Bed Bug Heater Effectiveness

Customers ask me this question all the time.  Does it work and what’s your guarantee?

The simple answer is “Yes”, science has proven that bed bugs die at 45C, but that is in a test tube in a lab.  Because we don’t live in a test tube, the answer becomes more complicated but the answer is still “Yes.”

When advising customers on how long you should heat your room, there are several factors that need to be considered.

1. HOW MANY: How long have you had the problem? If you just discovered bed bugs and have only seen a few bites, it probably means that you only have a few bed bugs and they are most likely isolated to the bed. As the months pass and the bed bug population grows, the bed bugs start traveling abroad to the walls, baseboards, and cracks in the floor.  You will need to heat your room for a longer time to penetrate deeper into the walls.
2. HOW HOT: How hot the room gets when treating with heat?  When the heaters are plugged into four separate circuits and getting maximum power, they regularly reach between 55C and 60C.  The hotter it gets, the faster things heat up and the more effective the treatment becomes.
3. HOW LONG: How long you heat treat each room? It’s not just about getting the room hot, it is about the heat penetrating the walls and furniture.  The longer you leave the heaters running, the more successful your treatment will be.  Sometimes, customers try to squeeze in treating an extra room because they want to save money and do as many rooms as possible in one day.  My experience has shown that cutting back on time will often mean that you kill most of the bugs, but some will still be waiting to come out of their hiding spots.  When this happens, you will want to do a second treatment.
4. HOW BIG: How big is the room? The bigger the room, the longer it will take to heat up and the longer you will want to keep the heaters running in order to penetrate the walls and furniture.
5. PREPARATION: You need to prepare the room by flipping up the mattress and pulling away furniture from the walls.
6. HOW MUCH STUFF: Heat works if the hot air can penetrate.  If you have a lot of stuff in your room, it’s going to take a lot longer to penetrate and you will need to go in during treatment to move things around to expose any bed bugs hiding under boxes, bags, suitcases, etc. to escape the heat.
7. CHECK: Check everywhere with the Temperature Sensor Gun.  Thoroughly check the room temperature by pointing the Temperature Sensor Gun everywhere – baseboards, closets, inside drawers, along the bedframe, at any clothing in drawers, baskets or closets. If everywhere you point the gun reads 50C or higher, you are going to have a high success rate.

So, the long answer is “Yes” bed bug heaters absolutely do work but it’s important to do the preparation work and to leave the heater running for a minimum of 6 hours after it reaches the temperature of 45C.