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Heat is heat! Right?
Our customers will have often called other companies to try to get the best price for a bed bug heat treatment, and here at Trust K9, we always take the time to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of heat treatment that are available.
Firstly, it is important to understand the principle behind heat treatment for bed bugs.

It is quite a simple idea really; unlike mammals insects are incapable of regulating their body temperature, so if you can take the temperature to either the extremes of hot or cold this will have a fatal effect of the insect. It would be impractical if not impossible to lower the temperature of a property sufficiently to kill all the bugs and eggs without causing significant damage to the building. So that leaves heat!

So how hot is too hot?
All insects have their own thermal death point dependent on their size and density of their carapace. The thermal death point of the temperate bed bug (Cimex lectularius) is around 46 degrees Celsius. At this temperature all stages of bed bug life including eggs start to die.

What are the different types of heat treatment?
There are two main types of heat treatment, structural heat and pod/tented heat. These types of heat treatment can then be split down according to the method used to deliver the heat.

Pod/Tented heat.

Heat pods/tents are used to heat up the contents of the room whilst the remainder of the

Example of a Heat Tent

room is unaffected by the heat, meaning that an effective bed bug treatment will still require the use of chemicals to eliminate the bed bugs that are in the fabric of the room which can take up to 5 weeks and in some cases repeated chemical applications. Whilst this type of heat treatment is not as effective for use in the home or hotel it can be excellent for treating suitcases when returning from travel or treating your belongings if you are moving from a shared house or fully furnished flat.

Structural Bed Bug Heat Treatment

Structural Heat Treatment

As the name suggests structural heat treatments will heat up the whole room including skirting boards and light fittings (areas that are very popular with bed bugs). This enables the effective treatment of the property with the option of having a chemical free treatment. This is the option used by Trust K9.

Next week I will be covering ‘Methods of delivering heat treatments’

Till next time
Sleep tight
Pete

Heat is natures natural answer to killing bed bugs. Here are some tips on ways to get rid of bed bugs with heat.  However, these are all localised treatments and will only treat the items or places you can access with it.

Tumble Drying
You can tumble dry any bed linen or clothes for around 20 to 30 mins in a domestic unit, or less at a launderettes.

A Trust K9 Heat Exchanger

Some tips – Do not overload not more than 20% of the drum with clothes as it needs to be able to fall and stay separated allowing the heat to penetrate evenly.

Getting rid of bed bugs with Steam
Good quality steamers give pure steam at 200 oc +  and the good ones cost over £800.

Be aware that the bed bugs can get pushed away with the force of the steam so be ready to collect them.

Remember that these solutions are localised and unless you have caught the bed bug

infestation, it is unlikely that you will get rid of them all.

Heating the whole property for bed bugs with specialist Heat treatment equipment killing all bed bugs and eggs in 24hrs from £1250 with a Guarantee may be a better way of spending your money. Contact us for more information or advice.

On Tuesday night, the 12^th of March to be exact!, me and Tracey headed on down to the UMI hotel in London for the monthly UKHA meeting,  to represent Trust K9 and our bed bug sniffer dog team.

All attendees were given the option to provide a prize for the raffle, and Trust K9 gave a free bed bug sniffer dog search for up to 10 rooms.  Whilst hotels use bed bug dogs to get a clear picture of how far a bed bug problem has spread throughout their hotel, they also use us to check hotel rooms and give the all clear that they are bed bug free. This way a Hotel can show diligence if they are unlucky enough to have an outbreak – and get rid of the problem quickly!

We walked from Bayswater train station and got lost but eventually found out as a nice young gentleman pointed us in the right direction.

Our 'Bug Blaster' Cocktail

We were greeted by the smiley UKHA committee and sent us in the direction of the cocktail bar. The first challenge of the evening was to name the cocktail which we called Trust K9’s bed bug blaster and the winner would receive a bottle of champagne. Unfortunately our names weren’t called!

Richard Stevens from Work Safe  gave a speech about an innovative tool; him and his team have created and our hosts provided us with a sushi making class but we did more eating than making!

We had singers from the Miss Saigon cast in London which then finished  of the evening with karaoke.

The raffle prizes were drawn and one very lucky winner won the 10 room bed bug sniffer dog search! We didn’t win anything….unlucky night for prizes!

We left the night on a good note as we made some great friends. Richard and Dean from Diversey who are a sponsor of UKHA, Minnie from Spot Raiders who we discovered is a bigger chocolate lover than us! And last but not least the lovely Jane Robson from The Fine Cotton Company.

Claire & Tracey

We always prefer to utilise our bed bug sniffer dogs when assessing the extent to which a bed bug in-habitation has spread. However sometimes the evidence is all too obvious to our technicians and negates the need for a bed bug dog search. In the first six weeks of in habitation, bed bugs will often leave little to no visible evidence of their presence, making them very difficult to find. However, if the problem is ignored or the victim is simply oblivious as to what may be causing their insect bites the bed bugs steadily multiply and given enough time, it becomes all too clear were the insects are hiding; you just have to know where to look.

At a glance, a bedroom may look clean and tidy and our customers are often confused as to

Bed Bugs on Rear of Headboard

why they keep getting bitten when they’re so thorough with their housekeeping. The first place to look in any given room is, quite obviously, the bed, the sofas and chairs. Bed bugs aren’t said to have nests rather harbourages where they cluster together. This is because although they like to rest together in cracks and crevices, they won’t necessarily lay their eggs all in one place. To see these harbourages, the best place to look is underneath furniture and behind headboards, so when our technicians inspect a property they will get into these places.

Bed Bug Harbourage

If a property has been inhabited by bed bugs for more than 6 months or even closer to a year’s time it can be overwhelming for the victims and its common for them to doubt the idea that they may ever get rid of, kill bed bugs. It’s at this stage when our technicians need to reassure customers that we are a specialist company who deal exclusively with bed bugs treatments and no matter how bad it looks we will eradicate the problem, full stop.

Find out when to use Bed Bug Dogs here

Paddy