If itching is keeping you up and night, iron your bed. It is a quick, easy way to kill chiggers, ticks, bed bugs and more. The heat of an iron can kill all the bugs in a few minutes while still on the bed.
Summer time is here and in some parts of the country when you go outside you can be attacked by a wide variety of biting insects. There are many many insects and ways to deal with them I will put a few suggestions at the end. I would like to offer one quick solution that works in some cases. Ironing the sheets, while on the bed. This is going to cook, and kill offending bed bugs, ticks, chiggers, spiders and all the other creepy crawlies right where they are. Then you can go back to bed and hopefully sleep better.
Almost all bugs are killed by heat. It does not take much time or an incredibly hot temperature to kill all bugs. Just a few seconds at a temperature somewhere in the area of 150 degrees F will generally kill all bugs. For example, bed sheets thrown in a drier for a couple of minutes will be kill all bed bugs. Bugs are killed two ways, first the heat can cook the bugs. High body temperatures does cellular damage. Second the bugs can be dried out and dehydrated. Bugs are also very small, so they have a very small heat reserve and very small water reserve. This means it doesn't take a lot to kill them.
Besides being in your bed, the bugs can also be on you. Showering is generally the best way to get the bugs off. Sometimes this does not work and more serious methods are required. One I would suggest is applying rubbing alcohol. Topical Rubbing alcohol, commonly used to sterilize wounds can be rubbed on the legs, or body parts like arms that are itching. For example, I have found it helpful to rub it on everything under the knee after I take a shower. This seems to stop the itching on ankles and has a detrimental effect on ticks and chiggers that just enjoyed the shower I took.
Some warnings should be put out there. I have had very serious bug problems. I have found myself covered with ticks or bugs on legs after I have changed and showered. And I ever purposefully scrubbed my angles during the said shower to try to remove the bugs. I have also visible inspected myself for ticks and not found them and found myself covered in some so small they are almost impossible to see. Having been an avid outdoorsmen in multiple parts of America, I have found that there are some very serious bug problems. Most people will be fine with repellant and a nice hot shower, but there are times that this is completely insufficient. And you may think I am crazy, but just wait till you get completely covered in these crazy invisible bugs. Covering large portions of the body with rubbing alcohol is not generally recommended. One needs to be careful as alcohol evaporates and can create harmful fumes especially strong in a small enclosed space such as a bathroom shower. Alcohol also kills germs and the body is normally covered with a bunch of harmless bacteria. Rubbing alcohol kills all bacteria, good and bad. I am not complete sure that they rubbing alcohol kill the ticks, as much as possible absorbing into the tick, getting it drunk, with a bad kind of alcohol, and allowing it to be rubbed off. However it works, it appears to work for me. Sometimes the bugs have already left but their bites still itch and there is a possibility that the rubbing alcohol is getting into the insect bits and reducing itching that may. I am not exactly sure, but it seems to work.
There are lots of other ways to avoid bugs and use these techniques. For example, knowing 150 degree heat kills bugs, one can use a cars heat to kill bugs. If you are out camping, and get ticks in your sleeping bag, the next morning you can put the sleeping bag, in the car which is parked into sun, as the car gets hot it will kill all the bugs. For example, suppose you are out berry picking. You have been exposed to ticks and expect you have them on the long sleeve shirt you brought along. While generally, this should be washed, it can also be thrown in the car, maybe on the back window. Most cars get very hot, and a few hours in a hot car will kill the offending ticks. Having two or three old shirts and rotating them this way can help get rid of the bugs, without needing to launder them. One can also just throw them in the drier without washing them. This is quicker and easier. We all like clean shirts, but laundry is not always the right answer. Leather gloves for example can not be washed. While one can use multiple pairs, and cars are a hot and quick way to kill all the bugs on them without damaging them.
Rotating items is also an easy way to rid them of clothes. Bugs which need water can only survive a few days on items.
There are lots of other things one can do to avoid and eliminate bugs. Here are a few more ideas that might help.
Remove standing water where mosquitos breed.
Pick up trash.
Cut grass short.
Remove Brush.
Stay inside.
Spray the yard with insecticide.
Use insect repellants such as those with DEET.
Use Picaridin -a newer insect repellent rumored to be as effective as deet.
Invite bats, bugs and birds that eat insects into the area you live.
Put up a bat house. (Bats eat bugs).
Put up a bug Zapper
Get a (bug) light fan trap.
Where light colored clothes so one can see ticks.
Work when bugs are least active.
I really do like to live a peace. And I would like to be at peace with nature.
I struggle with getting rid of the bugs and mosquitoes, and know that chemical sprays kill many bugs and have lots of side effects. I think a successful anti-bug solution is going to take lots of different methods and lots of different techniques to allow people the tools to use to solve the problems.
Here I am sharing one technique, ironing the sheets while on a bed. This is quick, easy, and fast. It will kill all the bugs on the ironed area. It will also potentially kill bugs, ticks, spiders and dust mites, living in the mattress, mattresses pad, pillows and more. Bugs can crawl so there is always the possibility the bugs might crawl away or crawl back in; but hopefully this will give you peace at night.