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My name is Jeff White and I'm the research entomologist for Bedbug Central and the host
of Bedbug TV, Bedbugcentral.com. I have no idea how I got the bugs in bedbugs and here
I am six years later and having a lot of fun working with bedbugs. And I'll be talking
to you about Pest Control. Uh-oh, you might've found a bedbug in your house, so the first
question you're going to ask yourself is, ‘what do I use to kill these bugs?'
A lot of people see news stories about bedbugs becoming resistant to pesticides and if they're
resistant to pesticides how are you going to get these bugs out of your house? What
are you going to use to kill them? Well, the trick is not killing the bugs that you can
see, it's knowing that most of the bedbugs that may unfortunately be in your home are
hiding in cracks and crevices. And so it's all about killing the bugs you can't get directly
to and so when it comes to killing bedbugs, you could use a hammer, a shoe; bedbugs do
squish. They're not like ticks. People think of you know ticks and how hard they are to
squish in your fingers. Bedbugs are not that hard and you can readily squish them. So there's
lots of things you can use to kill the bugs that you can see. If you're going to buy a
pesticide, you can buy over-the-counter pesticides. A lot of pesticides will kill bugs on contact,
if you spray them directly, most cans of pesticides will kill them. But remember the question
is the bugs that are hiding. The bugs you can't get to because once those pesticides
dry, they may have no or very little effect on bedbugs. And the one thing I can say about
pesticides is follow those label directions. Read the label very carefully; we've unfortunately
heard of people hurting themselves with pesticides because they don't follow the directions properly.They're
there for your protection. And so it's not about you know how to kill bedbugs, 91% isopropyl
alcohol can be one of the best ways to kill bugs and eggs on contact. You can go to your
local store, you want to be careful with alcohol though because remember it is flammable and
you can actually harm yourself with the vapors that alcohol produces. And so you want to
use it in a targeted fashion. And so it's not about how to kill bedbugs, whether it's
a shoe, a hammer, a can of pesticide, or some isopropyl alcohol there's lots of ways to
kill them. It's about how to get those bugs you can't see.