Bed bugs are the most common pest problem we face in the UK and, according to many people, in the world as a whole. While in the past we used to spray the mattress around with chemicals (or entirely replace it with a new one alongside the bed), today there’s a better, safer and more affordable alternative –heat treatment. Find out everything you should know about this procedure – whether as a DIY challenge or a professional pest eradication service in today’s guide below.
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Understanding Bed Bug Infestations
Before you buy or rent a heat treatment machine or call the pest control experts from your hometown, make sure the procedure you plan to perform can resolve your problem. In other words, come around to the opinion that it is the bed bugs that worry you and that you need to undergo heat treatment.
Bed bugs are common pests in your sleeping zone. You might not be capable of meeting them face to face, though, as they are very tiny. Although they cannot be seen, bed bugs can be felt. No one can mistake their bites to bleed on their hands, neck and legs. The rash in the morning is typical but also dangerous because some people actually get allergic reactions, impetigo or even infections. Yes, unfortunately, bed bugs do transfer diseases.
Apart from your skin, your sheets can tell you have these insects in your bed, too. If the bed linen is covered with tiny small red (or dark brown) dots, it’s nothing else but your own or a dead bed bug’s blood.
What is Heat Treatment?
Heat treatment is a process that aims to gradually increase the temperature on a surface or a room. Special equipment is necessary for the purpose. In the pest control industry, heat treatment is a universal method of removing various types of unwanted domestic guests. One of the best things about this pest control alternative is its effect on all insects and all stages of their life cycle. The procedure is fatal only for the bed bugs, but not for your health condition or your interior design.
Preparing for Heat Treatment
Nothing is frustrating in the bed bug heat treatment procedure. Though, if you know what to expect from it in advance, you will feel more confident about it.
Initial Consultation and Inspection
As a professional pest control service, bed bug heat treatment is a personalised approach to the complete extermination of the biting insects in your sleeping zone and your home as a whole. It is the first meeting (or conversation online) with the preferred company that sets the conditions, visit day, deadlines, contract clauses and other details for further actions. During this chat, you are allowed (and recommended) to ask all the questions you have about heat treatment, as well as to share all of your concerns if you have any.
The most important part of the consultancy is the arrangement of the preliminary visit by the heat treatment team. It has an inspective purpose. The specialists need to know what they will deal with to figure out what would work best for you – is it an emergency case? Do they have to treat all the premises, but not only the bedrooms? Are there any infestation signs outside of the beds (for instance, on the sofas and carpets, you name it)?
Both – the consultancy and the inspection include some recommendations and warnings as to the user’s actions that must be performed. We will mention some of the things you will have to do below, but keep in mind that, in general, your role in the heat treatment preparation is pretty insignificant.
Decluttering and Cleaning
It is preferable to make sure that your house is tidied up a day before the heat treatment visit. For this purpose, all the trash around the home must be eliminated. Of course, your primary focus should be in the sleeping zone, which means to deflate the beds. You might also be asked to provide at least a 2-foot distance between the walls and each of the bedsides. The bed linens should be removed, but the mattress is the one that’s treated with high temperature, so make sure to sanitise it.
Protecting Valuables and Sensitive Items
Although heat treatment is considered to be the most risk-free and eco-friendly possible way to get rid of bed bugs, it might be a potential danger for some items on the premises. By all means, the pest control specialists will protect your interior design as much as possible, but it would be good if you hid the sensitive objects away in advance, too. The high temperature can harm the following items, so it is better to remove them from the treated perimeter:
- Living green plants;
- Pets;
- Food;
- Drinks;
- Medications;
- Cosmetic products;
- Wine;
- Candles and other products made of wax;
- Any spray items;
- Any flammables;
- Musical items and instruments;
- Delicate plastic items.
The Heat Treatment Process
When we said that heat treatment is simple, we meant it for the professionals. We don’t think that people without experience in using such high-tech machinery should perform the bed bug extermination.
Setting Up the Equipment
Your only DIY options against bed bug infestations are the proper laundry and the steaming process. If the invasion has just started, you might have achieved some results. On the other side, it would be a good pre-treatment before the arrival of the professionals.
On the one hand, it would be good to wash the bed linens with a special program that involves washing machine temperature as much as possible. On the other hand, don’t hesitate to use your vacuum cleaner’s steam cleaning option to treat the mattress.
In all other cases, the pest control experts will set, fix, and use the special heaters they will carry to your home, and you should provide them with nothing else but an adequate electrical supply.
Conducting the Treatment
During the procedure, it is not recommended that the homeowners be on the premises. Even the experts use special measures to protect themselves from high-temperature risks. Yet, you might want to know what would be undertaken on your property during the process:
- The experts located the heater in the most optimal position so it could disperse the heat thoroughly and evenly on the premises.
- Then, they will make a final check if all the sensitive items are removed or protected (if possible).
- The experts might use special sensors all around the premises to handle remote control over the adequate spread of high temperatures in all zone zones.
- The devices get activated in a mode that allows not an immediate but a gradual rise of the temperature (the maximum one is fixed, including the time within which it should be reached).
- The experts conduct the procedure for the most optimal – according to the individual case – duration.
- Usually, the process lasts between 2 and 4 hours. The experts remain in the building and make sure to open closed premises (doors, cupboards) and move from side to side the mattresses so that the high temperature can reach all risky zones.
Safety Measures During Treatment
Apart from the removal of the most sensitive to high-temperature items, you might also be asked to take some extra preventive measures. In other cases, the specialists will take them right before or during the heat treatment process. Here’s a list of such precautions to have in mind:
- Turn off all the electrical devices;
- Provide at least 12 inches distance between the electrical devices and the walls;
- Remove everything that’s hanging from the walls;
- Pre-dry the clothing and bed linens before the arrival of the bed bug removal specialists;
- Make sure to provide a place for your pet, kids and plants for the heat treatment day.
Post-Treatment Steps
You might not need to go to a hotel on the bed bug removal day because the heat treatment doesn’t require any particular post-process actions. You can come back to your house or office once the temperature has been restored to its optimal one.
Post-Treatment Inspection
The final check is a critical step in the heat treatment process. Reliable pest control experts never leave a property with an unfinished job. The monitoring stage is when they can get confident in the procedure’s positive final result. Some companies are equipped with special devices that track signs of infestations. The customers are allowed to attend a second check after their arrival and ensure the eradication is complete.
Cleaning and Ventilating Your Home
Usually, the facility cools off for up to 10 hours. This is why heat treatment companies prefer to arrange a visit in the morning, so families can go back to their bug-free homes before the night comes. To speed up the cooling-off process, many professionals use modern ventilating devices. It is a must for the customers, though, to repeat the cleaning after the procedure due to the expected massive amount of dead bugs in the sleeping zones.
Preventing Future Infestations
While you enjoy your liberation from bed bugs at home, the heat treatment specialists will execute their final chore. They will provide you with valuable tips to keep any pests away from your home, including:
- If you notice a sign of pest infestations, call the professionals as soon as possible;
- Always wash the bed linens as high as possible temperature;
- Do the laundry once you get back from a trip or vacation to make sure you haven’t brought any bed bugs with you;
- During the first 30 days after the procedure, be more suspicious and check out for bed bug signs to see if you need another visit.
Benefits of Heat Treatment
Getting rid of bed bugs is easy, fast and guaranteed with professional heat treatment. Over the years, the procedure has shown lots of benefits, which has made it a better alternative to any other pest control method.
Chemical-Free Solution
Before you decide to use common chemical pesticides to get rid of the bed bugs, remember the allergic part from the previous paragraph. Well, just like bed bugs, ordinary insecticides and hazardous sprays against pests can lead to health issues. What’s even worse is that chemical solutions are neither eco-friendly but harmful to nature nor 100% efficient.
On the other side, there’s a 90% efficiency of the single heat treatment procedure against bed bugs. This is because the process includes gradual increases in temperature to make the area unbearable to bed bugs. In other words, when the temperature rises to 50-60 C, the insects become dehydrated, then suffer metabolic disorders and lose their living capabilities. In an hour, they are killed.
There’s one more reason why experts will recommend heat treatment but not a chemical pest control solution. No matter how you spread around the solution, there’s no guarantee of complete coverage of the sleeping area. In other words, bed bugs receive the chance to hide and seek and come out to bite you later. The high temperature covers the entire surface and premise uniformly. There’s no way for the insects to escape and survive.
Effectiveness and Efficiency
Heat treatment methodology is based on a simple but proven practical technology. After all, it’s common for the simplest things to turn out to be the most efficient ones.
The high productivity level of the heat treatment can be tracked in many ways. On the one hand, this is a process that, in the majority of cases, requires just one single application. On the other hand, heat treatment covers all insect life stages, which is a guarantee for further prevention of an infestation. Removing bed bugs from your sleeping area with high temperatures provides a guaranteed but long-term effect, too.
Heat treatment seems to have become the best option to deal with bed bugs these days. As a reliable, safe, and efficient procedure that can be ordered at a budget-friendly price and performed with no required effort from you, it’s an alternative not to underestimate and to prefer instead of the old-fashioned and hazardous chemical solutions.
