Abha writes
I recently purchased Evergreen Pyrethrum Dust and applied it to my daughters room around the baseboards and inside the drawers and around the wooden platform of her bed. I did this about 2 weeks after the PCOs came and treated all of the bedrooms in my house as an extra precaution. Since the PCOs had treated my house after their first visit, she has not gotten any bites. However, when my daughter slept in her room the night after I applied the dust, she was terribly bitten all over her arms and shoulders. I called the PCOs again and they came back and retreated all the bedrooms. This is in addition to the relentless cleaning I have been doing. My question is then, how does the dust work? Does it aggravate the bed bugs to come out of their hiding place? How long does it take for it to kill the bed bugs?
It sounds like the treatment that the PCO's applied had worn off after two weeks (bedbug treatments are supposed to be repeated about every 7-10 days to stop this from being a problem). Evergreen Pyrethrum Dust has the active ingredient of Pyrethrins and can take up to 1 week to kill a bedbug which is why you must use it conjunction with other products. It does seem to be coincidental that your daughter received bites the night after you applied the dust. Had she been sleeping some where else besides her room before that night? If so, the bedbugs may have simply been hiding in the wall and when she resumed sleeping in her room they were able to detect her and came out to feed. We have never had complaints of the dust causing the bedbugs to bite. If the dust has not been vacuumed up or otherwise removed, there is no reason to reapply as the dust will last for several months.
Answer last updated on: 03/17/2010
