“Diatomaceous earth (food grade) dispersed as a very fine aerosol;
Amorphous silica gel (CimeXa) also dispersed as an aerosol;”
I’m guessing these just suck the moisture out of the bugs and they are dehydrated to death?
Diatomaceous earth actually grinds the bugs to death. Bed bugs have an exoskeleton and the fine DE particles work their way in and grind away. DE does work. I got bedbugs from a Marriott Hotel in Cincinnati a couple of years ago while staying on business. Bedbugs live only on human blood. In short, use yourself as bait and make sure the bugs have to crawl through the DE to get to you.
Exactly right, a dehydrated bug is a dead bug. Normally they have a thin waxy layer over their exoskeleton. The waxy layer gets stripped off on contact with the silica gel or diatomaceous earth, and they die a horrible death.
Or so I hope. But the only thing that gets vacuumed up is a wispy little husk. And as soon as the new nymph is hatched out of the egg, it also undergoes dehydration, and they are gone.
The diatomaceous earth tickles them so much they die laughing. ;)