Key steps in washing clothes to control bed bugs.
Kill bed bugs with heat dryer.
The best way to kill bed bugs is to run your clothes and bedding through the dryer on high heat for 10 20 minutes.
Wrap any infested furniture in plastic and place it in direct hot sunlight for 24 hours.
Washing will kill some of the bed bugs but it is the heat of drying that will kill any remaining bed bugs.
Studies have found that bed bugs and their eggs cannot tolerate high temperatures.
When items spent only 10 minutes in a dryer on high 25 of the bed bug nymphs and 15 of adult bed bugs survived.
Kill bed bugs on backpacks shoes and luggage with a portable heating device.
You know that bed bug infestation is not just confined to bed area.
The heat of a clothes dryer is high enough to kill bedbugs in all stages of their life cycle.
They can be found all over the house.
However heat treatment of any kind except your home clothes dryer is still relatively expensive and has no residual long lasting activity.
You will need to check the maximum temperature that your dryer can achieve while in operation before selecting it for bed bug killing any temperature rating of fewer than 100 degrees fahrenheit won t work for you.
Using a low power rated dryer a low rated dryer does not generate enough heat which can kill bed bugs.
First bed bugs that are exposed to 113 f will die if the heat can maintain for more than 90 minutes.
This shows that it s the heat not the trauma of being tumbled that is killing the bugs.
Yes a blow dryer can kill bed bugs.
Some machines however take longer to heat up than others.
But is it an effective tool to kill bed bugs.
Using the cool setting on a dryer for an extended time did not kill any bed bugs at all.
Plug in a portable heating device place items inside it seal it turn it on and let the device run through its cycle to kill the bed bugs.
I just spoke to a heating bed bug company in north carolina they charge by sq ft with a 300 00 min and their trucks can heat multiple units near each other ie for landlords of apartment buildings take 30 60mins to set up and break down about 2 3 hours to get to kill temp then 2 4 hours to kill so between 6 9 hours to exterminate and.
With a few common sense practices you can easily disinfest clothes and ensure these items do not become bed bug hiding places as you remove bed bugs from the rest of your home.
The lack of residual activity means that bed bugs can re infest again the day after treatment.
If they are exposed to about 120 f they die within 15 20 minutes.
Heat is non toxic and can kill all bed bug life stages including bed bug eggs.
How to kill bed bugs with heat.