This Study Sucks!

Abstract

Those of us who deal with bed bug infestations on an almost daily basis know that these insects utilize, as temporary or long-term harborages, the (typically undisturbed) seams, folds, crevices, recesses, and cavities associated with bed components, furniture, wall hangings, interior structural components of residences, luggage, clothing, children’s comfort toys, book bindings, electronic devices, and other personal property. Some bed bug harborages are readily treatable with appropriately labeled insecticides, super-heated (“dry”) steam, or a jet of ultra-cold CO2; others are not. Sensitive electronic devices, art objects, books, and other personal property do not respond well to moisture, pesticide residues, or extreme temperatures. Likewise, potentially infested clothing and comfort toys can be hot-laundered and hot-dried or dry-cleaned, but this is an arduous task when all the clean hung and folded clothing in a bedroom and closet is considered. Of course, heat treatment and fumigation of residences are effective means of eliminating bed bugs; however, these processes are costly and unaffordable to many families and individuals whose residences have become bed bug-infested. The dual goal of my study was to determine whether or not commercially available vacuum storage bags can be used to disinfest items placed in them and depressurized, and to confirm by replication (Wang et al. 2012) a reliable, cost-effective method that would allow the public to disinfest personal property without having to resort to pesticides. The idea of utilizing vacuum storage bags as a possible bed bug disinfesting method was, to my knowledge, first presented to the structural pest management industry in 2009 by Stoy Hedges (Manager, Technical Services, Terminix International) at the 73rd Annual Purdue Pest Management Conference. He found that the level of air removal (achievable with a household vacuum cleaner) from the vacuum storage bags alone was insufficient to kill the bed bugs he had placed in the bags. Hedges suggested including an appropriate quantity of Ageless® oxygen absorber with the items placed in the vacuum storage bags to asphyxiate any bed bugs in the enclosed space. Hedges had also attempted to test the higher level of vacuum achieved with a food vacuum storage system on bed bug survival in various containers. Although the contained bed bugs died, the amount of air removed caused several plastic and glass containers to implode and break, thereby rendering the process impractical. Although the notion of using vacuum storage bags to disinfest clothing and other items has been suggested and disapproved by bloggers (e.g., bedbugger.com), I wanted to determine, to my satisfaction, whether or not this method has merit.