Bed bug sprays are a highly effective and simple way to treat and kill bed bugs. Sprays are easy to obtain and are able to treat difficult to see and reach areas of your home, which is perfect for killing bed bugs since they prefer to hide when not feeding.
But there are literally hundreds of bed bug sprays on the market – How do you choose the Best Bed Bug Spray for your home?
Many of the higher end bed bug sprays not only kill bed bugs on contact, but also provide residual treatment as well, meaning they will kill bed bugs that come in contact with areas sprayed previously. This is a key feature of an effective spray, and a feature you don’t want to be without.
Bed Bug Sprays should not be used as the only treatment option but should be combined with other treatments like steaming, and diatomaceous earth for the most effective overall treatment strategy.
Our studies and experience has shown that combing multiple treatment strategies together, significantly increases your chances of success when killing bed bugs.
As mentioned, Bed Bug Sprays are just one of the many bed bug treatment options, but they have a few key advantages:
The last item is both a pro and a con. Having numerous options to choose from is a great thing, but the problem is how do you know which one to use? How do you know which sprays work and which ones don’t? While there are many products on the market, there is a very short list of products that actually work.
Also consider that bed bugs are tough to treat and kill, and getting rid of an infestation in your home often requires additional treatment methods beyond just sprays including steaming, vacuuming, and use of diatomaceous earth.
We’ve researched a number of bed bug sprays, and want to help you answer the question: What is the best bed bug spray for home use. Here are the products we know that work, receive industry awards, high reviews from customers, and would highly recommend for home use:
Here are our top 3 picks for Bed Bug Sprays, based on our own independent research, and on a Rutgers University conducted research study. All of these products are EPA approved.
#2 – Bed Bug Patrol |
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Bed Bug Patrol was also tested in the Rutger’s University research study, performed very well as well, causing a 92% mortality rate after 10 days. |
Pros All Natural (safe for pets and children), Inexpensive, Effective Cons Unpleasant strong smell, Only kills what comes it comes in contact with |
Active Ingredients: Clove Oil (0.003%), Peppermint Oil (1%) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (1.3%) |
#3 – JT Eaton 217 Kills Bed Bugs Plus |
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JT Eaton 217 Kills Bed Bugs Plus was included in a test done by Ohio State University, the test showed the JT Eaton Kills Bed Bugs had a 100% kill rate after 8 days. The product performed considerably better than all other evaluated products in the study |
Pros Very Effective, Provides residual protection Cons Not Natural, unpleasant smell |
Active Ingredients: Pyrethrins (.15%), Piperonyl butoxide (.75%) and Permethrin (.30%) |
Unfortunately, with bed bug infestations around the world on the rise, various businesses have begun producing bed bug products to meet the market need.
Some of these products and sprays work great – others, well they sadly don’t work at all. In fact, the FTC has filed charges against a few companies due to their deceptive advertisements and false claims.
ALL of the products above are scientifically proven to work and are on the EPAs list of approved Bed Bug Products. If you decide to choose a bed bug spray other than the ones we recommend above:
Before you do anything, you’ll first want to verify that you actually have bed bugs. See, bed bugs look very similar to other bugs, and their bites are also similar.
How do you know if you have bed bugs? The following check-list will help you confirm:
If you still think you have bed bugs, but can’t find any sure signs, it’s best to engage a professional, who can verify for you.
Before you begin spraying, you’ll need to prepare the room. Properly preparing and prepping the room will make the bed bug spray far more effective at killing bed bugs, and much safer for you to use.
You will want to continue repeating bed bug spray treatment until you no longer see new signs of bed bugs.
If after 2-3 attempts, you still see bed bugs or new signs of bed bugs, consider adding in some additional treatments like Steaming or Diatomaceous Earth. Both are also very effective, especially when combined with a proven bed bug spray.
For items kept and placed in bags as part of steps 2 and 6, you’ll need to make some tough decisions. In general, you’ll want to throw away these items, as keeping them risks re-infestation.
If they are important, and you would like to keep them, we would recommend purchasing a ZappBug portable heater. Place the items in the device and turn it on based on the manufacturer’s recommendations – This will kill any bed bugs and eggs on the items. Repeat this for anything you want to keep, before returning them into your home.
For additional information on Detection of bed bugs and Treatment options, See our Detection and Treatment pages!
We hope you’re reading this because you followed the instructions above, and you haven’t see bed bugs or signs of bed bugs in your home for a week or more. If so, congratulations!!! Seriously, you have overcome something that many people around the world are still battling with.
Before all of your hard work goes down the drain, and bed bugs move back in, now is the time to take extra precautions, and prevent bed bugs from returning. Unfortunately, once you’ve gotten bed bugs, the chance that you’ll get them again is pretty high.
But you can reduce that significantly, but putting into place just a few simple procedures, and taking some steps to protect your home, and some early detection mechanisms.
We won’t go into the details here, but you can read all about this on our Bed Bug Prevention page.
We already said this, but it’s worth repeating: Bed Bug Sprays generally only kill bugs that the spray comes in contact with. The best bed bug sprays do offer some amount of residual kill, but it’s not high.
The reality is that you can’t see the majority of your bed bugs in your home. They are hiding behind your walls, furniture, mattress, carpet, and a million other locations.
Bed bug sprays are effective, but generally only when combined with other treatment methods. Failing to use additional treatment methods to kill the bed bugs you can’t see will result in the hidden bed bugs reproducing and just replacing the ones you’ve killed with the spray.
Additional treatment methods include steaming, vacuuming, and use of diatomaceous earth.
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