I got a free laptop at a garage sale. Took it home, turned it on and looked around. They'd been researching Bed Bugs. I took it outside while I decide what to do with it. Very low probability that it harbors bed bugs, but the consequences are dire if it does. The laptop is worth about what it cost...nothing.
Assuming there are eggs in there, If I stick it in a plastic bag, will the life cycle eventually end? How long?
Next best option is to stick it in the oven at 118F for
90 minutes. Don't think it will like that much.
It's hazardous waste, I can't just put it in the trash. Local thrift store will take it, but they don't want bugs any more than I do.
Put it in a sealable container with a chunk of dry ice . Leave the computer in the sealed container for a month or so , any eggs should have hatched by then I'd think . The CO2 being heavier than air will displace all the oxygen , no oxy equals no life .
A spray called Proof, using the oil of the neem tree, works. Dr. Dini Miller is an entomologist at Virginia Tech. She put a cloth with 90 eggs, along with adults and nymphs, into a hard drive. She sprayed 40ml of neem oil into a wash cloth, put it in a plastic bag with the hard drive, and left it sealed a week. None survived.
Good idea. Even without the dry ice, woudlnt' a heavy clear plastic bag sealed tightly and enough time give anything inside time to hatch and go looking for food. They need blood or something. . Wouldn't even bedbugs be visiible through the bag?
You could put a note on the thing, in the bag, and give the whole thing to a hamfest and let them decide. Look at
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. Put in your zipcode and there wil be one near you on a Sunday morning (rarely on Saturday) Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to one tomorrow. He said he wanted my NIB win98 printer for someone. .
Where do bedbugs lay their eggs anyhow. I thought it was the mattress.
Hmmm. The average life span of the bed bug is 6-12 months and they will feed every 10 days or so during this time. Bed bugs can survive many months without a blood meal and they reproduce in an unusual fashion.
But that's after they've eaten once or more. Surely newborns have to eat a lot sooner.
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Bed bugs hatch from eggs and pass through five nymphal stages (instar) before becoming adults capable of reproduction. Nymphs and eggs are especially tiny, but still visible to the naked eye.
Adult bed bugs are about 3/16-1/4 inch long, broadly oval, flattened (when unfed), brown to reddish brown bugs. They have a 3-segmented piercing, sucking beak, which rests along their underside when they are not feeding
Bigger than I thought.
Bed bugs can move quickly. An adult bed bug can travel about 4 feet a minute and a nymph can travel about one foot a minute.
Bed bug eggs are tiny, pearly white and barrel shaped. They are about the size of a couple of grains of salt. Eggs are covered with a sticky substance that cements the egg to whatever surface it is laid on, making them difficult to remove. Nymphs resemble adult bed bugs. Newborn nymphs are about the size of a poppy seed and are very pale, almost transluscent. Nymphs require at least one blood meal to molt, shedding their exoskeleton/shell, and move to the next level of development. They pass through five instars or nymphal stages before becoming adults. At each stage they increase in size and darken in color, becoming more similiar to an adult bed bug.
Both nymphs and adults change color and size after feeding, young nymphs or instars will turn bright red with blood and adults will assume a more reddish brown color.
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