How to kill bed bugs in portable items: Over-the-counter chemical approaches

In the past decade, few insects have made a comeback as great as the bed bug, Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). Bed bugs are the most expensive household pests to treat professionally, thus many people attempt to self treat. Many Ohioans routinely use rubbing alcohol as a primary insecticide alternative. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of alcohol products (50%, 70%, and 91% isopropyl alcohol and 100% ethanol) against bed bugs when topically applied to individual bugs or sprayed onto bugs or eggs in situ. We used equivalent application rates: 2, 4, and 6 μl/bug for topical applications and 7.7, 15.4, and 23.1 μl/cm² for spray applications. Control bed bugs were treated with equivalent volumes of distilled water. 24-h observations revealed that fewer than 15% of adult bugs showed any signs of being affected and none had died after any topical alcohol application. Results also indicated rate-dependent mortality of nymphs and adults sprayed with the heaviest alcohol rate, with 76.7-100% mortality after 7 days. Data indicated that 63-100% of eggs hatched within 3 weeks after being sprayed. In conclusion, our study shows that bed bugs are not killed when droplets of alcohol are topically applied at rates near runoff. In contrast, bed bugs are killed by an equivalent application rate, but a heavy spray saturates the area. Note that the rates used in this study represent very high application volumes of alcohol products that may not be practical or safe.