Jan 17, 2011 - Sucking Up The Enemy
QUESTION:
I have heard of using vacuums for initial German cockroach and bed bug cleanouts. Will any good HEPA vacuum work for this, or do we need to stick to models marketed to our industry? This would seem to be a very effective means of population reduction, but what the heck do we do with all the live roaches/bedbugs we now have contained inside the vacuum?
ANSWER:
This is a timely question, since just yesterday I attended an NPMA program that introduced their new "Draft" version of their Best Management Practices for bed bugs. Given the difficulty of this pest and the many ways that PMP's are going about controlling it (some with success, some not) our industry leaders feel there is a need to develop a comprehensive and consistent protocol for successfully dealing with The Common Bed Bug. Within this document they address, in addition to nearly every other aspect of bed bug control, the use of vacuums, recognizing that large numbers of the insects and many of their eggs can quickly be removed at the outset of the effort, and eliminating the need to kill them in any other way. The vacuum also will remove a lot of the bed bug clutter, such as shed exoskeletons, and make things easier to see from then on.
Their recommendation is to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter that will retain even the smallest of dust particles, thus reducing the level of bed bug contaminants that become airborne. Disease is not necessarily the concern here, but it is likely that allergens are associated with bed bugs and their parts, just as they are with roaches and rodents. In addition, the recommendation is to use a vacuum that is marketed to our professional industry for the purpose of pest control, rather than an over-the-counter vacuum that may not meet our specific needs. The vacuum should have the appropriate attachments to allow it to get into tight corners, edges, seams, and crevices, and should bed physically scraped across surfaces to remove the cemented eggs as much as possible.
They conclude the information on vacuums with the statement only that the "bags" should then be placed within a sealed plastic bag and discarded. This suggests that the proper vacuum would not be a cannister style, where the plastic cannister is emptied and used repeatedly. Getting all of the bugs and eggs out and into a plastic bag successfully would be difficult. I admit I am not familiar with all of the HEPA style vacuums, but do know that some of the vacuums carried by Univar, such as the Atrix Omega Green Supreme IPM HEPA Vacuum are designed for insect management and have disposable bags. Planning on having the turbulence of the vacuum kill all of the bugs would probably be pretty optimistic, and the eggs likely wouldn't be harmed much at all, so keeping them contained and disposing of them in the trash bin would be better. I have heard some people suggest putting an insecticide dust within the bag or cannister, but I am not comfortable about the legality of this.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I have heard of using vacuums for initial German cockroach and bed bug cleanouts. Will any good HEPA vacuum work for this, or do we need to stick to models marketed to our industry? This would seem to be a very effective means of population reduction, but what the heck do we do with all the live roaches/bedbugs we now have contained inside the vacuum?
ANSWER:
This is a timely question, since just yesterday I attended an NPMA program that introduced their new "Draft" version of their Best Management Practices for bed bugs. Given the difficulty of this pest and the many ways that PMP's are going about controlling it (some with success, some not) our industry leaders feel there is a need to develop a comprehensive and consistent protocol for successfully dealing with The Common Bed Bug. Within this document they address, in addition to nearly every other aspect of bed bug control, the use of vacuums, recognizing that large numbers of the insects and many of their eggs can quickly be removed at the outset of the effort, and eliminating the need to kill them in any other way. The vacuum also will remove a lot of the bed bug clutter, such as shed exoskeletons, and make things easier to see from then on.
Their recommendation is to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter that will retain even the smallest of dust particles, thus reducing the level of bed bug contaminants that become airborne. Disease is not necessarily the concern here, but it is likely that allergens are associated with bed bugs and their parts, just as they are with roaches and rodents. In addition, the recommendation is to use a vacuum that is marketed to our professional industry for the purpose of pest control, rather than an over-the-counter vacuum that may not meet our specific needs. The vacuum should have the appropriate attachments to allow it to get into tight corners, edges, seams, and crevices, and should bed physically scraped across surfaces to remove the cemented eggs as much as possible.
They conclude the information on vacuums with the statement only that the "bags" should then be placed within a sealed plastic bag and discarded. This suggests that the proper vacuum would not be a cannister style, where the plastic cannister is emptied and used repeatedly. Getting all of the bugs and eggs out and into a plastic bag successfully would be difficult. I admit I am not familiar with all of the HEPA style vacuums, but do know that some of the vacuums carried by Univar, such as the Atrix Omega Green Supreme IPM HEPA Vacuum are designed for insect management and have disposable bags. Planning on having the turbulence of the vacuum kill all of the bugs would probably be pretty optimistic, and the eggs likely wouldn't be harmed much at all, so keeping them contained and disposing of them in the trash bin would be better. I have heard some people suggest putting an insecticide dust within the bag or cannister, but I am not comfortable about the legality of this.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
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