Are we powerless over bed bugs?

[Phil Thien]

It seems like bed bugs are unbeatable w/o banned chemicals.

Scary part is that they expect more bug action here in the Midwest in the coming months.

[Stephen Tashiro]

My mother told me that "in the old days", people set their mattresses out on their covered porches during a freezing winter night to kill all the pests. I wonder if that works on bed bugs.

[Steve knight]

heat will toast them. 130 degrees dries them up.

[George Beck]

This post bugs me.

OK sorry, could'nt resist

[Zach England]

I thought they were only a problem in multi-unit housing.

[Phil Thien]

I thought they were only a problem in multi-unit housing.

If you stay in a hotel, you can apparently bring them home with you.

They've had outbreaks in numerous clothing stores in NY. Imagine trying on some clothing and bringing home bed bugs.

[Zach England]

...seems so Dickensian...

[Eric DeSilva]

My mother told me that "in the old days", people set their mattresses out on their covered porches during a freezing winter night to kill all the pests. I wonder if that works on bed bugs.

I gather no. Heat works, but cold just puts them into stasis.

[Eric DeSilva]

If you stay in a hotel, you can apparently bring them home with you.

They've had outbreaks in numerous clothing stores in NY. Imagine trying on some clothing and bringing home bed bugs.

I think, with the clothing stores, you actually would have had to have bought infected clothes; given the size of a bedbug, I'm guessing you would notice if one decided to assault you.

Solutions I've heard include leaving all your stuff in your suitcase in the hotel and packed in ziplock bags, as well as leaving your luggage in your car in sunny weather for a couple days after you get back. Although the latter worries me a bit. I tend to just prioritize washing everything and drying it (a dryer will kill bed bugs) or keeping it in the garage until I can take it to the dry cleaners.

[David Weaver]

I thought they were only a problem in multi-unit housing.

Hotels in NY is where I recall the first reports coming from, several years ago (5?).

Apartment complexes are obviously going to be a problem because you can only treat your apartment, and it's probably too late then. If there are any left in any unit, there's plenty of warm bodies to get back through the building.

And if you ever have guests at your house, you're at risk of getting them in your house. Someone only needs to bring a couple over in clothes and all of the sudden you may be throwing out all kinds of stuff.

[Darius Ferlas]

I know a person who's got them after a family visit. She's been fighting the bugs since June and she still gets an occasional bite after about $1000 in service payments and some of the most potent, legally available pesticides. Living alone, she uses only one of her 3 bedrooms and goes to the other parts of the house only to keep up the fight and when necessary for her daily chores. At 67 years of age she looks like half of what she was at the beginning of Summer, and she wasn't a chunky type to begin with.

I heard on the radio about some companies (http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/bedbugs/article/848701--bedbug-remedy-not-just-hot-air) who guarantees 100% cleanup. They ask the home owner to remove some items (vinyl, oil paintings etc) and saturate the place with 60 deg C. heat for a couple hours. Allegedly that kills the bed bugs. The service is not cheap though, comes down to about $1/sq/foot.

I also read some hotel owners complaining about clients bringing their own bed bugs and planting them in the hotel room and then complaining to the management to wiggle themselves out of paying for the stay.

[Dan Friedrichs]

They ask the home owner to remove some items (vinyl, oil paintings etc) and saturate the place with 60 deg C. heat for a couple hours. Allegedly that kills the bed bugs. The service is not cheap though, comes down to about $1/sq/foot.



I wonder why you couldn't just do this yourself?

[Stephen Tashiro]

This PDF
http://www.stephentvedten.com/18_Bed_Bugs.pdf
says mother knows best.

Try turning off the heat in your infested bedroom. Bed bugs can
only survive in the range of 48o F. to 97o F. Try disinfectiing the bed with ultraviolet light.
11. Put infested and suspected material in a black plastic trash bag and set it in the hot sun all day. Most
insects die when exposed to 115o F. for 30 minutes or so, or you can bag the items and freeze them.

[Matt Meiser]

I wonder why you couldn't just do this yourself?

Your thermostat goes to 140?

[Eric DeSilva]

This PDF
http://www.stephentvedten.com/18_Bed_Bugs.pdf
says mother knows best.

Try turning off the heat in your infested bedroom. Bed bugs can
only survive in the range of 48o F. to 97o F. Try disinfectiing the bed with ultraviolet light.
11. Put infested and suspected material in a black plastic trash bag and set it in the hot sun all day. Most
insects die when exposed to 115o F. for 30 minutes or so, or you can bag the items and freeze them.

Sorry, that pdf sounds like lousy advice. They seem to highlight the temperature thing, but elsewhere they say--which is more consistent with other sources I've heard--that "[r]aising the temperature to 97o F. - 99o F. will kill most bed bugs in several days; lowering the temperature to 32o F. to 48o F. will take up to 50 days to kill all of the eggs." So changing the temperature in your hotel room isn't going to do anything (unless it has a really remarkable thermostat and you intend to stay for a long, long time).

I've also never heard of the use of UV light as a bug killer. It is effective for some bacteria, but not on porous surfaces and not against bugs.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Your thermostat goes to 140?

Take a look at this:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20388286_20789988,00.html

[David Weaver]

Your thermostat goes to 140?

It goes to 11...that's one more than 10!

(sorry, couldn't resist).

It would be incredibly difficult to heat a house to 140 degrees unless it was VERY well insulated, even if you could override the thermostat.

[Phil Thien]

It would be incredibly difficult to heat a house to 140 degrees unless it was VERY well insulated, even if you could override the thermostat.

Not so hard...