Killing Bed Bugs with Heat Treatment

Bed bugs are a difficult infestation deal with. Once they get in your home, they can spread quickly and it's nearly impossible to find and kill them all without professional help.

There are a few different ways to deal with a bed bug infestation, but one of the most effective ones is killing them through heat.

NOTE: It's important to have this done professionally by a pest control company so that it will be safe and effective.

What It Involves

Killing bed bugs with a heat treatment involves having your home heated up to a level that the parasites cannot survive. Think of it like a sauna. Saunas are so hot, and the heat permeates every corner of the room so that you can't escape unless you leave.

Since bed bugs and their eggs are difficult to see and locate, this is an ideal treatment since it covers the entire house.

What happens is that a pest control professional will set up heaters in the house to heat it up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours. Another option is to heat it to 130 and hold it for three hours.

Ideally, it's best to enlist this treatment when you can be out of the house for even longer to make sure everything is dead.

Prepare Your Home

Before you employ this heat treatment for your bedbug infestation, it's important to take a few steps to prepare your house. The primary key is to make sure that the heat has no way to escape your house so that it can be used quickly and effectively.

You should make sure to caulk any wall cracks, paying special attention to the areas around windows and doors. Instead of caulking, you can also use foam, which is generally inexpensive.

Before you leave your house during the treatment, make sure to check all windows and doors for tight closure.

Why Use Heat for Bed Bugs?

Why does using heat kill bedbugs so well? The simple answer is that these parasites cannot live in extreme conditions like 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the heat reaches that level, the bugs either have to find a way out of your house or they will die. They can't live in such extreme heat for a prolonged period of time.

As previously mentioned, the reason it works so well is that it reaches every part of your house, which is not necessarily true of sprays and the like. Places they hide, such as beds, linens and furniture, will grow hotter and hotter until it reaches a temperature they can't survive.

Other methods of killing bedbugs are limited in scope, but the heat will leave nowhere to hide.

Safety Concerns

There are a few safety concerns when using this method. The most obvious is that no one can be in the home while it happens.

You will need to remove pets and plants and yourself. Anything flammable should also be removed, including anything with gas or propane, but also anything else in your house marked flammable.

It's also important to wait for some time before reentering the house after the heat treatment.

Custom Weed & Pest Control has been in business since 1989, serving the greater Phoenix metro area for both residential and commercial. We offer organic, natural and chemical pest control, with customized service to meet your specific needs.

Related Page: How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

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bed bugs , heat killing bed bugs