OSU, 2025
- “Bed bugs have developed resistance to many commonly used classes of insecticides.”
- “The resurgence of bed bugs coincides with increased human movement and insecticide resistance.”
- “Bed bugs can survive up to 70 days without feeding.”
OSU’s 2020 sheet names the chemistry: resistance has resulted “in the development of highly resistant strains of bed bugs to pyrethroids,” the active ingredient in nearly every retail product.
Foggers
A fogger fills the air. Bed bugs live in seams, voids and cracks the fog never reaches, and the repellent effect drives them deeper and sideways — into the next unit. Ohio’s county health departments say the same thing in the same words; the Toledo-Lucas County handout: bug bombs “may make the infestation worse by scattering the bugs throughout the home or apartment.”
What works
- Heat past 122°F at the coldest point, held for eggs. How →
- The dryer: OSU, “high heat (≥130 F) for 30 minutes.”
- Encasements to “trap bed bugs, prevent feeding, and simplify inspection” (OSU).
- Professional non-pyrethroid programs with the second visit at two weeks.
Before we arrive
Dry the bedding, bag the clean laundry, encase the mattress, vacuum the seams. Do not spray. Each DIY pyrethroid application selects for the survivors and spreads them.
Figures cited: Ohio State University Extension ENT-0103 (2025) and HYG-2105 (2020);
Virginia Cooperative Extension ENTO-583NP (2024); Kells & Goblirsch, Insects 2(3):412–422
(2011); Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County program pages (read 2026-10-08). Not medical advice.