Bed bug traps are your ticket to sleeping again!
ClimbUp® bed bug traps are one of the most important tools you’ll use during and possibly after your infestation. And they are the only university research-tested trap that has been shown to be very effective in trapping bed bugs.
Not only do ClimbUp® bed bug traps help prevent bed bugs from climbing onto your couch or bed, they can also stop an infestation before it gets started by capturing any bed bug trying to get to you. They are a very effective preventative strategy provided you don’t introduce them directly into your bed by leaving bags, library books, purses, or backpacks on your bed.
The ClimbupTM Insect Interceptor with its outer surface covered by fabric tape (Susan McKnight Inc, Memphis, TN) was shown to be particularly effective. Pitfall-style traps are placed under the legs of beds and upholstered furniture to intercept bed bugs that are dispersing from the furniture or trying to reach the furniture for a blood meal. The device does not contain any attractants. Thus, it is considered a passive monitor.
Passive pitfall traps take advantage of two bed bug behavioral characteristics: active searching for a human host upon which to feed, and tendency for climbing vertical coarse surfaces. The furniture must be pulled away from walls, and any other bridges between the furniture and the floors must be eliminated. Interceptors need to be in place for at least a week or longer to detect bed bugs at very low numbers.
Studies have shown that interceptors are much more effective than visual inspections and information obtained from interviews of building occupants (Wang et al. 2016)
Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet FS1117, Detecting Bed Bugs Using Bed Bug Monitors, Changlu Wang, Extension Specialist in Entomology
Don’t put pesticides on your bed! Put traps under it instead.
The traps are a very effective preventative strategy provided you don’t introduce them directly into your bed by leaving bags, library books, purses or backpacks on your bed.
The traps capture bugs trying to get to you in the outer circle of the trap. Any bed bugs leaving your bed would get trapped in the inner traps.
If you get the white traps you would sprinkle a light dusting of talcum powder into the traps making it even more difficult for bugs to climb the smooth plastic walls of the traps.
Bed bugs have smooth legs without hairs so they are unable to climb up perfectly smooth surfaces, which is why plastic or metal bed legs are best for dealing with or avoiding bed bug infestations. [updated for 2021] Areas with a tropical climate are starting to see “tropical bed bugs” a strain that can climb on smooth surfaces.
If you have isolated your bed without the traps you could still have bed bugs climbing up onto your bed to feed on you. With the ClimbUps, you will trap any bugs trying to get to you even if you have wood bed legs.
I feel strongly most bed bug infestations could be stopped by isolating your bed, using the bed bug traps, and not putting things on the bed.
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