Heat Treatment for Bed Bugs Question

amother

Wed, May 09 2012, 10:46 am

amother wrote:

My neighbor did the heat treatment and then redid it a year later with another company. I heard from someone else who had bed bugs and looked into the options that the claim wasthat the heat doesn't actually kill all the bugs just drives them deeper into the furniture and walls. She had someone come down and do spraying three times with a 10 day wait in between the only disadvantage to that is that all the cloth in the room (somesay the whole house) have to be washed and dried.

Good Luck Hug

Are you serious? So what am I doing? What should I do? Combination heat and then spray three times with a 10 day wait in between? And leave my stuff from the heat treatment in bags until the spraying process is done? What about my carpets?

I'm shaking. Oh my! Please someone help! The heat treatment's going to cost us a fortune!

amother

Wed, May 09 2012, 1:10 pm

amother wrote:

So my question is: How long until they come out then from those deeper places? Sure, they can stay alive in a bagged item for 12 to 18 months, but if they're not contained, don't they need a meal every 5 to 7 days and they can easily travel up to at least 100 ft for that. And wouldn't a K9 dog detect a low level infestation, say almost 2 months later? I'm trying to not freak out because it's very easy to do that.

Also, in order to ensure that I'm not getting a false negative report from the dog - just in case chas v'shalom the K9 guy (a Jew) and the heat treatment co.(also Jewish) are "connected" even though they claim they're not - I can request to hide the lure within my property. Got the following tip from bedbugbeware.com: If the apartment is cleared of activity the client should be given the opportunity to hide the lure within the property to offer a control detection step. This will illustrate to the client that there is no risk of a false negative screen.

If anyone has anything to offer, please please post. Thank you.

So I j

amother

Wed, May 09 2012, 1:59 pm

amother wrote:

My dh manages apartments and he does the heat treatment. He found it really worked, especially because tenants weren't reliable to throw everything out or wash and dry on hot. (Without heat he made tenants throw out their couch and he would slash the cushions. With heat you can keep the couch)

Thank you SO much for responding! We'll be spending a ton on the treatment, and I really need the chizuk. May I ask you which company he used? Would you also know how long the warranty was for, and did he need to use it? Also, if the tenants weren't reliable with washing, were they reliable to let him know if the problem would reappear? Or did he get the apartment reinspected? Thank you!

amother

Mon, May 14 2012, 5:51 pm

amother wrote:

OP here.
So the way this company works is that they do the heat treatment, then follow up with a spray the next day, followed by two more sprays each 7-14 days apart. I didn't know this when I originally posted the question.

Can you tell me the names of the companies your neighbor used please? Ty.

amother

Tue, May 15 2012, 8:44 pm

so before you go nuts, please make sure you have bedbugs and not mites, mosquitoes or other biting things. dc got bites on and off (never more than once or twice a week and sometimes weeks would go by without bites) for 3-4 months. we called an exterminator and her dog and they said we had bed bugs in three bedrooms. even though I told her that I kill mosquitoes in our house every so often even in the winter. she said its not possible that we have mosquitoes. we had no signs of bed bugs. no bugs, bloodstains, only st that could possibly be feces. and even that, not in my bitten child's room. we did the heat treatment through a different exterminator-very costly. we threw out furniture and mattresses etc... and got a dog afterward to say we were free of them. the warranty was for three months. three months and two wks later. the same child woke up with bites. we called a dog and it said we had bed bugs in the same bedrooms. the heat treatment co. would only give us a discount on the next treatment because the warranty was up. I was suspicious because how could they be back so soon? why did we never see anything except bites? (and we looked). we called a top rated exterminator who said we definitely do not have bed bugs, but mosquitoes, (we found many) he said he didnt think we ever had bed bugs and the dogs are wrong alot because they are usually not trained right. the dogs that said that we had bedbugs were from an exterminating company which we didnt use. the dog that said we didnt have bedbugs was from an independent dog company. not from any pest control ppl. IMO its hard to know if we ever had them because we threw out so many thing so I cant recheck them now that I know how to look for them very well, but I just want you to get a very good exterminator to check for signs of evidence before you go nuts.

amother

Wed, May 16 2012, 12:38 am

amother wrote:

You have no idea how thankful I am that someone responded. Thank you. Thank you.

I know for a fact that I had bed bugs in my shoes . . . OK, allow me to start from the beginning. Last day of Pesach, my son had 4 bites (random, spread apart) on his stomach and two on his ankle. Took him the next day to the dr. cuz he had a low grade fever. Fever was a virus, unrelated to bites. Doc said they were insect bites and when I questioned re bed bugs, he said he didn't think so cuz not usual pattern. I came home, put DE at legs of bed and DS never got bites again. 3 wks later I got same kind of bites up on my right thigh, closer together. A few nights later on the other leg. Blood stains on linen. Wore shoes I hadn't worn in a while the next day with sheer knee hi's that had a small hole close to toe. Was itchy all day in them. Thought I had mulch in them. Took the shoes off early evening and then carefully took off the knee hi. Lo and behold, yes, BED BUGS! Gross is not the word! Called exterminator next morning, dog came an hour later, found in 2 bedrooms and family room. Did thermal heat 2 days later, which was last Thursday. Supposedly, the dog and thermal exterminator are not affiliated. (The dog co. does searches for many exterminating companies, not only the one I used.)

Besides the ones in my shoe, I never saw any other ones. Neither did the guy with the dog or the exterminator. So hopefully we had a light infestation. I'd just like to know that they're gone. Any suggestions out there?

amother

Wed, May 16 2012, 12:45 am

amother wrote:

So who was the top rated exterminator that you used?