Air-Duct Cleaning

[luv2dsgn]

Hi all!

We have a (new to us) 1998 Dutch Star Newmar 38' Diesel Pusher w/slide. My friends who sold it to us live in Maryland, and last year they had a horrendous infestation of stick bugs. Fortunately, they all died! I've spent the last two weeks cleaning this beast from stem to stern, finding buckets of layers of dead bug carcasses EVERYWHERE, even under all the drawer cabinets and behind panels. When we turned the heat system on, the bug carcasses were flowing out of the air vents.

I have found a Groupon bargain for a whole house Air-Duct Cleaning, but need to know if our Dutch Star would require any specialized equipment/handling to clean the duct system.

Any thoughts out there would be appreciated! 🙂

Thanks!
Rosalynn

[Hikerdogs]

If you decide to go with a cleaning service be sure to ask exactly how they do it. We were considering having it done to our stick house shortly after we built it. When we talked to one of the services part of their process was to spray some adhesive type spray into the ducts after cleaning. Their reasoning was that it would keep dust down in the future. Needless to say if this procedure were to be applied in the motorhome ducts sometime in the future you could have a nice collection of stink bugs glued to the inside of the ducts. Probably not a good plan.

[brian2088]

In my opinion Vacuuming the duck is best option for you. The vacuum will eventually suck the bugs. Additionally you can also use any powerful blower for this purpose. Chose any professional and powerful blower/vacuum for this purpose like Hitachi RB24EAP or Husqvarna 350BT. These two are good enough. You can use neem oil,soapy water or bug zappers, in case you still have live bugs.

[MR_MAC]

What I would do is to take off al the grills,. plug them all up but one, put the fan on high and blow them out one at a time. You also can take a piece of chees cloth, wet it and hold over the open vent to catch any thing that comes out. I worked on duct systems, and find not much dirt etc. builds up in supply lines because forced air blows it out

[1971duster340]

I'm reading these comments about duct cleaning and replace, in my case, the word stinkbug with ladybugs. Ladybugs keep reappearing and we don't have many annually in our primary home area. They hitched a ride somewhere we've traveled and took up residence in the camper. I know what a stinkbug is and thankfully I don't have that fight.

[klebs]

If they're from Maryland then they're stinkbugs. They tend to colonize in an out-of-the-way place (attics, behind furniture, definitely in ducting if they can get in) and reproduce and, as luv2dsgn mentioned, bombing or just spraying them with Raid will not kill them, the tough little buggers. Best is to pull out every drawer and check the undersides for the colonies, then shop-vac everything, get the hose up into the furnace ducting and even under the air conditioner housing. I've seen some products here in Maryland that say they are specifically designed to kill stinkbugs, but I'm not sure how effective they might be, especially with pets in the coach. Don't crush them or the reason for their name will become annoyingly obvious - a friend of mine nailed it when he described the smell as "a really green fart."

If you can't get a shopvac hose into the duct, consider sticking an air compressor hose into a narrow duct to blow whatever's inside down to the end of the duct where you might get better access.

[rgatijnet1]

Once the grill is taken off, it is very easy to see how the duct is made. You can use a mirror and flashlight to look both ways down the duct to see if there are any obstructions.
Some RV's use metal duct work for the furnace duct. Some use a sandwich type of construction for the floor and they just cut out a portion for the duct. If it is any kind of rigid duct, it is doubtful that a vacuum hose will damage it.

[Old-Biscuit]

Effy wrote:
I know on a lot of RV's the ceiling ducts are nothing more than channels cut in the Styrofoam insulation. I would think a rigorous duct cleaning with long wands/rods etc might tear up the Styrofoam. On the heat ducts I also imagine that the ends are not screwed in like solid duct work in a house. Most is probably flex tubing and hose clamped or zip tied on. Again I would exercise caution here so as not to perforate the duct or pull it from any connection. Things you may not know when damage is done let alone fixing it if you do know.

Exactly.......

Any 'mechanical cleaning' will damage duct work.

Turn on furnace an use a vacuum hose down registers.
Turn on AC Fan and do the same.

[Effy]

I know on a lot of RV's the ceiling ducts are nothing more than channels cut in the Styrofoam insulation. I would think a rigorous duct cleaning with long wands/rods etc might tear up the Styrofoam. On the heat ducts I also imagine that the ends are not screwed in like solid duct work in a house. Most is probably flex tubing and hose clamped or zip tied on. Again I would exercise caution here so as not to perforate the duct or pull it from any connection. Things you may not know when damage is done let alone fixing it if you do know.

[J-Rooster]

My wife has a Shark vacuum that has duct detachments that can get down into vents.

[stugpanzer]

Are they stink bugs or box elder bugs?

If stink bugs then they might be wintering there and will come out on warm days and/or in the spring. They had to get in somehow so if you haven't already, you need to check all joints and seals, screens, etc to make sure there is no way for them to get in. Re-caulk where needed and especially check around your furnace and make sure that everything is sealed-up.

[fischer]

Be careful some are not worth what they charge

[luv2dsgn]

Thanks RG

[rgatijnet1]

If you have a shop vac, just run the hose down the duct in each direction after you remove the floor grills. After a couple of times, this should clear the bugs out.

[luv2dsgn]

Thanks for the recommendations guys.
Stug, unfortunately, stink bugs aren't affected by any pesticides at all, and they have no natural predators. This is the reason the huge invasion (much like that of chiciatas) have covered whole houses in the Maryland and western Pennsylvania. Communities have been at a loss as to what to do with them. I've found a couple of slow moving crippled ones and removed them, all others were dead carcasses.

I'm a bit concerned with having large equipment introduced to smaller flexible ducts. The last thing we need is to puncture our duct system.

Thanks guys!
-R!