Sunday, June 7, 2009

DDT and Bed Bugs


Once upon a time there was a chemical that worked on bed bugs called DDT which was banned in the US in 1972. DDT was first prepared in 1873 as a chlorinated organic insecticide. Although DDT was produced in 1873, it wasn't really used widely until around the time of World War 2 as a means of controlling mosquitoes and lice. With the help of DDT and organophosphates bedbugs became more of an occasional invader by the mid to late 1950's. Now...we are not so lucky. It would be great if the EPA would allow for some relaxed regulations to allow for a better insecticide product to be developed or make it less expensive to produce such a chemical. DDT was a dangerous and deadly chemical, but it was also extremely misused. We need a bigger boat.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the exerminator community it's usually acknowledged that bed bugs have been resistant and immune to DDT since the early 1960s.

Why would we bring back a dangerous chemical that doesn't work?

Got any sources to suggest DDT will work again? All the research I've seen says bedbugs are almost completely immune to the stuff.

Unknown said...

And to anything else we have...we need new chemistry...DDT was an example.

Unknown said...

These pests are Bed Bug Removal responsible for enormous stress on the people whose homes or offices have fallen prey to these blood sucking parasites.