Steam Treatment For Bed Bugs

 Proper steaming is essential if you wish to get rid of bed bugs quickly, safely, and without dangerous pesticides. The temperature of the steam must be high enough and the pressure high enough to penetrate cracks and crevices but not too high so it doesn’t just blow the bed bugs around before steam kills them. If you are treating hard-to-reach, deep creases on upholstered furniture generally the pressure should be higher. A variety of nozzles should be used as well to penetrate deep or to trap the heat more on the surface. The speed with which you move the nozzle should be uniform and around 12-15 seconds per foot. Going slower will not hurt but going too fast might adversely affect the steaming process.

Biggest problem with heat treatment for bed bugs

There are three major problems with ambient heat treatment for bed bugs.

1. The way the heat treatment for bed bugs is being sold to you. Do not get me wrong, heat treatment can and often does work but not by itself. There is no silver bullet or a panacea for bed bugs and there will not be any for a very long time ( I will cover this subject in the next video). Yet, the salespeople working for the companies that sell heat treatment will tell you that heat attracts bed bugs, that bed bugs are drawn to it from wherever they are hiding and then perish from heat exhaustion. That is exactly 2,5% true. What attracts or draws bed bugs to you, just like a few other insects is the CO2 we exhale. That’s right, this is how bed bugs know there is a living and breathing host in the vicinity CO2 represents  95% of attraction, and your body heat and body scent account for 2.5% each. If you don’t want to take my word for it, please refer to Purdue University or Kentucky University Entomology Department which are the two leading, non-biast sources for bed bug research or PCT ( Pest Control Technology) magazine.
2. Heat sink areas. These are the areas in the house that heat up at a slower rate than the other areas. Effectively speaking bed bugs will find refuge in those areas to escape the heat. Please note, that the temperature monitors used by companies providing ambient heat treatment for bed bugs are placed in the general areas,  not in the heat sink areas. Granted, not all of them will be able to find those cooler places and will die during heat treatment, however, that is not the goal nor what you were promised.
3. A complete lack of residual protection. This is the biggest problem with the ambient heat treatment for bed bugs. Once the heat dissipates and the temperature returns to normal there is no residual protection and nothing to continue the process of bed bug eradication. If even one bed bug or bed bug egg survived, which is not hard to imagine considering what I explained in the first two paragraphs, or if bed bugs were reintroduced to your home, there is simply nothing to stop the infestation from growing and this nightmare from continuing.

Biggest problem with Heat treatment for bed bugs