happy).
One technique you might try ONLY IF THERE IS NO SMOKER AROUND, NOR ANY CHILDREN OR PETS (!!!!) is to drench an infested piece of furniture with isopropyl rubbing alcohol of at least 70% strength. Isopropyl alcohol kills almost every living thing, so if you can alternate that with Pronto you can help to prevent resistant strains of the devils from developing.
Bedbugs have anal (Cloacal?) glands whic release a pungent stench like a stink bug. If you smell something like formaldehyde in a part of your home or office, it's a safe bet that there are bedbugs present.
Now for the good news: bedbugs CANNOT crawl up smooth surfaces like glass or stainless steel, so major appliances are an obstacle to them, walls and furniture ARE NOT. Another obstacle to them is petroleum jelly (one of Pronto's ingredients is a petroleum product). Smearing the legs of tables and chairs with petrolatum creates a barrier which they don't like and have difficulty crossing. (A 99 cent store brand is just as good as a $3 jar of Vaseline for this purpose.) If you have chairs and tables which won't be damaged by water (resin chairs, for example), you can put the legs in a shallow saucer or pie pan of water -- once again, bedbugs can't swim, so they can't reach the furniture itself.
The best news of all? Despite the huge number of horrible disease which blood sucking insects can transmit, BEDBUGS DO NOT SEEM TO TRANSMIT *ANY* DISEASES TO HUMANS! (But they CAN trigger allergies.) If you're bitten, I'd recommend a tetanus booster and keeping the bite covered with an antiseptic cream (most of which also contain petrolatum, so you're not only protecting yourself from bacteria in the environment, you're keeping the bedbug from returning to a proven feeding ground).
I hope this has helped you, gentle reader. I have studied the little monsters and even let myself be used as a human guinea pig ( ... ah ... "volunteer research subject"), so I know a lot about the damned things, and the more that are killed, the better off we'll all be, sez I. (Sorry, Dalai Lama -- pray for me.) If you get your Pronto *pronto* and start slaughtering the things before they can spread, you will probably escape the need for a professional exterminator who will charge you hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to spray ... pretty much the same ingredients which are in Pronto, just a whole lot more of it.
****** Pronto earns six stars out of five! Long live Pronto! DEATH TO ALL BEDBUGS! ******
Del Pharmaceuticals sells a 6 ounce can of what they call "Pronto Plus" for six bucks. As far as I have been able to determine, this is exactly the same product as 10 ounce "Pronto," but at nearly twice the price. The problem I ran into with plain "Pronto" is that the last couple of ounces wouldn't spray out of the can, so I effectively had 8 ounces of usable insecticide.
I have tried regular ant & roach sprays on these d___d critters and they do NOT work -- bedbugs have a different physiology (and a grotesque life cycle - look 'em up on the net; there's at least one full web site dedicated just to them -- Cimex lectularius is their scientific name).
READ THE LABEL DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY! Spray and leave the room while it works its mojo to avoid poisoning yourself.
The bad news about Pronto is that however much you buy, you'll always discover that you need at least two extra cans, so buy it in quantity. I have not found its claim to be lingering to be quite true: you'll slaughter dozens of the things with the first spraying, but you must repeat the spraying every few days to guarantee that you have killed all of the little vermin. On furniture, use your eyes to look for tiny pinpoints moving across fabric -- those are nymphs and they, too can suck your blood. Scoop 'em up and dump them into the toilet. The good news is that bedbugs apparently cannot swim at all, unlike roaches and other insects. If you see a live one crawling on a piece of paper, gently lift the paper and keep turning it so the bedbug stays on top (they have a powerful grip); then flick it directly into your toilet bowl. More bad news is that they can live for up to 140 days without feeding (starvation actually EXTENDS their lifespan!), so keep extra cans handy for future eruptions. The tiny transparent bugs you may see when you have a bedbug infestation ARE bedbugs -- just ones which haven't sucked up your blood to fill their grotesque bellies -- kill them without mercy. (Sorry, Gandhi!)
If you have the vermin in your carpet, get a vacuum cleaner which filters particles through water, or use a steam cleaner to get rid of them. If you have a lot of books, just assume that the bed bugs are within the spines or under the covers, or inside the dust jacket, so just vacuum the bejeezus out of all of your books (on LOW, or you'll rip the pages or damage the binding). Speaking of vacuum cleaners, if you don't have one which uses a water filtering system and can't use steam (on books, for example), then TRY to get a vacuum cleaner with a multi-stage HEPA filter to keep from spraying minute bug bits into the air -- these can trigger severe allergic reactions in some people.
Other useful devices are hair dryers -- the vermin dehydrate and die at about 120 degrees F or thereabouts, and hot tumble dryers -- half an hour in that should kill any in your clothing and bedding. (They LOVE to hide during the day -- under fitted sheets, inside pillow cases, in you school backpack, in your pants pockets, etc. If you don't stop them quickly, they will over-run your whole home.)
C. lectularius CANNOT swim. If a bedbug gets onto your skin, first try to gently shake it off into a toilet bowl, or scoop it up (gently!) with a piece of paper and dump it in the toilet (make sure it hits the water!). If possible, just thrust the whole area where the bedbug is under a powerful stream of water, as in a shower or a high-pressure kitchen or bathroom faucet. DO NOT GRAB A BEDBUG WHICH IS ON YOUR SKIN!!!!! These things are EXTREMELY vicious and will ACTIVELY defend themselves instead of running away. Yanking at a bedbug crawling on your skin is an invitation to it to bite you and hold on until it dies, and it WILL make you bleed. Bedbug bites are VERY slow to heal, and if one's sucked your blood for a while, the itchy mark it leaves behind may last two or three months (maybe longer).
If you develop a histamine reaction (localized swelling) take as much benadryl or vistoril (hydroxizine) as your doctor will allow -- it reduces the swelling and stops the itching for hours if you take a large dose. DO NOT (!!!) drive or operate machinery if you are taking an antihistamine. If you develop a pronounced allergic reaction (hives, difficult breathing, etc.) call 9-1-1 or go to a hospital emergency room IMMEDIATELY -- allergic reactions can cause shock and even death.
It is highly advisable to use a HEPA air filter in any room with bedbugs or mites to remove their feces and other nastiness from the air. (I use a Holmes Model HAP 240.) DO NOT get one of those silent, "ionic air cleaners" such as the Sharper Image sells -- they are all but completely useless; get something with a HEPA filter and make sure it's big enough for the room you want to refresh. DO change the filter regularly, especially if anyone in the dwelling smokes (tobacco, weed, whatever -- the air filter will clean the tiny pollution particles out of the air as long as it's kept clean and happy).
One technique you might try ONLY IF THERE IS NO SMOKER AROUND, NOR ANY CHILDREN OR PETS (!!!!) is to drench an infested piece of furniture with isopropyl rubbing alcohol of at least 70% strength. Isopropyl alcohol kills almost every living thing, so if you can alternate that with Pronto you can help to prevent resistant strains of the devils from developing.
Bedbugs have anal (Cloacal?) glands whic release a pungent stench like a stink bug. If you smell something like formaldehyde in a part of your home or office, it's a safe bet that there are bedbugs present.
Now for the good news: bedbugs CANNOT crawl up smooth surfaces like glass or stainless steel, so major appliances are an obstacle to them, walls and furniture ARE NOT. Another obstacle to them is petroleum jelly (one of Pronto's ingredients is a petroleum product). Smearing the legs of tables and chairs with petrolatum creates a barrier which they don't like and have difficulty crossing. (A 99 cent store brand is just as good as a $3 jar of Vaseline for this purpose.) If you have chairs and tables which won't be damaged by water (resin chairs, for example), you can put the legs in a shallow saucer or pie pan of water -- once again, bedbugs can't swim, so they can't reach the furniture itself.
The best news of all? Despite the huge number of horrible disease which blood sucking insects can transmit, BEDBUGS DO NOT SEEM TO TRANSMIT *ANY* DISEASES TO HUMANS! (But they CAN trigger allergies.) If you're bitten, I'd recommend a tetanus booster and keeping the bite covered with an antiseptic cream (most of which also contain petrolatum, so you're not only protecting yourself from bacteria in the environment, you're keeping the bedbug from returning to a proven feeding ground).
I hope this has helped you, gentle reader. I have studied the little monsters and even let myself be used as a human guinea pig ( ... ah ... "volunteer research subject"), so I know a lot about the damned things, and the more that are killed, the better off we'll all be, sez I. (Sorry, Dalai Lama -- pray for me.) If you get your Pronto *pronto* and start slaughtering the things before they can spread, you will probably escape the need for a professional exterminator who will charge you hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to spray ... pretty much the same ingredients which are in Pronto, just a whole lot more of it.
****** Pronto earns six stars out of five! Long live Pronto! DEATH TO ALL BEDBUGS! ******