Once bed bugs have taken hold in your house or apartment, they can be incredibly challenging to deal with. Often requiring multiple expensive treatment sessions and a lot of frustrating trial and error, a bed bug infestation can take weeks or even months to remedy. But according to New Bedford bed bugs expert Alan Bliss of Flynn Pest Control, with the right equipment and techniques, getting rid of bed bugs doesn’t have to be a long drawn-out process. The reason? Bed bugs can’t stand the heat.
The Challenge of Bed Bugs
There’s a reason bed bugs are so difficult to deal with, and it has to do with the their life cycle. At any given time, a population includes bed bugs in all three of the insects’ major stages: egg, larva and adult. While some methods of treatment (including many traditional insecticides) are effective at killing adults and larvae, there is not a liquid or gas that can penetrate the hard shell of the bed bug egg.
When a pest control company treats your home for bed bugs, unless they’re able to kill the eggs along with the live insects, they’re going to need to return to your home for a second or even a third application of insecticide. And timing is critical. If the eggs are allowed to hatch, mature and begin reproducing, the treatment cycle must begin again.
“Conventional treatment usually takes about six weeks and involves at least three treatment sessions at two-week intervals,” Bliss explains. “The homeowner has to do a lot of preparation before each treatment session and they get three large doses of pesticide. That’s really the only way to handle bed bugs in the conventional way.”
There’s a Better Way
Thankfully, Bliss says, there’s a better way to treat bed bugs – one that requires only one session to kill all of the adults, larvae and eggs in the treated area. To get rid of bed bugs once and for all, Bliss strongly recommends opting for thermal remediation over conventional treatment.
Thermal remediation involves the use of heat to eliminate bed bugs in all stages. It’s performed by placing heating units and fans throughout the home, then slowly raising the temperature within the structure to a level that is lethal for the bed bugs but not damaging to the home’s contents. That temperature is maintained for at least three hours to ensure a complete kill. When treatment is finished, the home is allowed to cool, and the homeowners are often able to return the same night.
The benefits of thermal remediation are many. Not only can it be done in a single session, it can also penetrate areas that most pesticides cannot, including all textiles, mattresses, cushions, carpets and even wall boards.
“Heat treatment involves very little preparation on the homeowner’s part,” says Bliss, “and only one day of treatment. As compared to conventional treatment… there’s really no comparison.”