Preparation for heat treatment for bed bugs is crucial to ensuring that the heat administered will reach all of the hiding bugs. Since bed bugs are skilled at hiding and avoiding detection, even the highly effective technique of using high heat temperatures to get rid of these insects can be difficult if there is too much furniture or personal items blocking the blast waves of the heat.
Since preparation is key, you may be wondering how you should prepare for bed bug heat treatment?
To prepare for bed bug heat treatment, the dwelling should be as clear and accessible as possible. Items which could contain bed bugs should be kept in the house so the heat treatment can be effective. All doors should be opened and any drawers and cabinets should be opened to allow the heat to penetrate.
Bed bug heat treatment is only as effective as the space that allows the heat to penetrate the tiny cracks and crevices the insects hide in. To be free of bed bugs, every insect must be destroyed inside the home to destroy the colony and eradicate the life cycle. This article will explore the importance of preparation that should be performed prior to bed bug heat treatment to make sure the home is clutter-free and ready for treatment.
Is Heat Treatment Effective for Bed Bugs?
Bed bug heat treatment is highly effective for destroying these elusive parasites because temperature ranges in excess of 93 degrees Celsius will kill the bed bugs instantly. This is not the case for chemical treatments that are risky due to the fast resistance that these insects develop to commonly used chemicals used for treatment.
The kill method is simple: bed bugs cannot withstand incredibly high temperatures and there is not resistance method available in their biology to survive high temperatures. Bed bug heat treatment is a form of pest management that uses equipment to spread the heat throughout a structure for hours in each room of the home.
Steam or gas are also problematic for bed bugs due to the efficiency problems with covering all of the hiding places the insects can use to escape the targeted steam or gas. Preparing your property cannot be stressed enough to ensure that the heat can reach these tiny crevices behind the walls and underneath baseboards and even the ceiling in which these razor-thin insects hide.
The Problem with Cold Spots
Heat treatment is one of the most effective bed bug removal techniques, but there are problems known as ‘cold spots’ that are frequently caused by inadequate preparation that sees the heat having to cross over large items or insulation to reach the hiding places of the bugs. One way to ensure that cold spots are not an issue with treatment is to move furniture around the home to give the heat a targeted and direct radius by which to penetrate stubborn areas in the home.
Why not Gas or Steam?
Gas or ‘tenting’ is likely the second-best method for destroying large bed bug infestations, but there is the problem of bed bug chemical resistance and the inability of the gas to reach behind the walls and throughout the small cracks and crevices of the home.
Steam is also difficult for bed bugs since this requires manual placement of a steam machine along the many corridors and smalls spaces throughout a home in the hope that you are hitting bugs with the steam. The efficiency of steam is not practical for complete eradication.
Opt for Trained and Competent Technicians
Heat treatment can only be best performed by pest control technicians with experience using extreme temperature levels to eradicate bed bugs. The task can be dangerous which is why leaving the job in the hands of bed bug pest control professionals is crucial to ensuring nobody gets injured and the infestation is completely eradicated.
What To Expect During Heat Treatment
Damage to property from the high heat is possible for some items in rooms, therefore, it is important to know what needs to be removed from the house prior to heat treatment to avoid damage. Here are the items you need to be aware of.
Items That May Melt or Explode
All electronics and heat-sensitive items can be kept in the house when preparing for heat treatments. Be sure to remove all items that can easily catch fire or that may be combustible as well. Technicians will do a walkthrough of the home to make sure items that may explode or catch fire are removed but it will help to take care of this in advance.
Items That May be Damaged by Large Air Blowers
Be sure to remove belongings that can be damaged by powerful air blowers that are also blowing heat around the house. This is especially true of any artwork or pictures on the walls that are sensitive to air pressure and heat and could get damage that is beyond repair.
Living Plants and Pets
You should remove all plants from the house that may be damaged by heat at high levels. It is best to remove all plants just to be safe that the plants will survive the heat no matter what. Additionally, all pets, including fish, should be removed from the dwelling, and not doing so could result in the pets possibly dying from the use of hot air blasts.
Bed bugs are pests that cannot reproduce without blood, therefore, if you have dogs or cats, it is also important to remove them from the dwelling to avoid bed bugs from jumping on the animals to survive the heat or to be transferred to other parts of the home that may have already been treated with heat.
Sentimental, Valuable, and Personal Items
Items like the mattress and box springs of beds should be kept in the home, but picture frames, personal items, and decorative items should be removed from the home and preferably sealed into plastic bags or an airtight container with an aerosol chemical to destroy any bed bugs inside. Clothing should also be laundered and treated at the highest heat temperatures and sealed inside of bags or containers that are sealed and airtight.
If you choose to use bags to store clothing, contractor bags work best for keeping the bugs inside of the bag without the ability to pierce through to escape back into the home.
FAQs
What happens if I don’t do heat treatment for bed bugs preparation?
First and foremost, the mattress and box spring that housed the infestation should be thoroughly treated before any widespread treatment begins. Even if all the bugs were contained to the mattress and box spring, you can never know for sure if the bed bugs have moved to the walls, ceiling, or even in surrounding furniture in the bedroom and throughout the home.
Additionally, failing to do preparation will limit the effectiveness of the heat to penetrate all the areas in the home that pest control technicians need to be able to access to target the heat.
I’ve been told that heat treatments don’t require any prep. Is this true?
It is incorrect to say that heat treatments do not require any prep work at all. If a house was left as is and the heat was administered into the home, not only would this not destroy the bed bug colony, belongings could also be destroyed in the process. Preparation must be undertaken to ensure that the dwelling can be treated without interruption and with the clearest radius possible for the heat to penetrate throughout the areas in the structure.
Because prep can be quite a bit to take on for one person, help may be necessary to ensure that all of the proper protocols are met before the heating procedures can begin.
Why Choose PMP Pest Control?
So confident are we in our space heat treatment, that at Project Multi-Pest we guarantee to eradicate all signs of bed bugs or other insect infestations on the same day as treatment.
So if you have a pest control problem, then contact Project Multi-Pest today. We are on hand to provide expert heat treatment and bed bug advice to those who are situated in London or Kent and only take your payment once treatment is successful and complete.
