Are you searching for a homemade bed bug interceptor for bed legs at home with which you can manage mattress bugs?
DIY bed bug traps are a cost-effective method of controlling bed bug infestations while it is still early. You spend a little over $1 for something that would have cost you close to $1000 to get from the markets.
This article explains everything you need to know about DIY bed bug interceptors. Read on!
In every home they are found, bed bugs are always a problem. During the day, you hardly even know they are there in your house. Until night comes, and then you notice them in their numbers all over your body. To suck as much blood as they can from you.
As if that is not enough, they leave itchy welts all over your skin. These welts can easily get infected and make you sick if not properly treated.
These are just some of the reasons bed bugs are not some creatures you can just ignore in your house. The more time they are allowed in your home, the more they breed and cause problems to you and others in the house.
One of the most effective methods of eliminating pests from your home is to use homemade bed bug interceptors.
Another is treating with heat. The former is one of the cheapest options.
Do Homemade Bed Bug Interceptors Work?
Yes, they do. If carefully made and placed in positions where bed bugs have been seen around the house, the traps can be very beneficial in eradicating them.
Some persons have this belief that for something to be effective, it needs to cost you quite a lot of money.
That is the major reason they often have a hard time believing that a homemade bed bug interceptor will work. It is so simple and cheap to make that you may not even spend up to $5 making one.
Sometimes the homemade bed bug interceptor can be so effective that even the commercial ones do not come close.
How Do Bed Bug Interceptors Work?
Bed bugs can climb surfaces. But not slippery surfaces that are vertical. It is this inability to climb vertical slippery surfaces that interceptors take advantage of to trap them.
Homemade bed bug interceptors are usually constructed with about two cups. These cups are wide enough to have the posts of a bed placed in them.
A slippery substance like talc (baby powder) or essential oil is added to the cups on the inside, while on the outside rough tape or fabrics are added to them.
Due to their ability to climb rough surfaces, bed bugs do not find it a challenge climbing the outside wall of the first cup.
Once they’ve done that and entered inside the cup, they get trapped. No matter how much they struggle to come out, the presence of the baby powder, oil, or whatever that is added to the inside of the cup, will make it difficult for them to climb out.
In the same way bed bugs climbing through the bedpost down into the cup in search of food will also get trapped once they arrive there. They will remain there until you take them out and kill them.
Some persons like to add attractants or lures to their bed bug traps or interceptors. These lures give off CO2, the gas we release when we breathe.
Normally, bed bugs detect this odor and use it to trace us wherever we are lying to bite us. Once the attractant or lure starts producing the gas, the bed bugs will assume there are people there and come for a bite.
As soon as they get into the traps, going back becomes impossible. They will remain there until you come for them.
Challenges With Homemade Bed Bug Interceptors
While homemade intercepts work great in trapping bed bugs, they also have their challenges.
You will need to put all these into considerations if you are going to use them in managing your bed bug problems:
- The interceptors do not kill bed bugs, they only trap or stop them from getting to people. Once they are trapped, you will have to kill them yourself.
- Since the interceptors only work where they are placed, bed bugs that are hiding away in mattresses and couches are left untouched.
- Due to the absence of pesticides in the interceptors, a few bed bugs may keep struggling until they eventually find themselves outside of the trap. This hardly happens though.
- In case of heavy infestation, you can’t rely on homemade bed bug interceptors to be able to wipe them out.
How to Make Homemade Bed Bug Interceptors
Here is a complete guide on how to make a bed bug interceptor at home.
If you follow these steps carefully, you might just be seeing those bugs for the very last time in your house.
What You Need
These are some of the items you will need to make an interceptor for bed bugs at home:
- Two containers. One should be big enough to have the other one placed in it without their walls touching.
- A rough tape or fabric. This will be placed on the outside walls of the container to make it easy for the bed bugs to get into.
- Superglue or any other glue.
- A double-faced glue tape
- Talc powder (baby powder). this is to prevent the bed bugs from climbing out of the container once they are inside.
How To Make The Interceptor (Step By Step Guide)
- Place the small container inside the larger one using the glue to keep it firm. The containers must be placed in such a way that their walls do not touch each other. That is why you should glue them together to avoid the smaller one going out of position for any reason.
- Cover the wall of the small container with double-faced glue tape. This glue tape will help prevent any of the bed bugs from escaping.
- Cover the outside wall of the larger container with rough tape or fabric. That will make it easier for bed bugs to climb from the outside into the trap.
- Apply the talcum powder on the inside of the larger container. That is, on the space between it and the smaller container. Whenever any bed bug tries to get out of the trap, the talcum powder will make the wall of the large container slippery. That way, the bugs can’t get out.
- Apply the attractant or lure on the inside of the small container.
If you followed all the steps above in making your bed bug interceptor, then congratulations! You have your first homemade bed bug interceptor ready.
Where To Place Bed Bug Interceptor For Effective Results
If the interceptor is not carefully positioned, it will yield very little or no result. It must be properly positioned in places where bed bugs are known to live or move about.
This includes under the bed. The post of the bed must be placed directly inside the small container. Bed bugs will crawl down from the bed legs into the trap.
Another position you can place is under the couch. That is one place apart from the bedding that bed bugs are known to live and move about in search of food.
For very effective results, you may need more than just one in your room. You can make more of it and place it all over the house.
Other Types Of Homemade Bed Bug Interceptors To Consider
There are other types of homemade interceptors you can make and use in controlling bed bug infestations.
Though many of them are made following almost the same steps above, the tools and supplies used for making them are different.
REVIEW: Climbup Bed Bug Interceptors
For instance, some people prepare theirs using diatomaceous earth instead of talc powder.
Diatomaceous earth is known to create a cut on bed bugs, causing them to lose moisture and die of dehydration. Since diatomaceous earth is a natural pesticide and it’s eco-friendly, many people use it instead of other commercial chemicals that may be toxic around the house.
Another very popular type involves filling a coffee cup with one and a half liters of water and adding sugar (150g) and yeast (30g) to it. After that, you place the cup inside an upturned dog bowl, making sure you position it in the middle. In a few hours or days, it will start yielding results.
The logic behind this second type of bed bug interceptor is that the yeast will cause the sugar to ferment, releasing a gas (CO2) in the process. Bed bugs are known to be attracted to the smell of the gas. It is through this gas that they can trace where people are, to bite them.
Following the gas, the bed bugs will climb the upturned dog bowl, get on the inside and not be able to come out.
In Conclusion
Bear in mind that while a homemade bed bug interceptor works in trapping bed bugs around the house, it does not kill them. You will still need to kill the pests outside by yourself.
The device serves as one of the means you can use to eliminate bed bugs until you go for more effective alternatives like heat treatment or fumigation in case of an infestation.