These March 2009 reports by Dr. Stephen Kells of the University of Minnesota and Dr. Raj Hulasare of Temp-Air on the heat research conducted by Dr. Kells (reports to the funding organization, the Propane Education & Research Council) are very interesting.
Fundamental Research on the Efficacy of Heat on Bed Bugs and Heat Transfer in Mattresses (PDF):
There were three specific behavioral events that were expected during the heat up. The main expected event was escape from a lethal surface temperature. The other two main events that could be expected included a latency period before the escape event and the post-escape period. While the escape event was expected, specific behaviors during the pre- and post- escape were largely unknown. During the pre-escape period, a number of behaviors were observed including:
- Change of position – the bed bug moves its position close to the harborage. The bed bug may move on top or underneath harborage or it may move around the perimeter of the harborage.
- Movement into proximate areas. The bed bug disengages itself from the harborage and moves into neighboring regions. Often the bed bug returns to the harborage.
- Attempted feeding – Bed bugs attempt to probe the arena surface with their proboscis
In the “post escape” period, they also attempt to feed. A “looping behavior” was also observed:
sometimes the bed bug moves into a cooler part of the arena, then turns and moves back toward the harborage. Upon reaching a temperature it may reside there, it may turn back to cooler areas. Looping behavior occurred when the bug repeatedly combined advancing and retreating behavior. It is uncertain if this behavior was the result of foraging, or attempt(s) to return to the harborage.
But there are behavioral differences when temperature increases are delivered via heated air flow vs a heated surface (I’m not sure I understand this, how these delivery methods could occur in isolation):
1) Bed bugs were prone to wait in harborages when heat was delivered via air. Their threshold for escape was substantially higher.
2) Bed bugs showed a stronger propensity to stay with the harborage or would return to the harborage as air temperatures began heating the peripheral area.
3) While the distances were relatively small between the heated areas and refugia only 37.5% of bugs actually escaped.
Dr. Kells found that higher temperatures than previously reported are required to kill bed bugs when the temperature rises slowly (0.06°C/min)—possibly because of the way previous heat tests have been conducted—but it is not known what enables bed bugs to resist gradual heat stress. Also, curiously, if I’m reading this correctly, he found no differences in mortality between fed and unfed bed bugs:
Mortality did not exceed 25% for temperatures less than 45°C at all exposure times. There was an increasing trend towards greater mortality of adult bed bugs starting at the 20-min exposure to 45°C that culminated in complete mortality at 90-min of exposure. At 60-min exposure, approximately 50% of adult bed bugs exposed to 45°C did not survive. Complete mortality was obtained at temperatures 48, 50, and 55°C for all exposure times except 10- min at 48°C (90%).
Here’s a table indicating minimum exposure times for complete mortality of bed bug eggs when heated at a rate of 3.6°C/h:
Bed bug egg mortality minimum exposure times - Dr. Stephen Kells, Univ of Minnesota
There’s a great deal more!
New bed bug behavior word: stilting.
These pages may be of related interest:
If I’m reading this correctly, they are referring to convective heat transfer versus conductive heat transfer. When you touch a hot surface that’s conductive heat transfer, and when you submerge your hand in a moving fluid at a different temperature than your skin, that’s convective heat transfer.
While it’s true that one mode of heat transfer is not likely to be observed in isolation, it’s common for one mode to dominate. If you heat a surface significantly, the heated surface will heat the air above it and the air will flow due to changes in density of the air. This is typically referred to as natural convection, as opposed to mechanical convection where air flow created by a fan, blower, etc. So this warm air flowing due to natural convection will contribute somewhat to the heat transfer across the surface (this will depend on the positioning of the heat source and target relative to the ground), but the experiment can be carried out such that either mode (conductive versus convective) heat transfer will be the dominating process.
At least that’s my best guess from what I read above :)
Thank you so much for your kindness to me, John. Your explanation is saving me from an internet search maze.
There’s an article from the 60s that describes some bed bug responses to heat, especially to small temperature differences (so I wonder how either dominant heat transfer mechanism would affect these rates, perhaps this is even explained in this report, ha ha), but it was very late/early this morning that I was reading this and my brain couldn’t handle more. I think, however, that these tests above have not been done before.
The implications for bed bugs hiding in furniture are then important — and this article has many tables for rates of temperature increase for different locations (for example, sofa, baseboard, under a dresser) that I did not even attempt to parse.
I hope you’re well, John. Best.
This is a truly outstanding and key study by Stephen Kells and Raj Hulasare. I had seen an early brief summary of the report, but had not seen the full report. NewYorkvsBedbugs has done an outstanding “scoop” here by making this available to a much wider audience. As the report outlines in review there has been some variation in studies about the minimum “kill” temperature and for what timeframe this must be sustained. When I read the summary that Raj provided me, I jumped at the key temp of 50C that would kill eggs and as that summary indicated, a 100% kill of all stages INSTANTLY (if i recall the detail correctly) at 50C. That is 122 F.
I have not read the report in detail yet as I am leaving for overseas tonight, but this really provides hope for an economic alternative to whole building treatments by conventional treatment or Vikane. The current costs for treating apartments by heat treatment whether by the Temp-Air kit (with two or three heaters and circulating fans, and control/sensor monitoring unit) or the Harris/Chromalox Kit are simply prohibitive for a public housing setting or even an average apartment dweller or owner. The kits themselves are not cheap to buy for a small operator – though with rates of $1200 – $1800 for a hotel room or an apartment, the cost can be recovered by firms with excellent marketing skills and good reputation. The systems have been shown in operation on You-tube… I think there was a you-tube video showing the exterior generator for the electrical generated heat units, as well as for an exterior propane unit. The cost for a house may be very attractive as there is a good possibilty of total elimination .. and for a situation in which re-infestation risks are likely a lot lower, this is good value. I know of a case in Canada in which a homeowner paid $5000 for a conventional series of treatments and did not even get a warranty,, AND it didn’t work.
When i was looking at heat treatment as an alternative, both the costs and the timeframe were really prohibitive for individual units. The set-up/treatment period was more than 6 hours.. This certainly limits the number of units that can be treated, and the costs can be astronomical. I didn’t rule it out, however, for special cases as I believe it has great merit in relation to environmentally sensitive individuals and in extreme infestations ………… but these are fairly limited applications in a housing situation.
These studies of bed bug behaviour in order to address the concern of bed bugs simply exiting the hot place for next door are critical. I am looking forward to hearing Raj and Stephen come up with a strategy of treatment – hopefully that the heat time can be fast or even a protocol of heatig that takes into account the behaviour to maximize kill.
At end of all, however, and thinking to Raj’ work in food processing heat “fumigation”, the idea is that a food plant is well maintained with excellent sanitation and preventive measures and the heat treatment once a year is intended to eliminate food pest infestations that are deep in the structure. If we apply this to the urban setting, it still comes back to IPM.
It would be ideal to NEVER need to do a full building with heat treatment, as it is costly and disruptive but of course it would be good to have this available as a last resort when an IPM program was not in place. Or if the unit treatment could be done at a cost-effective rate as a partof the IPM toolkit.
It still comes back to stopping new infestation from getting in, and also treating as soon as possible at a high level when it does get in.
IPM remains central as the key conceptual process – and while some seem to balk at using the phrase, there are some of us out here who value the concept because it quickly encompasses all the elements within an understandable framework with the highest of goals and ideals in Urban Pest Management. A few of these are…………. knowledge of pest biology and behaviour in relation to the specific pest ecosystem habitat (i.e. human dwellings, or other structures), assessments by monitoring, education of all stakeholders (tenants, property management, caregivers, service providers including pest control staff) to enable the “Chain of Accountability) use of mechanical and physical means of elimination whenever possible (e.g. vacuuming and heat treatment), use of pesticides in an appropriate and safe manner, and of course, the ongoing follow-up and review. The one element sometimes missing is having the expertise available – that is those who understand IPM and the scope of the problem.
In this context, I hope that heat treatment will become an affordable valuable part of the total arsenal to bring this problem under control..
Sam
while informative and important this study just serves to point out the impossibility of using heat treatment for any dwelling, there are just too many areas which are too difficult to bring up to 48C. i envision a portable oven in a truck able to “bake” mattresses and furniture but to expect to attain the kill temp in a condo or home is financially and physically very difficult.
I am currently using a Packtite oven. I think it’s a fairly new devise.
It’s akin to the “locker” type devise I saw in the video, only smaller.
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s advertised as being large enough for your overnight suitcase, and heating everything to max 150f. Hot enough to kill any bed bug. It’s a big black collapsable box with a heater/fan. It comes with a separate thermometer which has a sensor at the end of a wire, and an 8hr timer. You insert the sensor in the middle of your items.
It gets to 122 degrees within 1-2 hours, depending on what you put inside, and how filled it gets. I’ve put shoes, clothes, stuffed dolls, books.
I can’t testify that it’s killed anything, since I haven’t found anything in the “box” or on the items, but I’ve read about others, with larger infestations, who have made the claim.
It’s not cheep at $300, but it’s a big help. I invested, thinking I could resell when I was done…but I might keep it for future peace of mind.
The small packtite oven sounds promising for the application.
I do share “Johnycakes” skepticism about heat treatment, but if one has ever been involved in a fumigation using gas, there is a lot of preparatory work involved and the issue of gas concentration and circulation, so it may be that in the extreme situations, heat treatment can work. There are a lot of variables to attend, such as ensuring that the heat distribution is adequate, and the concern about bed bugs feeling the envionment, but with the kind of detailed behaviourial work done by Stephen Kells, a method may be achieved.
as I wrote earlier, the goal should be to not let things get so bad that one has to resort to total building treatments\
i had never heard of the packtite oven before faith mentioned it, after reading about it, promotional and test data, i think it is ingenious . maybe a bit inconvenient but if you are a person who travels frequently it sounds like a great idea. kudos packtight. i think the future of bedbug eradication lies in biochemistry, something to interrupt their life cycle or mating cycle.
I agree Johnycakes,, would be wonderful if they came up with a growth hormone mimicker, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Gencor was very promising for roach control.. reducing reproduction but never really caught on as a mainstream control.. Still we can h ope..
meanwhile, it is going to take a societal effort to get this under control. It will come down to IPM… There is a lot of posiive stuff going on in this area, but until it is really a requirement, the bed bugs are going to continue to spread and mount in numbers.. that is the reality..
Sam, I think then that you need to go back to the article here about new laws (thanks Renee!) regarding personal responsibility of disposal of infested property, as well as the need for communication between parties with bed bugs and their neighbors. If there’s a chemical that will inhibit growth or the life cycle of bed bugs, I don’t expect to see it in the near future. My PCO put a chemical on the floors which is a growth inhibitor to bed bug eggs, but it has to come in CONTACT with them to work. My experience was probably common…a neighbor below me had gotten bed bugs. My rental agency sent an exterminator. I didn’t know about it for two weeks, during which time I was being bitten. No one notified the 8 family building I live in, and my neighbor was silent. When I found a bed bug in my apartment, I posted a sign in the hallway about it…alerting everyone to this issue and reached out to my neighbor so we could trade information. It’s hard to tell people you have bedbugs. It makes you feel like a lepar, but I’ve told others on my block because I KNOW it’s important to be informed. It’s the strongest tool we may have to fight bedbugs.
Sorry to have rambled on, thanks for listening!
PS: The site I found, when I was in panic mode, that was an incredible help …in a social and advisery way, is bedbugger.com
They ARE afilliated with other sites that sell items to help with bedbugs, and they do have some PCO in their forum, but their information and help was priceless.
Hi Faith, thank you so much, perhaps I should provide you with some background on our group. I’m glad that you got help at bedbugger — we always refer people to bedbugger for advice, support and especially for consumer information about bed bugs. You will find bedbugger listed on our resources page (and Nobugs listed on our About page). In turn, bedbugger lists us on its links page. There are otherwise no other indications of cooperation, and so I understand why you don’t know that Nobugs is among six co-founders of this group, which we started last year with the purpose of advocating a bed bug control policy for the city of New York. When we began New York vs Bed Bugs, we asked people to write letters to their elected officials in support of our campaign for a bed bug task force (these pages are still on the site but are no longer highlighted). After the NYC City Council hearing on various legislation proposals in February, 2009, and after the Mayor signed the bed bug advisory board bill in March, I thought that our work was nearly done. The advisory board would be appointed and we would work with them and present to them our concerns, our research of how other cities have approached this problem, and our ideas of what can and should be done. Our special interests here then are the action plans and bed bug policies in other cities (our city lacks any bed bug control policies, but this does not mean such policies are not feasible, and indeed they are being set in motion in many other places). As it is, we’ve pretty much failed. There is no comprehensive bed bug control policy, there is no board, and while there is discussion of finally convening it, I’ve learned to be pessimistic about it. These days I am pretty much the only remaining member actively engaged in this project, and yes, I overly indulge my interest in bed bug research and history, or else I would be very depressed writing for this site. I thank you very much for your interest; unfortunately you have arrived here on perhaps the last month of active blogging. (The website and the entity will remain until a better way to achieve its purpose is discerned.) I hope your own bed bug situation is soon resolved.
As far as juvenile hormone analogues for bed bugs, while there was considerable controversy over one that has been widely used, maligned and may perhaps be soon rehabilitated, hydroprene, because of unpublished data that nevertheless filtered out into the public, another possibility now seems to be promising. There was a recent study on the effects of s-methoprene and you can read the paper here (PDF). A previous study in the 70s also found them to be promising against bed bugs. For other presented papers at this conference, see these posts.
Hi Renee,
I wrote you a whole long response, which I just lost! I’m not on my own computer…and my fingers clicked when they should have clacked( or something like that) haha.
The gist is: You, nobugs and the other members are my heros. Thanks so much for all your hard work. Thanks for filling me in on the site history.
Bloomberg is worthless. From what I’m reading, The Advisory Board Bill was past, but there has not been a panel put together. I also get the sense that the bill was watered down a bit…hmmm? Anyway…if there’s anything I can do…too late to call my City council member (B.Blasso)?
I’m sooo glad I stumbled on your site before the changes next month.
I’m no chemist, but I’ll be looking into the listing of chemicals you mentioned. I can figure out the basics.
My bb situation was never too bad. Only 1 bug found (2 dead in my boxspring) and 20 weird but not too itchy bites. It’s been 3 weeks and no bites or bugs. I still have a ton of stuff that’s bagged & needs to be heated, but…as long as I’m not suffering I can deal with the changes. I hope to feel safe again in 2 years. LOL.
Last thought. I’m getting a can of spray paint, and anytime I see a mattress thrown out, I’m tagging it!
Thank you, Faith. Feel free to write to your council member and cc the Speaker. This was my last letter-writing appeal that did not work.
I hope you leave the bed bugs and whatever else behind for good.
Best wishes.
Great! thanks again Renee.
All the best to you too.
Hello Again
i just got back from overseas and in review of this thread of comments, i remembered Faith’s response to my comment about societal efforts..
Good thread here, but I think Renee’s comments about no policy action by government does say a lot. This is absolutely critical in a lot of areas.
It is a slow process I’m afraid, but when this happens, it will make a huge difference in overall control. Things like policies on used mattresses, on delivery and moving vans, on sensible requirements of landlords and of tenants, as well as on standards in hospitality intdustry.. Some localities have implimented this in a specific p0licy (e.g. San Francisco), but many have not..
breaking the cycle is critical, otherwise, we just have ongoing spread of infestation. As noted in another post here, it is now impacting real estate. I had a case in Canada in which a family bought a home and were not advised that it had been infested.. (and still was). It took a lot of effort and expense to treat, and now the new owner is trying to settle with the vendor through mediation.. These cases may go to court and then it becmes a question of whether a vendor knew and informed reasonably.. It will likely, (in my view) go beyond “buyer beware” and as the post here indicated, it could quickly become a part of offers to purchase as a requirement of disclosue like termites and urea formaldehyde..
Sam
I have been in the pest control biz for 17 years. Since bed bugs were brought into my area about 6-7 years ago I have performed about 3000 bed bug jobs and I have NEVER FAILED to get rid of them. We do a traditional chemical treatment. We use several products but Phantom and Temprid are the most common. All I have to say is, it is not the chemicals that fail. It is the technicians that are failing. That goes for heat as well. The method is only as good as the technician. I would never think of switching to heat because it costs the customer way too much $$$ and I hear all kinds of horror stories about damage every day of the week. I will admit that from time to time we have to make a second trip but, it seldom has anything to do with the treatment. It is normally because the customer was not prepared or they only gave it a day or two to work. If you are told that it will take multiple treatments… Don’t buy from them. The problem is that very few companies have figured out how to do it right. We are lucky because we have really good guys and I am involved in almost every treatment. I also train them from my personal experiences. Not by what I read or people say. Bottom line is, if you spray a bed bug (or it’s eggs) with these products, it will die today. If it walks on a treated surface, it will die in 7-10 days. The ones you miss with the spray have to molt 5 times before they are big enough to reproduce. It also has to have a blood meal each time it molts. That means if I kill as many as I can find, then surround the beds, couches and chairs with these products, I have 5 chances that they will walk through the treated areas before they can ever reproduce. This works every time it is tried. I just don’t get why our industry has so much trouble with this. Bed bugs are one of the easier problems that we have to deal with.
Good Luck and don’t stop looking until you find the guy that says he can do it on the first try with insecticides. Then ask for 5 references and call them. All 5 need to tell you that one treatment worked. Also, stay away from heat. It is too new and we are finding out that it has major flaws. If that fails, move to Iowa and hook up with me. He He!!!!
Good post.. but let’s not blame the technicians… that is a bit too simplistic. good treatment is, of course, critical, and many of the best known experts speak of treatments taking many hours to do properly, sometimes to the extent that one has to look at what is a reasonable expectation of time for a thorough treatment. However, early detection and preparation are key factors – a home that has been infested for many many months without service will require a lot of very intensive service compared to an early discovered infestation and excellent preparation.
there is a hope that the freshly emerged nymphal bed bug will be killed by the current products, but i would suggest not “holding your breath”, though i agree if a good job is done, in most cases with good preparation, control will be achieved, and in the last few years the studies on detection tools have shown that reasonable follow-up can be arranged to ensure control. We are certainly still not out of the woods on this.. As you note, better quality is needed and the client needs to be educated on what to expect so they are not hooked by the charlatans who take the money and run. There are lots of those in many trades.
As for heat treatment, i would not dismiss it so easily. Currently very expensive due to set up costs, but it has many advantages and monitoring technology is of a very high calibre and enables checking to ensure that the kill temperature is reached and sustained. the biggest limitation is affordability. I saw a total building heat treatment in Winnipeg in which a 10 or 11 storey building with about 121 units was treated over a period of about 10 days, floor by floor at a total cost of about $375 per unit. Considering that total control was achieved, that is a pretty reasonable price. Treating single units is a lot more costly, but this may be a very affordable treatment in the hospitality industry in which absolute control is needed quickly.
And if you were owner of a single family dwelling and preparation was very difficult in some aspects, then heat treatment may be worth it to avoid the hassle of major disruptions. I| heard of a case in wihch a homeowner paid a firm $5000 to treat a house they has purchased that was infested for a long time unbeknownst to them. The sellers had it treated when it was empty and obviously it failed, and the new owners – a young family – hired a well known firm, but at end it cost hem a lot of money and no warranty was offered. It was eventualy brought under control through hiring another firm that did offer a warranty and did a thorough job. Still, the homeowner was out a lot of money.. Heat treatment would have been well worth spending even $2000 to get it done in ONE DAY..
This will become a real estate issue in future, and heat treatment will be seen as the safest, most effective method… Not always practical, but it sure does have a lot of benefits when it can be done economically, and the cost is bound to go down as more firms get better equipment and more jobs..
that is my prediction.
Sam
There are a few things I left out that are important to know. My method requires very little preparation. In fact, if the resident forgets to do it, I just do it for them. No biggie. All I need them to do is strip the bed and clear a 2 foot path around the beds and furniture. If I find bugs on the bedding, I bag it up and leave a note for them to wash it. In addition, we charge about $400 – $600 on average (add a $150 if you want us to monitor it after the treatment) and it takes 2 technicians about 1 – 2 hrs. to do the treatment. Clutter is not a factor because, we spot treat under and around the bed. The bugs can’t get to the bed without walking through the product. Plus, 93% of bed bugs live on the bed (or whatever they sleep on) and, we contact them directly with the spray. They are dead within the day. I am convinced that I could solve about 75% of the jobs I do by spot treating just the infested areas. (Many times they have just one tiny harborage that would take 10 seconds to treat. I did this once for a friend about a year ago. He has not had a problem since.) We do way more than we need to but, the customer insists on it. (My goal is to change that.) As for heavy infestations, it is no different than a mild infestation. We still treat it the same way. We may have to treat a dresser or night stand but, that is rare. I see no diff. between adult insects and nymphs. The neo-nics that we use have not shown any signs of resistance and if they ever do, we will just use something else. I just spoke with a chemist from BASF and he said they have see no signs of this either and, he told me they have tons of things on the way. We have dealt with resistance in roaches for years. It’s no big deal. Sure, pyrethroids are starting to fail. Don’t use pyrethroids. As for heat, it will never be cheaper as long as you have to pay a ton of cash for propane and pay someone to babysit with it for 6-8 hrs. That cost will always be there and it will always go up. The chemical treatments will continue to go down in cost because, we are getting away with doing less and less all the time and the customers are letting us do less (and it is working) and, we are getting better and better at finding them. I also want to add that we do make follow-up visits. We use (Night Watch, Climb-up & BDS) monitoring equipment after the treatment (we make it optional) but, it is seldom necessary to do additional applications. The other problem with heat is, clutter is a big factor. I don’t care what anyone tells you. I have a buddy that works for a company that does heat remediation. He tells me that the heat does not always penetrate. You are supposed to pull up the carpet edges but, they never do. The rep from RX-Heat told me that a clothes dryer is not effective if a blanket gets wadded up yet he wants us to believe that a wadded up blanket can’t insulate a BB from heat remediation. When I questioned him about it he tried to back out of his claim. He looked lost. He didn’t know how to answer. Trust me. the prep work for a heat treatment is WAY more involved and, with no residual, you gotta kill every last bug or your going back. My buddy said it takes an average of 2-3 trips. As for heat being a faster way to treat. My buddy uses electric so they can only do one unit a day. He is backed up for 3 weeks and his customers are calling us. I can do 10 jobs a day with 2 guys. If you need more done, I got a lot of guys. I’m not saying you are wrong, I just don’t see how heat will ever stay as popular as it is right now. I also wanted to point out that the University of Kentucky is going to be publishing a report soon about how heat is repelling bed bugs into other units along with roaches, mice and other pests. It causes damage to all kinds of stuff you would never think of like the candle that was left in a dresser and it melted all over the wedding dress. Glad that wasn’t me. Heat is overkill and I see it going the way of termite bait systems. Remember how big that was? After all the law suits, no one uses them unless they just like charging way too much for a product that doesn’t work.
I forgot to mention that if you treat a vacant house you gotta put Night Watch monitors in it. Keeps the bugs moving around. Works every time it’s tried and, it can be done for about $400 because there is no furniture to treat.
If you pay $5000 for a treatment with no warranty, you need to look in the mirror and, you will see someone that didn’t shop around. Very few companies charge that much except the ones that use heat and, I don’t know of any that don’t warranty their work. Even the crummy companies offer a warranty. Those guys were real crooks. I feel sorry for the folks in Canada. Besides, the warranty is useless if the technicians are incompetent. I treated an apartment that was heat treated 3 times for $1600 each time and it still didn’t work. The customer was furious. I went in for $475 and and the problem was solved on the first try. We now do their general pest control and they are very happy that they no longer have to worry about bed bugs.
Keith, In defence of the customer who paid that money, they did shop around and they picked one of the PREMIUM firms who do this work. The original price was not $5000, but far less, but when things did not work out, they still trusted this firm and having spent a fair amount, they got in even deeper. This is not uncommon.. it is like someone getting their car repaired at a dealership that they think is reputable and getting hooked. I cannot state what company as this is a confidential issue but I speak to the generality of this, and this is what can happen when a firm does not stand up for its reputation and lets the customer take the bite.
with respect to treating a unit that is heavily cluttered, I have not heard of any product that works that well by bed bugs walking on the treated surface.
if that were the case, we would see a sharp decline in the infestations within a few months.
Heat treatment is expensive.. no question about that. and of course like any method, if there are limiting factors it can fail. I used to be involved in fumigations with methyl bromide or phostoxin for stored product insects in food plants and if there was flour in the bottom of an flour “elevator” beyond a certain depth, then insects could survive. Good preparation and monitoring is the key in heat treatment. I heard that there are new studies talking aobut bed bug behaviour in response to heat treatment, so we’ll need to see what they found. But the reality is that if the preparation is done appropriately and the treatment is monitored carefully with sensors, it can work.
Is it practical for individual apartments?, — probably not but i have seen a treatment of an 11 storey apartment buidling and it works well in that case. The cost per unit was about $275 – $300.. Not bad for an elimination without use of any pesticides.
A less expensive monitoring device is use of dry ice in an Igloo thermos place on a dog dish with talc powder. works very well.. even better than the night watch, and studies have shown that the best monitor for the money are the clim bups..
meticulous treatment is the key of course.
if you are using a product that is that potent and works so well if the bugs cross it once,.. do tell what it is.. we should be out of the bed bug business ina few years if that is the case.
I’m really not trying to argue with you. I just think it is important that people know that insecticides can be very safe and I have had no problem with killing them with the residual. At least it has one and, it’s about 45 days. I can assure you 100% that if you use Phantom (or Temprid), Phantom Aerosol, Alpine Dust and a few other things, you will get rid of them every time but, you must do all of the following. You must remove the dust covers from the box springs and couches. Then treat the inside (and outside crevices) of the box springs (making sure to insert a crack and crevice tool (Phantom Aerosol) under all the staples and folds and in all the cracks in the wood frame of the box spring) treat the tufts on the mattress, all the cracks in the frame and headboard, inject Phantom Aerosol under and behind the baseboards (just the ones that are behind the beds and couches/chairs), spray all of the base boards in every room with Phantom or Temprid, spray the carpet under every bed, couch and chair (and you MUST treat the carpet out about one foot from the legs of the bed), dust all electrical outlets with Alpine D (I never remove the covers. If a bug can come out of a crack, I can put dust in the crack.) Then if you spot treat any other furniture where you find BB’s, you will stop the problem. All of the insecticides that I mentioned will for a fact kill them if they walk across it. (It takes about 7-10 days but, they will die) As I said, I have done over 3000 treatments this way and I have never failed. In addition, Chlorfenipyr is a Meti-Active product that does not become active until it is ingested by the bed bug. This makes it very safe. The LD50 for this product (Phantom) is over the top. Alpine Dust is even higher. Very, very safe stuff. However, the truth of the matter is, most of the jobs I do get 100% results in one day because, most of the time I am able to find the bed bugs and spray them directly. Direct contact kills them in a couple of hours max. so, I don’t have to rely on them walking through the product. I’m telling you, it works every time.
Forgot to mention the couches and chairs. You have to treat inside of them. Make sure to get in all the cracks in the wood frame and between the cloth and wood. When you remove the dust covers it is important to unscrew the legs and remove ALL the little bits and pieces of the dust cover. Most of the time the dust covers are half falling off but, the corners are hard to get off sometimes. If you remove the legs and use a pair of pliers, you can get every last bit of it off. I find that when the heat guys and others fail, this is the spot they miss. Lots of material folded up in the corners of the dust covers and a big plastic or wood leg screwed over top of all that gives them a safe haven from anything. It’s the small things that count. That is why so manyfolks fail. Unfortunately they blame it on the insecticides and that is just not the case. If you hit them with Phantom or the others I mentioned, it will kill them. If they walk through it they will still die, it just takes longer.
I tried the dry ice thing and it worked OK but, it just doesn’t last. Need a big chunk. I also happen to be a home brewer. I experimented with sugar water and yeast. I used a light for heat. I find that the heat is far more important than CO2 or karimones. I use the nightwatch because it looks professional and it works better than any of the home made jobs I have concocted. Let me know if you have any ideas how I can create CO2 for 30 days in a compact size. You find that and you will never have to work again. I get about 10 days out of my mini-batch off beer. Wine yeast ferments longer than beer yeast.
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I have been using the thermal remediation system from Temp Air for 13-months. I have performed 143 heat treatments. Everything from apartments to 8000 square foot homes. We have had 100% success with no re-treatments. We offer a one year warranty with a deductible and bed bug insurance after that. I have studied many other options and found that this was by far the safest and most effective. We maintain lethal temps for 6-hours. We use the wireless sensors but also use a Fluke thermal imager to ensure we find all cool spots. I once found 3-bed bugs under a coaster under a couch with the thermal imager. It’s pricey but doesn’t lie.I have been able to solve many peoples bed bug issues and that makes it worth wild. we currently charge about $2/sf. It’s a lot of work. No short cuts with this treatment. Long days but you can’t argue with the results. I hope everyone adjusts as much to heat as the bed bugs have to chemical treatments.