I will never have bed bugs!

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It depends on the dust as to wether or not it works. I haven't seen much dead bug activity with the new blue cloud, but the old stuff if left out would have a pile of dead bugs in it after awhile. So does the sweet PDZ when I dump a pile of it.

Much to my surprise the stuff you buy at Lowe's to grout tile also kills bugs. Left an open bag out for a few days and I had a couple of spiders, a roach and some small beetles in there.

I actively spray for roaches, seen a lot of stuff on bedbugs but not seen one nor been in a house that had them that I've noticed. I've been checking at hotels for the last few years after reading an article on them... yuck.

So you would need a layer of DE/dust on every single square inch of every item in your house, including cracks and crevices...
I don't know how many chins you have in your house, but before I bought a place with a barn this adaquately described my houses/rentals... :D
 
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lol, my chins are in a modified garage so there's no chin dust in the house (with the exception of occasional rescue chins). When I first started, the chins were in my bedroom and dust would build on top of horizontal surfaces but not really on vertical surfaces or underneath surfaces (ventral surface if we are using anatomical terms, haha).

Oh yeah, and nearly any insect who is trapped in a bag of any kind of dust would die. No food, water, or escape would lead to rapid dehydration not to mention damaging effects to the protective cuticle and exoskeleton of an insect... especially DE, that stuff is actually quite sharp for a small organism.

I will let you all know the results or where you can read the article if the findings are worth publishing. I already am busy with ongoing bed bug projects but I will have to fit this in on my free time since I don't have a company to sponsor chinchilla dust testing... haha, it will be an exploratory study.
 
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and dust would build on top of horizontal surfaces but not really on vertical surfaces or underneath surfaces
I need your dust! I just spent three hours yesterday wiping down the walls/ceiling and every surface in the barn. It was caked and gross and starting to collect fur! Arg! Granted I've not cleaned it in a few months - it just hasn't been cool enough and I must have the doors open for it or we'd all die. Yesterday it was 75 in the morning so I opened everything up, left the a/c's running full and went to town!
 
Hmm, I just use Blue Cloud but I don't get too much on the wall... I get mostly pee on the wall from some of my girls spraying, lol. It gets really bad on top of the cages and on the water bottles though! There's always a thick layer on there!
 
Agreed . but i didn't know you can get maggots form not cleaning your cages properly... that''s grose.. i' forever cleaning the cage everytime i change it ... i have to take pine sol tot he pan under neat and it works and makes it smell nice

I've never had bedbugs at all...I was just joking! Bugs freak me out. If I saw bedbugs, I would probably get rid of my bed and get a new one. Actually, if anything has bugs, it gets thrown out immediately and then I spend the rest of the night cleaning everything to eradicate them.

With the one exception of someone trying to bring a bag of supplement with bugs in it into my house (never made it in), the chins have never brought in any type of pests. Not in their hay, their food or their dust (hehehe, now we know why).

They're very clean animals from the standpoint that they normally will not have anything that can make people sick in any way...they do throw poos and hay around, but that's a CLEAN mess. I haven't had any problems with ants trying to get into their cages or really anything that I can think of at all. I've heard of cages getting maggots in them, but, let's just face it, if you have that happening you aren't getting your cages cleaned up nearly enough...

I'm not sure if having the chin dust everywhere is worth just not getting bedbugs. Now, if only chin fuzz that attaches to everything would combat disease and pests, we would be all set!! :p

An epidemic of bedbugs? Oh dear...that makes me feel itchy to think about it. I do have a foam mattress...so I don't know if that helps... LOL
 
You would be shocked at some of the things I have seen over the years. Bugs, rot, and just incredibly filthy things...and people think it's okay. I know that this isn't uncommon to see...but one girl was putting new shavings over the old for a couple years. The layer at the bottom was pure wet mud and it made that house smell like something had died in there.

Cleaning is necessary with chins, but some people don't understand that. Keep up with it and it's super easy...we're talking 5 to 10 minutes a day of maintenance and cleaning and everything is fine.

Sumiko - I spend a lot of time cleaning the walls, too. I don't mind it so much though...I get a bucket of very diluted bleach water and scrub for a bit. What I mind is the dust and fuzz that gets stuck to the ceiling fans! I turn off the fan and big old blob of it will fall down right on me...despite dusting them at least twice a week.
 
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