It is not necessary to wash on hot and then dry on hot.

If you are going to dry on hot, washing on cold is fine.

If the item is not supposed to be dried in the dryer, things are more complicated. As the post above explains, you do not have to put a wet item in the dryer for however long it takes.

You can, alternatively, dry the item, then put it in a hot dryer for a much shorter period, which won’t hurt many items. The Potter study referenced in the post talked about a dry sock: bed bugs and eggs in the dry sock were killed after five minutes in a hot dryer. (If the item was wet, it would probably have taken much longer.) Keep in mind, we don’t know exactly how much longer it will take to kill bed bugs in a thicker item than a sock, so you might want to dry those a while longer.

Hope that helps.

0 F = -17.8 C
120 F = 48.9 C
130 F = 54.4 C
140 F = 60 C
150 F = 65.6 C
175 F = 79.4 C
180 F = 82.2 C
194 F = 90 C

(The formula for F to C is subtract 32, divide by 9, multiply by 5.)

The article hopelessnomo linked to in a comment above says,

LAUNDERING/DRYING. Bed bugs often infest bedding, clothing and other personal belongings which cannot be treated with insecticides. An oft-mentioned way to de-bug such items is laundering — yet to our knowledge, no testing has been done to verify effectiveness. A simple experiment was conducted to study this question. Three groups of live bed bug adults, nymphs and eggs were placed in small nylon mesh pouches which were then placed inside cotton socks. The bed bug-provisioned socks (along with a full load of clothing) were then run through a standard wash cycle using hot water. A second trial was run with similarly infested socks placed only in a clothes dryer. The bed bug-laden socks were accompanied by a load of unwashed clothing and subjected to high heat (greater than 175° F) for five minutes. No bed bugs or eggs survived the washing or drying cycles, suggesting that either regimen, alone or in combination, is effective.

175 F is 79.44 Celsius. If your washing machine will sustain a temperature of 80 C for 5 minutes, Potter’s study suggests this will suffice. If temps do not go that high, then read the comments of Fedupandparanoid at the start of the comments above. She shares data from a UK researcher about other temps used in a washer, and bed bugs.

Remember the items can become infested while being air dried or while being stored. I would not necessarily bag them once dry (as we suggest people should do with clean, dried clothing) since you may possibly be bagging bed bugs in. Still, some PCOS do not recommend bagging anyway. Bed bugs can be treated without bagging anything. It really depends on the PCO’s protocol.

The good news is that in many countries, pest control workers can use materials that are more effective than those found in the US and Canada. This may work in your favor. If you do not get actual treatment, washing and bagging stuff is not going to help much. I strongly suggest you try to find someone else (another PCO). If you tell us where you are, it may be so that someone from your country has been here before.

If you want to discuss this further, please come to the forums where you will get many more responses: http://bedbugger.com/forum/

Happy New Year, and I do hope it will be bedbug free for you all

This site was really helpful, however I am confused with all the different suggestions and ideas, and I don’t know what to do next, especially since I don’t have mush time to the next PCO visit, and I have to do something!

I read here that you should combine washing and drying on hot just to be safe enough. I understand now, which is comforting, that washing on hot might be enough. I don’t have a dryer – it’s really not a standard in my country – and in summer we dry our clothes outside, while in winter we dry it inside the house where it’s pretty warm thanks to the central heating. Is this enough? Please tell me it is cause this is the only thing I can do! I have lots of clothes, and shoes and purses, and I have no clue what to do. I was happy to read freezing might help, but it doesn’t seem safe enough. Now we have temperatures around -10 Celsius at night and lower, and during the day around -5. But I read here it’s not enough!

I’ve discovered this site a week ago and all I’ve been doing is reading and reading and reading, trying to learn what my next step should be. I got bbs in late July 2008, I brought them from a boat in Italy, which later discovered the infestation but didn’t let me know.
I had problems and was severely bitten at the beginning. I moved from bed to sofa which was a mistake of course. And then two and a half months later I discovered that bbs were to blame. I immediately called PCO – there aren’t many in my town, and I couldn’t find “the best one for bbs”. A guy came and said it wasn’t bad (I disagree now). My biggest mistake – I wasn’t home when he came, my parents were, and they didn’t ask many questions or at least not as many as I would. He sprayed a little and left, as if we will never see him again. I thought that was it (if only I found this site earlier!). Two weeks later I found live ones and called the guy again. He came and used some sort of bombs (great to read here that made the things worse…the treatment was three times more expensive than the regular one….). Again they say that should do the trick. After that bomb treatment I felt free to wash all my clothes and I rearranged all my stuff and cleaned everything up as if the bbs were dealt with completely. A mistake again, since I saw them walking around the room 3 weeks later and I freaked out completely. I call PCO again. Cause now I see them walking around in my living room, on the floor or on the wall, and I can imagine they can be absolutely everywhere, in the parquet floor, huge wooden closet… I was hoping they would be only in the bed or sofa, but I didn’t find any there anymore.

Since late October I’ve had 5 treatments, and in a few days I’m about to have the sixth one. I’ve had no advice from my PCO on how to treat my clothes, books and other stuff. Actually I’v had no advice from them whatsoever, and the first time all we got was an impression that they didn’t need to come again.
All the stuff from my closet (which was sprayed last time) was put on the pre-treated sofa, and is now on a huge pile. I am planning to start washing the stuff and bagging it and storing to another place. That is why I need advice on washing only, and not drying the clothes. Some of the stuff I will need to wash by hands, is that ok too? I have some delicate clothes that cannot be washed on more that 40 degrees Celsius and this worries me, so I’d rather wash them by hands.

My original plan was to bag the stuff which is now all around the place (for example handbags and shoes) and put them on the balcony to freeze on this cold. I have to make order somehow, but I don’t know where to start anymore, since I was a bit discouraged with this info I read here.
I live with my parents in a three-floor apartment. I’m on the third floor, I have a small bedroom and a living room and a bathroom. I found live bbs in bedroom and living room, and one dead one in the bathroom (this was before the 4th treatment). I get the feeling they could be anywhere. So far my parents haven’t had problems on the floors below. The trouble is, I’ve been sleeping on the second floor after every treatment cause my rooms smelled really bad on chemicals. So I wasn’t there most of the time to act as a bait to bbs. Furthermore, I’m planning to move in to my bfriend’s house, and I’m scared to death of taking little buggers with me. I’ve been careful as much as possible so far (instinctively and without reading any advice) and it seems I haven’t spread any, by pure luck I guess. I am worried that when I leave and go to live with my bfriend in a month or two, bbs will start looking for new victims and spread to other floors. I don’t feel comfortable leaving this place until this is resolved, but it’s a long fight and I have to go on with my life which hasn’t been normal since August.
I desperately want to do the right thing, but feel kinda lost, cause cooperating with the PCO is not something I can count on really, and finding a new one isn’t gonna help either. And you say that it’s really important to follow their advice. The only thing I can count on is that they use a lot of chemicals. Last two times they really soaked the place. Since then I haven’t seen a live one, and I found one or two dead ones. I’m scared that some might have chosen to escape from the sofa to the pile of clothes and other stuff which is now on the sofa, though I hope they will die then cause the sofa itself was saked before tossing the stuff on it, and I haven’t found any live ones before the treatment (though they might have been in the material itself).

Sorry to write all this just like that, but I’m running out of time, and reading through all this just makes me more confused. I cannot use any of the self treatment chemicals you write about here (nowhere to buy them), my mattress is not protected the way you describe it. I plan to wrap it in nylon after the next treatment, and isolate bed and sofa with vaseline, duck tapes and put the legs in bowls. I will wash my clothes and bag it and place somewhere else, but I need to know is it enough to do it in a way I described above, since I have lots of delicate clothes, and some of it cannot be washed on a temperature higher that 40 C.
I plan to bag most of the stuff in transparent garbage bags and make them airtight somehow. And then leave some sealed, the ones I probably won’t need for 18 months. Others I will maybe open after the next treatment. Though I’m afraid that bbs won’t get out when everything around is sprayed with chemicals, and they how do I know these bags are really safe?

Can any of the entomologists here weigh in on what x and y are, and what are some useful midpoints (i.e. allow you to bake some shoes without burning them and without taking 4 hours)

Thank you