Does Cypermethrin Kill Bed Bugs?

There are numerous ways to eliminate bed bugs, and sometimes, depending on the severity of the infestation, it can be hard to know what the best method is. A chemical insecticide, Cypermethrin, contains chemicals that can kill bed bugs. But is it the best solution for an infestation?

What is Cypermethrin?

Killing bed bugs is never easy, mostly because they are very small and can squeeze into tiny hiding spots. A crack in the wall or furniture that can fit a credit card can easily hide a bed bug. Among the many pesticide products registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), seven chemical classes are widely used for bed bug control. Two of the seven chemical types are pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide used to kill various pests, including insects on lettuce and cotton, cockroaches, termites, and fleas in houses and buildings. 

Chemical Insecticides Are Not The Best Solution 

While cypermethrin and other chemical insecticides contain the compounds that effectively control and kill bed bugs, some bed bug populations have become resistant to pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

Most pyrethroids, for example, can paralyze wasps, roaches, ants, and other creepers and crawlers on contact. However, when used to eliminate bed bugs, they showed inferior results unless combined with other chemicals.

Using chemical insecticides may kill bed bugs on contact, but they’re normally useful for no more than 24 hours. If chemical insecticides are used, then bed bugs that remained in hiding and managed to avoid the deadly insecticide spray will thrive and continue to multiply.

Disadvantages of Using Chemical Sprays

It is quite clear that chemical insecticides aren’t the best bug control method you can use. They come with some major disadvantages.

For one, chemical sprays leave unpleasant odors that can become trapped in the air and inside the fibers of your curtains, furniture, carpets, and mattresses. The chemical smell can linger for days and weeks after the initial use, making it uncomfortable to stay in the infested room. 

Chemical insecticides can also cause allergic reactions such as wheezing, coughing, airway inflammation, and other respiratory problems.

And lastly, controlling bed bugs with insecticides requires expertise and is handled best by authorized exterminators. You can’t safely do it on your own.

Heat Treatment For Bed Bugs 

Bed bugs are known to survive and remain active for up to several days at low temperatures. But when their body temperatures reach 113ºF (45ºC), bed bugs die. The room temperature must be higher than these numbers to ensure sustained heat reaches the bugs, even in their many hiding places. Hence, heat treatment is a better way to kill bed bugs than chemicals.

Professional heat treatment involves using special equipment such as large fans and industrial heaters that will increase the temperature in your home, high enough to kill the bed bugs.

Within 90 minutes at a room temperature of 118ºF (48ºC), the bed bugs and their eggs die. If the room temperature reaches 122ºF (50ºC), the bed bugs and eggs die instantly.

Recommended Option: Heat Treatment

Between using chemical insecticides and heat treatment, the best option to kill bed bugs is heat treatment. Aside from killing bed bugs in all life stages, heat treatment doesn’t leave any residual odors or unsafe chemicals in the air. It will not cause breathing difficulties or other health issues. Moreover, it usually requires only one treatment visit, thus keeping interruptions in your daily activities to a minimum of one day.

Studies have also shown that bed bugs tend to adapt to living in dangerous environments and they have been known to develop a resistance to chemical sprays. Heat treatment will not spare even the bugs in hiding or those that are resistant to chemical sprays. 

Do You Need to Kill Bed Bugs In Your Home?

If you think you have bed bugs or are interested in a home heat sanitation treatment, contact Bed Bug Barbeque, LLC in Lakewood, Ohio! We use heat treatment to eradicate bed bugs and we offer entire home sanitation heat treatments. This safe, effective treatment is completed in less than 12 hours, and Bed Bug Barbeque, LLC offers a 60-day warranty for you to verify for yourself that your bed bugs are fully eradicated. Contact Bed Bug Barbeque, LLC today for a FREE quote at (216) 221-1227 or through our website, and check out our other bed bug informational resources on identification, prevention, and eradication.