By Michael Simpson | August 2009
For most of us the thought of pest control means chemicals and poisons all over our home. Bedbugs have a resistance to pesticides so being more environmentally aware means replacing chemicals with thermal remediation to eradicate bed bugs. “You heat up a room to 130 degrees, and for bugs and their eggs that temperature is lethal.”
This proven process is 100% environmentally responsible and eco-friendly so there’s no need to worry about nasty chemicals or foreign elements affecting people or the earth. The process takes one day – compared to upwards of a month for competitive solutions – and allows you to keep your existing space “as is” without throwing out bedding, clothing, linens and the like.
Elevating the temperature within buildings has been used to eradicate pests ranging from grain insects to termites. Structural and containerized heat treatments are also being used for bed bugs. Portable heaters and fans are used to gradually heat the air within rooms to about 125 to 130°F while monitoring with strategically placed sensors. While heat treatments hold promise, eliminating infestations by raising the temperature within a building may not be so easy. As observed with cockroaches, bed bugs may seek out cooler areas as the temperature within rooms builds. Whether some bugs will be able to survive by moving to cooler locations (including adjacent units) still needs further study.
There is considerable documentation citing the temperature and time correlations necessary to kill bedbugs and their eggs. Several sources (Usinger 1966, Gulmahamad 2002, Quarles 2007) report that adults and nymphs die within 15 minutes at temperatures greater than 113ºF and 60 minutes to kill eggs. Raising room temperatures above the thermal death point and maintaining that temperature for several hours should eliminate a bedbug infestation.
7 Comments Received
October 26th, 2009 @2:02 pm
Need an exterminator who uses thermal remediation for bed bugs in the Savannah area.
Thanks,
Angie Porter
502-473-1474
November 12th, 2009 @8:14 pm
Hi I have a problem with bed bugs, about a month ago my husband found like six of then in our matres, so we kill them and we spray with something that you can buy over the counter. Also I call a pest control people but they had no found any bugs. He gave me a stiki plates to put some hand wormers in it and do that for a week, he say that beg bugs are atracted to the worm and when they tried to run to the hand wormers they will be trap. I did that for a week just to see if we had more but i did not found any. Now we are sleeping in our bed again for 3 days and today I wok up with 2 bites. I don’t know what to do ???? please help me and give me some advised ASAP!!!! . I will be waiting for your response thank you
November 13th, 2009 @1:32 pm
GOLD SEAL is the company of choice to perform this all inclusive bed bug treatment using the “THERMAPUREHEAT” process.
“Townhall “meetings have been conducted and daily meetings are ongoing. All residents were provided with written preparation instructions (which is considerable less than conventional insecticide treatments), literature regarding “everything you want to know about bed bugs – and more” which answers virtually all their questions as well as addressing all the issues mentioned in the article. In addition, we are working with a local pest management firm to perform conventional insecticide treatments using dessicant dusts, and long term residual, non-repellant sprays for long term protection.
All residents have been advised NOT to take anything with them other than recently washed/dried in hot temperature change of clothing. We are installing bed bug certified mattress/boxspring encasements, Climbup Insect Interceptors for ongoing monitoring/inspections and providing DDVP flystrips for those items that residents are concerned may be damaged by heat (even though almost all items will not be affected other than oil or acrylic paintings, etc which can be dusted or placed in plastic bags and sealed with a DDVP fly strip inserted).
We are doing our best to prevent residents from leaving with other personal items and have set up protocol to check their belongings as they return to prevent re-infestation.
If anyone has any other suggestions, we would be thrilled to hear them.
November 17th, 2009 @6:18 am
I have an important question related to bedbugs. First, I’ve never had bedbugs in my life. Never seen one, never had a bite. The other day I found a very small bug crawling on my couch and caught it. Took it to an exterminator because it looked suspicious and it turns out that it is indeed a bedbug. I’ve thoroughly searched the couch and surrounding area and not seen anymore bugs, or any of the other signs of them (blood stains, shedded skins, etc.). Also no one that lives in my apartment has any bites, or has ever had any bites. We found the bug last week and have been on alert for any new signs, but nothing.
So my question is this. Should I go ahead and do the treatment anyway, or risk it and not do anything? The treatment is very thorough and time consuming (not to mention expensive) and involves basically ripping apart my whole apartment, spending hours and hours cleaning, doing laundry, etc. If I don’t have anymore bugs, it seems crazy to do all that. But then, I also definitely do not want to end up with an infestation.
I searched alot online, but can’t seem to find any information about what to do if you find a bug, but no bites. Usually it’s the other way around. The exterminator had no opinion either way, he said it’s up to us. Thoughts?
March 7th, 2010 @9:39 am
Evaluation from a trained bed bug detection canine can offten determin the exstent of the infestation and or rule out if the problem is caused by bed bugs.
March 30th, 2010 @1:36 pm
You can find a list of Thermal Remediation service providers on their website: http://thermalremediation.com/bed-bugs/find-a-service.aspx
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