Posted: Mar 9, 2012 6:09 PM by Katy Harris (KAJ News) Updated: Mar 9, 2012 6:13 PM
KALISPELL- In the 1940's and 50's pesticides were used in homes that kept bed bugs away. But now they've made a comeback, and the insect is finding its way into some of the cleanest environments in the Flathead Valley.
Flathead County Public Health Officer Joe Russell say the bugs bite at the skin's surface and can cause infections.
"People shouldn't consider this a dirty disease, or a disease of the poor because people that travel generally can pick them up and bring them even into the cleanest homes."
Flathead Valley residents are finding out about a food grade that's sold locally here. It kills bed bugs and it costs just 89 cents for a pound bag, it's called Diatomaceous earth.
People can eat it and pets can use it to ward off fleas and it's supposedly used to kill bed bugs.
When sprinkled around a home, the bed bugs eat the fine powder, and the microscopic fragments cut and dehydrate the insect from the inside out. But Russell says you may be forgetting that bed bugs could be in places in your home that you can't reach.
"The problem is if you're not killing them, you're just pushing them further into your walls and into areas where they're not easily ridded."
In the long run, seeking extermination may be a better option. Thermal treatment extermination may be the best way to kill bed bugs by using 120 degree heat. But there is only one company...from Hailey, Idaho...that does that treatment in Montana.
The rest is here:
Bed Bugs find their way into the Flathead
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