Bed Bug elimination in Knoxville TN area
For many years, eliminating bed bugs has been a challenge. Whether from excessive infestations, misconceptions, or limited options for treatment, bed bugs have been the main concern for most around the world and especially here in the Knoxville TN area. The methods currently used by most companies can achieve elimination, but nothing is perfect.
The best way to control Bed Bugs is Aprehend because the active ingredient is a natural fungal disease of insects called Beauveria bassiana, that is specific to insects and does not affect humans or animals. While the use of Beauveria to control bed bugs is a pretty new, Beauveria and other insect diseases have been used to control pest insects in horticulture and agriculture for many years. Aprehend contains a special combination of oils, which enable the application of the Beauveria conidia (spores) to surfaces where they remain attached until encountered by a bed bug. This proprietary oil formulation ensures that Aprehend is effective even at very low (< 20%) relative humidity. The Conidia remain dormant on the sprayed surface, and will only germinate when they come into contact with a bed bug. This is how Aprehend remains effective for up to 3 months after application. It can also be used as a proactive treatment which previously, there were not great options for.
There are no chemical toxins in the Aprehend formulation which makes is safer to apply in your home. This is very exciting because reducing toxins applied inside your home is always desirable. Even when heat is used to eliminate bed bugs, extreme temperatures can cause damage. Aprehend is colorless, odorless, and won’t stain most surfaces. While it is clear that no pesticide should be considered completely safe, the risk associated with the use of Aprehend according to label instructions is extremely low.
Beauveria is a natural disease of insects, it infects an insect by direct contact, and does not need to be eaten to initiate an infection. Aprehend contains the conidia of Beauveria, these microscopic ‘seeds’ readily attach to insect cuticle (insect skin). Once attached, the conidia germinate and penetrate directly through the cuticle and gain access to the insect’s blood system. Once there the fungus grows inside the insect, using the blood as a food source. Very soon the insect becomes sick and dies from the fungal infection. In bed bugs this takes between 3 and 7 days. This is revolutionary because traditional products’ efficacy is determined by the exposure. The dosage is the poison. You can take 1 aspirin to kill your headache, but a handful will kill you. With Aprehend, the dosage is irrelevant. As long as they come into contact with it, it will do its job. That means less product that needs to be applied in your home and in less areas reducing your contact with the product, even though it doesn’t affect humans or pets. Previously, every nook and cranny needed to be treated to ensure that the bed bugs got enough of a dose to kill them.
Once a bed bug has come into contact with the conidia, it will carry the conidia on its body back to the harborage. When an exposed bed bug meets another bed bug, the conidia transfer from one to the other. Since bed bugs live packed tightly together in harborages, the fungal disease easily spreads throughout the population. This process is called auto-dissemination. The spores will remain active for 3 months to make sure all bed bugs become infected. The fungal spores will germinate in 24 hours and grow inside the bed bug causing death in 3-7 days. In that time the bed bug will return to the hiding places and spread the spores to other bed bugs starting the process for them, who then in turn, will spread them to more of the colony. Total elimination may take 4-8 weeks for all bed bugs to contact the fungal spores and die.
This is a highly specialized method of bed bug elimination that has proven to be safer and more effective than previous methods. Application of Aprehend requires specific spray equipment, it cannot be applied with standard ‘high volume’ sprayers. To use Aprehend, you must take an online training course to ensure that they are familiar with the use of fungal biopesticides, and the application strategy required for successful bed bug control. This is the best method to control Bed Bugs because it meets our high standards and we are excited to be on the cutting edge of pest control technology and making these innovations available to our customers.
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