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Cars not hot enough to kill BBs?
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nervousaboutbedbugs
junior member
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 69
Posted 3 months ago
Tue Aug 18 2009 12:41:37
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I've read this many times on this forum, but have gotten conflicting advice from multiple PCOs. One just told me that in a recent study done at Univ of Florida, they did find that the heat from a car parked in the sun was enough to kill BBs, unless there was something tightly packed in the car (like a full suitcase). Ken at PureHeat in Cape Code (thermal providers) told me the same thing (without referencing the study).
In my opinion, it's not worth the risk of re-introducing, but I'm still confused by the information.
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 3 months ago
Tue Aug 18 2009 13:12:27
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Cars, or more accurately parts of cars, may be hot enough to kill bed bugs. For example, I would bed that infestations of cars are much less common here in southern California. After all, even on cloudy marine layer days where I live (three blocks from the ocean), the interior of my car regularly reaches over 115 degrees for at least a few hours every afternoon. That kind of climate isn't exactly welcoming to bugs.
However, using a hot car to treat items is an unreliable practice at best. Unlike a Packtite, there is no way to regulate how often the car's temp drops below the thermal death point because the sun went behind the clouds.
And unlike the Packtite which was engineered to prevent bugs from escaping the heat, there are plenty of places in a car that are in the shade or are well insulated. So if the bugs were in the car or escaped from the items in the car being treated, there are places in a car for bugs to hide in places cooler than the thermal death point.
Does that mean that using a car will always fail?
No, of course not. You might get lucky in treating either the car or the items in there.
The problem, of course, is that if a single impregnated female or two bugs of the opposite sex survive? That's enough to restart an infestation elsewhere if the items are treated like they are bug free. In addition, if the containers in the car aren't 100% bug tight, you can end up with an infestation in the car, which is a pain to treat. (Vikane is the only reliable method we've heard of for cars.)
The temperatures in a car parked in the full sun are absolutely hot enough to kill bed bugs. That's not the trick. The trick is putting items in places in the car in a way that every part of that item is evenly heated. (Think about it. The sun beats down on the top of a black garbage bag encased item, but the bottom of that black garbage bag is sitting on the shade on a nice insulated car seat. Can you guarantee that that side of the item will hit 140 degrees and stay at that temp for an hour or two?)
That part of the equation gets into physics that are beyond my English major understanding level of science. I never took a real physics class, so I'm not a good person to try to explain heat transfer.
Now, does that mean that when I had bugs but hadn't yet had treatment that I didn't put my suitcase in a garbage bag and still its empty self in my car? No. Of course I did. I was desperate and freaked out. And I also sprayed the thing down with 91% rubbing alcohol.
But the Packtite wasn't available then. It is now. One of these is a much more reliable method of treating most items than the other, and I'll take reliable over might work but might not any day of the week.
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