How a Leafy Folk Remedy Stopped Bedbugs in Their Tracks
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
But you can't patent a centuries-old folk remedy and sell it at a 10,000% mark-up.
Furthermore, leaves only work on horizontal surface, an artificial version could e.g. be put on bed legs to avoid covering the ground.
But of course that's a business opportunity to you: you could sell bags of bean leaves yourself.
I wonder if you could combine diatomaceous earth with bean leaves for increased efficacy.
2. Also, why did few of the Eastern Europeans who found this to be a miracle cure for generations not mention this when New York was going through its bed bug panic a few years back?
If you instinctually knew about this cure, you might've presumed the outbreak was so severe that leaves weren't working, for example.
YAA: After a business trip, my dogs and I started having early symptoms of bedbugs. I tried spraying rubbing alcohol in key spots, with no apparent bug elimination. Then I dusted my bedding, living room furniture, and floors with diatomaceous earth (leaving everything very, very dusty). We got bites for a few more days, and then, no more bits. Since I never caught one of the bugs, I can't say with certainty that it was bedbugs. But I can say with certainty that diatomaceous earth exterminated whatever it was I picked up from that nasty hotel room.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth#Pest_contro...
I don't believe they work in a similar way at all: in this case, the trichomes act as "hooks" going through the bug feed and keeping them stuck (but not killing them outside of leaving them to starve), diatomaceous earth "removes" the hydrophobic coating of chitin (absorbs the lipid/waxy layer making chitin more porous), dehydrating the bugs to death.
So diatomaceous earth kills the bugs pretty much directly.
When originally reading about diatomaceous earth, I had read something about it acting like razor blades cutting through the exoskeleton. So I was erroneously equating the hooks and razor analogies.
Do you know whether there have there been any commercial products that try to replicate the diatomaceous/razor like mechanism?
I once had a small problem with either spiders or bedbugs; I sprayed extremely generous quantities of rubbing alcohol everywhere. It was extremely effective.
I've been curious ever since if anyone else has had a similar experience.
I had a problem with clothesmoths. I took all my clothes and put them in vacuum bags, and sucked out all the air. I never had a problem again.
Sadly the spider population has declined since and I'm down to a mere two adults.
On the plus side, they're a lot cheaper than vacuum bags, take up much less space, and will prey on other critters for you.
It probably just makes wasps really angry.
For those, make sure they don't set up shop and build a nest. If you see them starting on one, scrape it off immediately. They'll even nest inside your house, wriggling through a hole, so observe where they go.
Insecticide that kills on contact is probably the best way to deal with an incursion.
When I was 12 I once took out a hornet nest with a water hose by simply doing rounds of blasting them with water then running away while they tried to chase me.
It makes them drunk-ish. Alcohols — especially very sweet or spoiled (for weak alcohols) ones — are good for wasp traps though (the reverse-plastic-bottle things), works infinitely better than the usual syrupy water as the alcohol and fumes will knock out yellowjackets and their ilk (and hornets) and reduce the (low in the first place) chance that they'll find a way out.
Similar to me using spices on my floor to get rid of ants. Only I'll just have to clean up the floor after the ants are gone.