Easiest Bed Bug Trap

Intro: Easiest Bed Bug Trap

To start mix your sugar/yeast solution to bait the trap. Bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide, and yeast produce it as they feed on sugar.

Mix 2 cups of pure cain granulated sugar to 2 liters warm water. Use bottle or filtered water so to not have chlorine. Add a little yeast. If you buy a packet then use about 25% of it. Otherwise use about 1/2 a teaspoon.

Set that aside. You'll need it at the last step. It should be frothy by then. If not then it won't take long.

STEP 1: Start

Bed bugs have become a major issue around our country (USA). I think it's because of our bad economy. People are picking things up from beside the road and carrying it into their houses. Before you do this you should be very careful because those things might hide bed bugs. Once you have them it's very hard to get rid of them. Traps are unlikely to solve your bed bug problem, but if you can't afford to pay expensive exterminators then traps may help.

This is the easiest bed bug trap.

Stuff:
    2 or 3 liter bottle
    Roll of Paper Towels
    Tape
    Scissors with a sharp point or include a knife or razor
    Sugar
    Yeast

STEP 2: Prepare the Bottle

Cut the top off along the top edge of the label.

STEP 3: Make Footholds

The bed bugs can't climb the smooth plastic bottle, so you have to give them something to grab as they climb. Wrap the bottle with paper towel and tape it on. Make it even at the bottom. Cut off the excess at the top, but leave a little overhang.

STEP 4: Grand Finally

Fold the top over into the bottle, then invert the bottle top and insert it into the bottle. It should be even at the top with no plastic sticking up. 

You are done. You can add a little talc powder inside to make it more slippery, but I haven't found that necessary.

Put about 1/4 cup of sugar into the bottle and then about 3 inches of the sugar/yeast solution.

Put excess solution into the fridge. The yeast will go dormant in the cold, but become active again when warmed up.

Place it in a place where you want it to catch bed bugs and it won't get knocked over. You might find bed bugs in it in the morning. If you don't, that doesn't mean there are no bed bugs. They will only come if they are hungry. 

Comments

[LovelyJen]

I'm Going to do this today. I've been sleeping outside on an air mattress in my gazebo for months now. They should be starving by now.

I got infested from a sofa i bought at a thrift store. Never again. We pulled the beds apart and sprayed and used DE. Still got bitten.

I've started boxing everything up and ripping out old carpets and under pads; the old wallpaper is next and the paneling. House is old ( built ca. 1947) and absolutely FULL of cracks. I keep praying State Farm covers bed bug infestation disaster clean up, but they won't. Ugh.

I wonder if i can use small bottles of it to put in the boxes of stuff. The boxes are plastic and probably slippery for them to climb out of ... I've had these bugs for going on a year now ... At my wits end

TLJ

[Nomad]

Permethrin is OTC. Sanity is always a worthy goal. Consider incineration of the entire debacle until nothing remains except glowing coals. Go to the nearest clothing store of choice, and purchase jeans, underwear, etc. x 1 outfit as go out back to the dumpsters at the store and torch the clothes you wore in. Then proceed to the nearest car dealership, and purchase a new one, any color, model or make. Leave your old car at the dealership with everything in it. Drive 1300-1500 miles away in any direction without luggage and one or two credit cards previously sprayed with isopropyl EtOH in a sandwich baggy. Change your name. Adopt a new career. Do not leave a forwarding address, and perhaps Cimex lectularius- the little buggers -won't be able to locate you for a couple of years. NEVER go to a Hotel, Motel, Spa, Resort, or similar lodging or spend a night away from the new house you construct from the cement foundation up at your new home location! Step 1 in the new locale-hire exterminators to come in once every two weeks as a prophylactic measure!

[rebecca.berndsen]

You can put anything that you suspect have bed bugs in clear sealed bags in the hot sun all day maybe 2 days and the heat will kill them. Can be non-clear also.

[Phoenix_Dwyn]

I can completely relate to your situation. My family have been battering this nightmare for over a year as well. I have tried everything except an exterminator, which I should have done right away because I've spent so much money on traps, sprays, DE, steamer, etc. As soon as I think we have won the battle, it starts all over again. You never know exactly where those little eggs are! We have gotten to the point of carefully washing and spraying everything, packing it up, buying new bedroom furniture and moving. As vicious as these things are, I hope that I haven't missed that "one little egg" that could possibly come with us.

[Cynthia_June]

The types of heaters that GretchenF3 is referring to can be found at places like The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Walmart. (I wouldn't suggest checking your local thrift store for one, heh heh!). I love her idea about using the heater in each room, it's a heck of a lot less expensive than hiring an exterminator who uses basically the same method, only all in one day. I would be afraid that precious family treasures (like photographs) would be destroyed during a heat extermination process. At least if I use Gretchen's method of heat treatment I can make sure certain items are safe when the room they're in is being treated!

Thanks Gretchen!!

[JoeG124]

See my post above. Take a 1 week vacation and kill them off with prolonged high heat or extreme cold.

[Drolkra]

Bedbugs can survive cold environment. bedbugs survived lower temperatures, with eggs surviving in short-term exposures … to temperatures as low as -25° C,” the researchers write. But the bugs are not freeze tolerant, the scientists found, and they can be killed — no matter their stage of life or feeding status. All it takes is 80 hours in temperatures of -16° C.

[QuantumErikGaming]

I mean, you prably didn't have to destroy your carpets (unless they were ugly as hell then sure). You could just buy a heat gun or a good hand held steamer and steamed every last bit of the carpet. Same goes for clothes.

[willsp28-]

they can live for about a year without feeding, also they will be constantly making more even without feeding, so simply starving them will not work, you have to kill every last one

[GretchenF3]

HEAT: I will say the thing that worked the very first time for us was also the easiest thing we tried. We did one room at a time. We sealed any door and window cracks so the room was sealed and then used a large kerosene, torpedo type heater people normally use in their garages.We put a thermometer in the room and heated it to around 140-145° for 45 min. We did this in each room that was effected. We were lucky that we caught it early and only 2 of our rooms were effected. We used this method on both rooms and two years later we are still bug free. Before the heat treatment we had tried bombs and sprays to no avail. Of course we still did all laundry in effected rooms on high heat and daily vacuuming during issue but the heat was so simple and worked completely. I was impressed after trying so many things.

[HerbB4]

Hello. Where did you find this type of heater? I have a close friend in need of this help. Thx in advance

[JoeG124]

They cannot survive prolonged heat or extreme cold. So, depending on where you live, it's climate and season, you can either kill them off with heat or cold. Do some research. If you do use extreme cold, make sure you drain your water pipes, water meter, if you have one, thoroughly or they will burst.

[BehinjaminD]

It should be noted that the adult bed bug can hibernate without feeding for up to three years so starving them out in four months isn't possible.

The traps will be useful for those hibernating in your storage, however, as they mimic live breath.

[JaxxF]

Hit up tractor supply and buy a couple huge bags of Diatomaceous earth (they have it cheap). cover..well, everything in the house with it. Fighting the damn things myself right now and while it isn't instant-kill they definitely don't like going through it. And it's not a chemical, it's a mechanical assault so they have no immunity. Isopropyl alcohol is good at killing the bugs and the eggs on contact but frankly i just have them in a 10x10 foot room and i've gone through almost a gallon in the past week. Heat works too, if you bring your items to 140 degrees for 20 minutes or so it's lights out. It also doesn't hurt to experiment and see what's actually effective chemical-wise since different bugs are resistant to different things. The Hot Shot stuff seems to just make mine hungrier. I've also got some sprays and such from Harris (they make a kit) and it seems to be working (came with the diatomaceous earth), using the 3 part kit in conjunction with alcohol and ecologic bed bug killer (that appears to just be diluted lemongrass oil but damn that stuff seems to work).

I'm thinking about building one of these traps and surrounding with the DE

[Ladyofdsc123]

I know this is off the wall I do thank you for this information and I will try it all. I am a single mother with 2 kids and full time job. My baby sitter over the summer advised me she had bed bugs. Well she gave us a gift from....so I noticed bites on myself always feeling like my skin was crawling. Was not my skin! Zig zag bites in the morning I've been kicked out my room for months now.

[PeterR264]

I was going to say that the recipe doesn't say how much water to put into the 2 ltr bottle but then I realized it does....indirectly, when it says to.....add "3 inches" of the sugar/yeast solution - which is actually a water/sugar/yeast solution. How much that is, is unclear, and hard to estimate when the bottle is wrapped in paper towel. May be better to put 3 inches of water in a separate 2 litre bottle and measure how much it is. And does it have to be 3 inches.....can it be 4 inches? I was going to do it and then post it here but right now I can't seem to locate a ruler or a measuring tape.

[ireland111]

If you see one that means there are hundreds you have not seen. They should get less and less in the trap as they die. When I found 4 I knew after 3 days they were finally getting the numbers down. So I continued baiting the trap for months looking until I never
found them anymore.. They can hide and live for a year and you would not see them. So after a year of not seeing them, its smart to continue to check with the bait traps for another year. These are really hard to eliminate. Use Harris spray in the yellow container when you think they are gone that will get any residual and kill them. Because those are the ones you can see. I pour it up to a quarter full and channel the co2 so I know where the bait is and if its working. Leaving the top open would let
all the gas escape in the air wouldn't it? This is just like bread..let the gas lift the bread. It will keep proofing if you leave it there with something to eat. So don't sweat the small stuff.

[PeterR264]

I saw my first ever bedbug on my couch about 5 days ago. Couldn't believe it. Where the heck did the "little darling" come from? So far I've only seen 1 or 2 per day but it still makes me itchy all the time. :) I spread the diatomaceous earth under my couch cushions, on the entire floor area under the couch, and also behind the couch. Haven't seen them any where else.
Yesterday I saw none at all (I was excited) but today at about 3:30 pm I saw ONE on the backrest area of my couch. Quickly sent him to bedbug hea......Hell. Will be making the trap tomorrow. Need to buy yeast and bottled water today.

One website said you should use only "spring" water - true or false? Oh and..add 3 inches of the yeast mixture...really? How much is that when I won't be able to see into the paper towel covered bottle? Do you think molasses is better than sugar?

[ireland111]

I didn't understand the building directions too well. I got an empty 16 oz bottle and washed it. Drilled a hole in the cap and put a straw in there. Covered shot glasses with masking tape up to the rim. exactly so it will fall in the glass. I put DE in the bottom just a little so I know it can't get out. Aim the carbon from the straw into the glass so it contains the carbon and you know the bugs will go where the straw sits but don't let them crawl up the straw. Just put it in the cap, put the other end on the bent straw at the top of the shot glass so it aims in the glass but doesn't touch it.
Make the yeast recipie but put a teaspoon of sugar in it ever other day. 2 cups non chorinated water, just let regular water sit for 24 hours and the chlorine will be gone. Add a half teasp of yeast add a quarter cup of sugar. Mix well and let it sit. The yeast will start working once it gets warm and then it will keep working a couple of days until you put more sugar in it. I forgot to add sugar. Anyway. pour half of it in each bottle, I used two. I used them to see if I still had the bugs not to kill them. I steamed the house and furniture every 10 days for that and when I found the nest in the sofa, I threw it out as there was no way I could get them out of there. They spread out. Your sofa is probably made with wood so they will imbed into the frame and unless you tear it apart down to the wood frame you will not find them all. Mine also walked across the carpet to the sofa table and all the way across the room to the wood for the fireplace. It was there they kept reinfesting because I could not find them on the wood but my cat let me know where they are. She hates them.
Anyway, once I threw out the wood from the fireplace. I put double sided tape on allthe furniture legs so they could not crawl up. Kept the traps down and checked everyday looking for anything. I did finally get about 4 bugs in the trap by the sofa. So I knew I had to keep cleaning and steaming. Eventually the traps did not get anything in them. It is living hell dealing with these things. I am so paranoid now. I dont' let people in and if I have to, once they leave I spray everywhee they were with bed bug killer.Harris is the only one I found that works. Its 2 yrs later and I still itch thinking I may have them. I am making new traps today as I have itched when I was asleep in my ears and hair. Thats sure sign but I am praying I am clear...Good luck to all.

[DavidR964]

You can boil tap water. Its asking for filtered water because of the chemicals added. All you are wanting is water yeast and sugar and maybe a slice of bread to feed the yeast. The yeast creates carbon dioxide as it eats. And chemicals in tap water might kill off the yeast. You want the carbon dioxide to attract the bugs.