How Does a Heat Treatment Work?

Heat

There are a few ways to treat for bed bugs but in our opinion a heat treatment is the best way if the conditions are right for it.  So how does a heat treatment work? All living things have a thermal death point, a temperature where their life processes stop.  We take advantage of this and heat the bed bugs and their eggs to their thermal death point.  It requires temperatures of over 120F. Everything in the area must get that hot, including the walls and under items on the floor. By the way, this is much hotter than your furnace can get.  So you can’t just turn on the heater, close the windows, and expect it to work.  It won’t get hot enough in your house, even in the summer. This really is a job for a professional.

Preparation

Preparation is key to a successful treatment.  Bed bugs hide in many places in a room besides the bed.  The more stuff that is in a room the harder it is to get the temperature up to where we need and the more places bed bugs can hide.  It’s important to throw away clutter and trash, clean up the areas, and make sure there’s nothing in the room that could be damaged by heat—like candles, chocolate, and aerosol cans.  If the preparation is done correctly, the job is much more likely to be successful in one visit. 

Equipment

We need special equipment to heat up an area safely and quickly.  There are two main ways to do it—with propane or electricity—and either can work.  We use electric heaters in small areas like one room, but propane when we are heating a whole house.  These are not your run-of-the-mill heaters you can buy at Home Depot.  The electric heaters are specially made to run safely on power from your house.  The propane heaters are specially built for bed bug remediation and both are very expensive.  They need to have a large air flow, attachments for ductwork, must burn cleanly so there is no buildup of carbon monoxide, and have safety features built in to protect against any type of failure. In addition to the heater, we also need lots of fans to move the hot air around.  Once again, these are not your average fans.  They are extra powerful and can operate at high temperatures without shutting down.  We need a trailer to haul all of this equipment around, as well as all the other items, like 100 lb propane tanks, ductwork, clips, blankets, extension cords, chemical equipment, and many other items.  It’s quite an operation, and not something you should try without training, and especially if you don’t have the right equipment.  

Must Read: Are Bed Bugs Attracted to a Dirty House?

Treatment

The first thing your technician will do is to check that the house is prepped and all items that could be damaged are removed. Next, they will set up the fans and the heater.  They will position fans so the air is circulated around the rooms in the best manner.  They will put the heater outside the front door and attach it to propane and electricity. Then they will run ductwork throughout the house to carry the heat to the rooms.  Once it’s all set up they will turn on the fans and the heater and begin the heating process.  They will move from room to room, making sure the temperature gets hot enough in each area before moving to the next one. They will move beds around, pick up items on the floor, open drawers, anything that is necessary to make sure each area is fully heated to killing temperatures.  They will constantly be checking heat sensors and monitoring the heater to make sure the air blowing out is staying within an acceptable range.  This whole process can take from 2-8 hours, depending on how large of an area they are treating.  Once every heat check of every surface is showing a temperature of over 125F, they will turn it all off and pack it up. 

Freedom

It will take several hours for the house to cool down to livable temperatures, since even the walls will be radiating heat.  Now that the house has been fully heated, you will be free to go back to life as usual without the threat of bed bug bites or the potential to spread them to someone else.  You will have to organize and pick up the house again, as the heating process requires moving everything around to make sure the heat gets to every crack and crevice.  But now’s a time for some spring cleaning! You will finally be free of bed bugs, and hopefully never have to deal with them again.  We also offer a long term warranty and recommend signing up for it so you’ll never have to deal with bed bugs again without help. Don’t let the bugs bite another night, call us today and be bed bug free tomorrow!