Insects of all kinds and stripes have sought to share territory with humans since the very times when the first dwelling on Earth was built. One of the most disgusting things from ancient times to the present day is the bug - a small but very bloodthirsty creature. The fight against it was ongoing, and the search for an effective remedy led to an interesting result.
It turns out that the herb wormwood helps against bedbugs , but you need to know certain nuances in order to achieve victory over an almost “invisible” enemy.
When humanity still had no idea about insecticides, a method was found through trial and error that would later form the basis for some chemicals to combat harmful household (and other) insects.
Methods of application
Wormwood is a remedy that has been actively used since ancient times, when people did not yet have a clear understanding of insecticides. Various ways of using this medicinal plant have been invented. All control methods have one thing in common: they should be used in places where bedbugs accumulate.
The fight against the pest begins with finding out its habitat . If the insect lives in the bed itself, then putting grass on the floor under the bed is not advisable. It is more practical to place bunches of plants under the mattress or at the head of the head.
Fresh grass is most effective against bedbugs. And after 48 hours, its aroma disappears and the effect becomes weak.
If a person needs further protection from pests, then the plant bunches need to be changed regularly.
Pharmacy wormwood
The plant that is most effective is one that has recently been picked, but you can also purchase a harvest of this herb. Pharmacy wormwood for bedbugs are dried plant fragments (pieces of leaves, stems, baskets of various shapes in gray, green, yellow, greenish-gray) in a pack.
Pharmaceutical wormwood is crushed in a coffee grinder and scattered like dust inside beds and sofas.
It is assumed that within 5 days the parasites, having inhaled the aroma (the smell of wormwood is very strong), will be partially paralyzed or begin to leave the living room.
Wormwood tincture
Wormwood tincture is used less frequently than other remedies.
This is explained as follows:
- Making a tincture can be quite expensive. To prepare 1 liter of tincture, you will need 1 liter of ethyl alcohol. This amount is enough to treat a sleeping area (sofa, bed). Protection against insects will be provided for 7 days, and then the manipulation will need to be repeated.
- It takes a lot of time to prepare the tincture. The remedy will be most effective if it is infused for 4 weeks.
- Not all owners of an apartment or house can tolerate the concentrated smell of alcohol, which will be felt in the room for a long time.
Wormwood in the form of a tincture is best used for spot treatment of areas of increased localization of parasites on a mattress or upholstered furniture.
After such manipulation, insects that were not eliminated by mechanical methods begin to scatter from their habitats and do not try to return there for a long time.
Wormwood decoction
If you prepare your own wormwood herb during the summer season, then a decoction from it will cost very little. But it is also not particularly expensive to buy dried wormwood in a pharmacy and prepare an herbal insecticide at home.
The raw materials are poured with a small amount of water and boiled for a quarter of an hour. The finished broth is cooled, filtered and used immediately. Wormwood bugs are also to be feared in the form of a decoction. Its aroma is equal to that of a fresh plant.
A decoction of a medicinal plant is quite effective in treating contaminated surfaces. The wormwood decoction is sprayed using a spray bottle.
Wormwood essential oil
Wormwood essential oil is added to water (2-3 drops) and the interior items and floors are washed with the solution. This procedure is repeated every day, thereby achieving the pungent smell of wormwood that hangs in the house. It effectively repels bedbugs. The aroma of this oil, which saturates the air in the room during aromatherapy, also drives away bedbugs.
Another effective method is to place cotton wool or pieces of fabric around the room, onto which 2-3 drops of essential oil are applied.
Dry wormwood
Dry wormwood against bedbugs is less effective than fresh grass. But some people practice placing the dried plant under their bed or sofa to protect themselves from bed bugs.
How effective this method will be depends on the degree of hunger that the insect experiences, as well as on the size of the pest colony.
Terms of use
Undoubtedly, if you put a bunch of wormwood under the bed, and insects hide inside the mattress, then there will be no effect from using the plant. Therefore, before using wormwood, it is necessary to thoroughly clean:
- clean all surfaces in the apartment from dust;
- wash the floors thoroughly;
- change bedding and be sure to boil it;
- all pillows and blankets must be thoroughly beaten in the fresh air;
- Clean all carpets and leave them outside for a short time.
During the drying process, the aroma of wormwood quickly disappears. This means that you will need to frequently replace dried and wilted plants with fresh branches. Dry tufts do not need to be disposed of immediately. They can be preserved until winter, and then used to prepare a decoction to combat bloodsucking insects.
Why do bedbugs look for people?
Bedbugs are bloodsuckers. They clearly sense human blood even through the skin.
These insects settle next to people and attack them at night, so their main location is sleeping places (beds, sofas).
Blood-sucking parasites do not simply coexist with humans, like cockroaches, feeding on leftover food. In the case of bedbugs, humans themselves are a source of food for them. These insects can infect people with dangerous diseases.
Or a person can vigorously scratch the bite sites, thereby promoting secondary infection and suppuration.
If you feel discomfort or bites, you need to carefully inspect your sleeping place.
If bed bloodsuckers are discovered, the fight against them should begin as soon as possible.
Preventive actions
Let’s assume that you were able to remove the entire colony of parasites from your home, and now you’ve been sleeping peacefully at night for some time. However, this is not yet a reason for premature joy! Bed bugs may appear again in the apartment. This is especially likely if they enter the home from the basement or in the fur of pets after a walk.
In addition, parasite larvae could be inside upholstered furniture sets. In this regard, it is worth thinking about preventive measures even after the complete destruction of bloodsuckers.
You need to follow the same principle as when removing parasites from your home. It is necessary to systematically treat the surfaces of beds and sofas with wormwood infusion, place plants collected in bunches in all rooms, treat pet collars with wormwood tincture, and regularly change bedding and linen.
How does wormwood act on bedbugs?
Bedbugs have a rather acute sense of smell. Even a small bunch of grass brought into the room will irritate pests. When they begin to smell a strong, unpleasant odor, they try to crawl as deep as possible into the cracks or leave the room completely.
However, they will be absent until they begin to experience severe hunger.
A very hungry bug goes back to drink the blood of a person who is sleeping peacefully. The scents will no longer be effective and will not prevent the bug from doing its job. This herb is not an effective insecticide. It does not affect the life cycle of these parasites or their ability to reproduce.
Larvae and eggs are not afraid of the smell of this plant.
If we summarize the answer to the question - how does wormwood act on bedbugs, then we can conclude that it provides sleeping people with temporary protection from bites, but does not rid the room of bedbugs, destroying them.
Insecticides
These products include herbs.
Insecticides are available in several types. They are usually produced in the form of:
- high concentration solutions;
- aerosols;
- crayons and pencils,
- gels.
Folk remedies do not destroy bedbugs, but expel them from the room where the treatment was carried out. These herbs include:
- sagebrush,
- tansy,
- wild rosemary,
- pharmaceutical camomile.
Important! To expel bedbugs, herbs are laid out indoors in places where insects are likely to accumulate. Tansy and wormwood are the best ways to get rid of bedbugs.
How to find bedbugs in your home
You can suspect the presence of bedbugs in a room based on the following signs:
- The bites of these insects look like a trail of punctures. Having bitten for the first time, they leave the anesthetic present in their saliva on the skin, so they continue to bite him many times unnoticed by a person.
- An unpleasant, characteristic odor begins to be felt in the living room. Sometimes cheap cognac is compared to the smell of these insects. Usually a person can easily identify it.
- Well-fed individuals are easy to notice with the naked eye - their size becomes very large.
- Around the apartment you can notice waste products of bedbugs - black dots that resemble poppy seeds.
- Under the bed or between the baseboards, upon careful examination, you can find dead pests, as well as their skin, shed during molting.
In a living room, you should first inspect the sleeping area for the presence of bedbugs.
This is where bedbugs try to penetrate the fastest.
Where is weed sold?
Today you can find wormwood on sale in two forms - dried herb and crushed plant, packaged in packs. It is better to buy the drug in pharmacies, as this eliminates the risk of purchasing a low-quality product. But we must not forget that wormwood for bedbugs should only be used in combination with insecticidal preparations.
This means that you will need to spread the grass into all the nooks and crannies of the apartment. And in no case should we forget about the closets where the linen is stored!
Advantages and disadvantages of wormwood products
Whether wormwood helps against bedbugs can be explained by those who have used this remedy. This is not a chemical that completely rids a room of parasites. It does not destroy adults or their larvae, but only temporarily repels blood-sucking insects.
But this product is valued for its environmental friendliness and the availability of raw materials for those who live in the region where the plant grows.
Disadvantages of wormwood-based products:
- the sharp smell of bitterness lasts for 48-72 hours, and then you need to bring a fresh portion of the herb;
- if the parasites are too hungry, they can ignore the unpleasant odor and still find their victim;
- the population size and ability to reproduce pests is not reduced by the action of wormwood;
- the pungent aroma of wormwood can cause an allergic reaction in the owners of the premises or their small children;
- The effect of wormwood is short-term - after 2-3 days all parasites return to their habitable places.
Wormwood can be used as a prophylactic to protect your home from parasites from neighbors (if there is such a risk).
It is advisable to place bunches of fresh plants under the mattress, on the floor next to the sleeping area, hang them in door or window openings, near vents, and along baseboards.
Reviews
“Don’t waste your time and energy, I collected wormwood around the bed, it lasted for several days, then the bedbugs attacked me and my wife with renewed vigor! Free cheese is only in a mousetrap!”
Michael
“As a temporary solution to the problem, wormwood, of course, helps, we did this before calling the exterminators, we slept peacefully for two days, and then the bedbugs hatched, and we never saw them again.”
Sergey
“When we found out that our neighbors had bedbugs, we decided to use the “grandmother” method. We hung bunches of wormwood and angelica on the balcony, threw them under the bed and placed them between the front doors. We replace them regularly, blessing the outdoor summer with no bugs.
Marina
Popular questions
Those who want to get rid of bedbugs are interested in the following questions:
- Does wormwood kill bedbugs or drive them away? The bitter herb wormwood is an effective repellent, but it cannot control insect populations. The smell is not pleasant to them and they try to avoid it, but hunger can force them to overcome their hostility to the plant.
- How to lay out grass correctly? It is recommended to place the grass under the bed, sofa, mattress, cabinets or tables. If you sew a fabric bag and fill it with wormwood grass, you can place it on the shelves in the closet. This product will repel both bedbugs and moths. This spicy herb will clean the air in your living space, which will have a beneficial effect on the health of its inhabitants.
- What comprehensive measures should be taken? Before laying out the herbs, it is necessary to find pathological foci and treat them with disinfectants. It is wise to throw out an infected mattress or have it dry cleaned. Also, all elements of the crib and carpets should be sent to dry cleaning. Adult bedding should be washed at 90°C and ironed with steam. Under all cabinets, beds, tables it is necessary to do a thorough cleaning with elements of disinfection.
- What other herbs can be used for bedbugs? Most plants that have a pungent odor will help in pest control. The following herbs have proven themselves to be effective: chamomile, wild rosemary, valerian, celandine, tansy. They affect insects with the sharp, poisonous odor of the essential oils they contain.
In the fight against bedbugs, wormwood can repel insects, and it also turns out to be a good prophylactic agent that protects against the appearance of such pests. But if the insect population includes many individuals, then this plant should not be the only method of control.
In this case, you will need to call a special insecticidal service to treat the premises.
conclusions
- In Russia, wormwood first appeared in monastery gardens before it began to be sown as a medicinal plant. Wormwood is easy to dry and unpretentious in care, so today it grows almost everywhere.
- Wormwood or Chernobyl is one of the oldest medicinal and culinary plants. An Egyptian scroll dating back to 3600 BC details the use of dried wormwood against internal human parasites. Subsequently, this plant was used to treat almost every disease imaginable.
- In addition to diseases, wormwood has the ability to drive out evil spirits and to the extent that they are different from diseases. The herb is also used as a love potion and in spells. It is believed that a sprig of wormwood placed under the newlyweds' mattress will ensure long and uninterrupted love throughout the night.
- In practice, wormwood, due to its high content of essential oils, will help fight bedbugs, mosquitoes and even rats.
- In addition, the plant's decorative qualities are valued for its showy silver-gray leaves.
But back to the point, you will have to judge for yourself whether wormwood helps or not, but keep in mind that bedbugs are only afraid of wormwood because of its pungent odor, which can repel insects, although when they are hungry, night bloodsuckers can still go in search of prey.
Plant properties
The owners of apartments in which parasites have appeared are interested in whether wormwood helps against bedbugs and how quickly this folk remedy can act. After all, the fight against these living creatures is a long process, and often the only way to achieve the desired result is to contact a pest control service.
But wormwood really repels bedbugs. More precisely, not the plant itself, but its specific smell, which insects cannot stand. For those who want to try this remedy, there are several important points to consider:
- Even a small bunch of fresh wormwood is irritating to bedbugs. These pests have a strong sense of smell, which is much sharper than that of humans. Thanks to this property, they can even smell the blood in the veins of sleeping people. For this reason, bedbugs rarely attack men and often attack children and women, who have thinner skin.
- An herb like wormwood has such a pungent odor that a sleeping person is almost completely protected. The insect will not smell blood and will avoid not only its victim, but also its bed.
- The plant emits an unpleasant aroma that will linger in the house for a long time. For this reason, the herb can be dangerous for allergy sufferers.
- Both fresh wormwood and its tincture or essential oil will not kill insects. Pests will simply leave the apartment for more comfortable conditions.
The herb wormwood against bedbugs in the apartment is useful due to its composition. The abundance of bitterness that it contains is not destructive, but unpleasant for pests. This plant contains saponins, glycosides and phytoncides found in its stems and leaves. Thanks to this combination, such a unique drink as absinthe was created. But parasites cannot tolerate the tart smell of the plant.