Killing bed bugs with ozone is a process. We’ve determined the best approach is to utilize both bed bug foggers and ozone. The ozone breaks down the harmful pesticides after they do their thing and also kills bed bugs, so this 1-2 punch is what we now recommend for both mite infestations and for killing bed bugs.
Pesticides kill bugs, but they also harm humans. Ozone kills bugs and does not harm humans. However, using both is the most effective way at killing pests. Here is the Forever Ozone Protocol:
- Utilize a bug bomb like “hot shot” in the sealed area.
- After four hours, perform a 24/7 ozone shock treatment that consists of one hour on, one hour off. Ozone lingers for about 40 minutes. After the ozone breaks down, the bugs will come out of hiding and trample over step 3,
- Sprinkle DE over the perimeter of the room. The ozone will chase the bugs over the DE until they dig, going back and forth if the ozone or fogger itself doesn’t kill them first. It’s virtually impossible for bed bugs to survive this 3 pronged approach.
The eggs will hatch during the week and the bed bugs will die before they can reproduce. After 5 days, perform another bug bomb just to play it safe. (not necessary but advisable) and start with the shock treatments 4 hours later.
This protocol is very effective at killing bed bugs. The ozone will kill the bed bugs and remove the harmful pesticide residue at the same time. When you’re done with the shock treatments, open the window and introduce fresh air into the room and expel the toxic air. This concludes the Forever Ozone Bed Bug Protocol.
you might want to explain that DE stands for diatomaceous earth. FGDE (food grade diatomaceous earth) is available at pretty much any feed & seed store in 25 lb bags and it’s cheap.
What appears to be more effective than diatomaceous earth is silica gel dust. I have been fighting these little monsters with various pesticides and am waiting for an order of silica gel dust to arrive and will be ordering an ozone generator asap.
Silica dust may hurt mites but for sure will damage your lungs, so I would steer clear of filling your environment with fine particles of glass (silica).
https://www.ncpi.co/resources/health-hazards-of-silica-dust-exposure
How long do you do the one hour on, one hour off treatment? Would it still be effective to do this room by room or do you need an ozone generator that can do the whole house at one time?
The first time you shock an area, if it’s bad, it’s a good idea to run it for 30 on 1 hr off for 8-24 hours. The ozone will never reach the ‘flash point’ where it harms anything, even plants, with a 30 minute treatment. You can run as many of those as you want back to back safely. If you keep to the 1000 sq ft for each 10,000 mgh machine, you will keep the ozone concentration high. Running it for long periods at a lower concentration per our experience doesn’t do the job well. So if you only have one unit in a 2000 sq ft house, yeah, best to go room by room.
Can you explain this in a little bit more detail to me please? I’m trying to eliminate a bed bug problem in a 600 ft square apartment. Is this telling me that I need to have an ionizer that is 10,000 mg? And how many hours would that run for? Having a hard time understanding how these things work specifically. Thank you
Ozone basically chases bed bugs into light sockets and cracks at the baseboard where they can hide and ride out the ozone treatment. If you place DE around the bed and those areas and run an ozone generator on and off several times a day (30 minutes each time) while shutting down the room for 21 days (to ride out the egg cycle) then ozone will get rid of a bed bug infestation. Ozone itself will kill the bed bugs if they can’t escape the area, but they can and will escape the area (or die from the ozone) so the DE is part of this process. You need 1000 mg per 100 sq feet, 10g is more than plenty for 600 sq ft. (better to have more than enough than not enough) Not enough = not high enough parts per million created to kill bugs. (over 5 ppm) Our machines will create over 10 ppm in areas up to 1000 sq ft.
Next week I plan on doing something similar. I’m going to place my ozone gen. in front of my furnace with the fan on to spread the ozone throughout the whole house and set off bug bombs then leave for a day and after the treatment use diatomaceous earth.
Thank you for your response. I have a minimal but Aannoying problem thanks to a friend, and I have laid out Cimexa around the perimeter of the room. I’m thinking about purchasing either of the two or three pack of the 15000 quartz tube generators. My apartment is about 600-700 square ft. I’m understanding that I can run these safely for 30 minute intervals for several days at a time is that correct? I am willing to leave my apartment and rent a hotel for a couple of nights if I need to. I understand that they will try to flee the perimeter of the room, so I I’m thinking of closing off my bedroom and putting one in my bedroom, but then putting one in the bathroom/ dining area, which is a galley kitchen, and then one in the living room as well. What are your thoughts on this? Is this overkill? I want to resolve this. Is this plan feasible or if you think it is over kill what are your thoughts about doing the bedroom first, closing it off, then focusing on each separate room afterwards with running the machine for 30 minutes on followed with an hour off for a day and keep doing a continuous cycle of this for maybe a week or more bouncing back and forth between the rooms? Will I be safe to stay at home running this 30 minutes on, an hour off, on a continuous relay through each of the three rooms?
Hi Jacqueline.
You can run the ozone generator in the pest infected room and run it 30 minutes on, 1.5 hours off for a day then move it to the next area/room and you can stay in the residence as long as you
don’t have forced heat/air that turns on/off. If so, it will force the ozone out of the room via the cracks in the door. In that case. You can’t be home. But if you turn off the hVAC system and run
the ozone generator 30 on 1.5 off several times? You’ll be fine. No need to go to a hotel based on my experience over the years. I have ozone testing equipment and find when I’ve done this the
ozone concentration never gets above safe levels. You’ll smell a little ozone, but not too much. Ozone is self regulating in the sense it warns you if you’re breathing too much. It causes you
to cough. No cough, not breathing too much ozone. Causes you to cough? Leave the area.
Thank you again for your response. Will running these damage any household items? And in regards to running this consecutively and going from room to room each day, what do you suggest would be the max amount of time I should bounce back and forth between each room consecutively? Should I do this non-stop for a week? 2 weeks? Several weeks?
A 30 minute shock treatment means high ozone for one hour and that won’t damage anything. The reason we invented this protocol of on and off. Also. Each time the ozone turns back into
oxygen. You break down whatever is in the air from the last shock treatment. So it’s the best way to shock an area.
I recommend two or three 30 minute shocks each day. Move from room to room for a week or two. For mites or fleas, three (due to egg cycle)
Okay so Mike are you saying that when you do the 30 minute on and then 1.5 hours off that with it being on for 30 minutes the ozone effects are residual and that it continues to last in the air for an hour? And you do think this is safe for me to stay in my home? I can close off my bedroom and bathroom during treatment but the living and kitchen gallery is open, but at that point I could reside mainly in my bedroom, and I could always buy a respirator mask if need be too venture out and about. And do you think that the one machine that I had mentioned that you sell will be sufficient?
Yes. And one 15g machine more than enough. The half life of ozone is 40 minutes at 70 degrees. After 40 minutes, ozone reverts back to oxygen. Vegas casinos pump
ozone into the smokey air because it 1) destroys the smoke and 2) turns into oxygen. Win-win!
Do you have those machines available for sale?
We have everything in stock now. Enough to last us all year in fact. Stocked up to avoid future supply side issues.
Awesome Mike, thank you so much for your help! I truly appreciate it, and I will definitely be purchasing one from your company real soon here, thanks again
Can I ask you what ozone generator do you use? Thank you!
I now use the quartz tube ozone generators for shock treatments except for smalls spaced (like cars, rooms). I use our 10g medical ozone generator in those spaces because the ozone concentration coming out of that machine is higher than the quartz tube air ozone generators (because more concentrated). Putting our 10g ozonator on top of a car will create a much higher concentration ppm wise of ozone shock, so I use that with my car or RV