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heat treatment
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2ndtimeround
newbite
Joined: Sep '10
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Posted 2 years ago
Tue Sep 7 2010 21:59:44
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I am from winnipeg, canada. and they are starting to use this HEAT TREATMENT and would just like to know how it works? what can be treated? like how it would effectmy electronic's? how long do they treat for? and roughly what the cost are?
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BBGen0cide
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Posted 2 years ago
Tue Sep 7 2010 22:10:40
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It can, but also it can back fire and it costs a ton. It all depends on if there are escapes in the house and where the heat doesn't reach. Fighting them and winning takes so much, bagging, pco, vaccuming, cleaning everything, packtite.
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buggyinsocal
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Joined: Jun '08
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Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 0:08:18
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Since I actually had my apartment treated with thermal over two years ago, I can tell you what my personal experience with heat was.
Heat in general has long been used as a weapon against bed bugs. Many of the prep protocols used by PCOs for chemical treatment actually rely on heat: all that washing and drying is really about heating items up to kill bugs and eggs.
The Packtite is a small chamber that does what heat treatment does to a structure.
Done properly, thermal is one of two methods that can kill all bed bugs and their eggs in one treatment.
Every PCO varies. However, my PCO did not require me to do all the laundry and bagging prep for thermal that most people have to do for chemical.
My thermal PCO did a walk through of the structure to survey what it would require on their part and tell me how to prep: I had to remove heat sensitive items like DVDs and CDs, candles, alcohol (both the kind you drink like wine and liquor, but also isopropyl, because the hand sanitizer I forgot? the bottle plumped like a Ballpark Frank in a commercial.), make up, and so on.
Thermal took most of a day. the guys arrived around 8 am and set up in the driveway with the heaters and ducts that they ran to the apartment. They started baking. I had to leave (first treatment date available was on a day that I was scheduled to leave town for a family wedding--good times.), but my neighbors reported that they were there until 3 or 4 or 5 that evening.
When I came home, all the bugs were dead. Never got a bite in the house afterwards.
As methods go, Vikane is the only other one shot treatment. Vikane cannot always be done in cold weather, although some PCOs are working on ways around that. In Canada, however, Vikane isn't licensed for use at all. (Partly this is because Vikane is more often used to treat drywood termites which, I suspect, aren't a big problem for you guys since they're mostly warm climate pests. While I'm not so stereotypically USian to think you all live in snow and ice year round, I do suspect you guys don't have weather as warm for as much of the year to make termites the perpetual problem that they are in the southern US.)
Vikane is slightly less prone to damaging items.
You would need to contact your PCO for specifics about electronics. I lost a microwave and two TiVos. (all three were plugged in. The one absolute about heat + electronics is that you must remove all power from them--batteries, anything plugged in providing any power even in standby mode--to lessen the chances of that happening.)
However, every PCO is different. As with any treatment method, done improperly, thermal can fail.
Ask questions about how long the warranty is and what their proof for retreatment is.
However, when done properly? Heat is an excellent option for treatment.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 14,066online
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 0:18:21
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BBGen0cide - 2 hours ago »
It can, but also it can back fire and it costs a ton. It all depends on if there are escapes in the house and where the heat doesn't reach.BBGenocide,
If an experienced professional who knows what they're doing conducts a heat treatment, it should absolutely 100% work ("done properly," as buggyinsocal notes, is the key phrase). You want to find a service provider who knows what they're doing.
Amateurs should never conduct heat treatments, as they are dangerous and prone to failure.
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2ndtimeround
newbite
Joined: Sep '10
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Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 0:29:33
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thank you all, very informing. the cold weather is coming! lol. the company coming in the next few days are very well know, i will be very sure to ask many questions as i will be putting my savings in their hands.
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BBGen0cide
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Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 210offline
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 1:23:24
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My point is this. Packtite is for controlling things coming in and out of your house.
Sorry but bed bugs live in cars, at peoples work, and gyms people go to. If you have gone to these places since you have had bugs, there is a good chance that you could re contaminate your house. This is why PCOs that use chemicals, and other methods besides heat can be more successful in the end. People really don't understand why they can't win, and in many cases, it is this re infestation that keeps happening over and over again that yields in bad results.
The heat thing is a joke to me, because it might do the house once, a one time thing, but realistically, the bed bug infestation IS NOT A ONE TIME THING usually. It happens over and over with out people realizing it. THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET FOR BED BUG MANAGEMENT. Heat treating never addresses what I am saying here.
They charge you up to 4 grand, and there is still a chance they can come back, then what? spend another 500 on a PCO with their chemicals that get it done better in the end and in the long run with re infestations.
I think the heat can damage the house as well.
I do not like the idea of heating up the electrical chords wiring my house up. I don't like the idea of it on my thermostats. What is even more scary to me is all these flat screen tvs and fluorescent lights that contain mercury. No one has done tests on the long term effects of heat treating on electronics that are built into the house. It would suck if it weakened something and five years down the road you get a short that catches your house on fire. This alone makes me very wary of this heat treating they are offering now.
This is just my opinion. I'm not telling people what to do, I am just griping.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 14,066online
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 2:04:38
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BBGenOcide,
I understand your perspective. It is important for people to rule out the possibility of continued exposure if at all possible. Even after heat treatment is done to the home, one might wish to use a Packtite to make sure incoming items are bed bug-free. If the car is infested (which is often not the case), something needs to be done about that.
However, heat treatment can be a one-shot solution for bed bugs in the home, and this can be of huge benefit to many people. If it's not ideal for your situation, then that's a good thing for you to realize. But for many people, done properly by an experienced pro, it is incredibly helpful.
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BBGen0cide
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Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 210offline
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 2:21:12
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Not if it makes the electronics in your house fail down the road. Houses are not built to be subjected to 135 degrees of heat for 8 hours.
Some have had great success with it. I am skeptical for many reasons. Cars are infested more than they think, and most pcos wont even look at the car to see.
When people get re infested, they think their PCO failed them, so they go to another PCO and the old PCO never knows and thinks they had success. I think from reading this forum, I am leaning towards more cars being infested, and people don't realize it or confirm it and endlessly battle a war they can never win because of it. I have read that heat has failed on this very forum.
I am just voicing why I am skeptical.
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Bugbitten Meg
junior member
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 78offline
Posted 2 years ago
Wed Sep 8 2010 11:48:27
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I had a thermal done by an experienced and detail-oriented PCO a year ago. It is twice as expensive as conventional integrated pest management (IPM), but for some people (those with infants under 2, for example -- since very young children are more susceptible to even well-applied pesticides) it is well worth thinking about.
Do make sure that your warranty period is reasonable. (Mine was for 2 months, by comparison.)I do agree that you are 'aging' electronics, &c -- go read my old posts on my own thermal to hear all about old paint bubbling and all the leather in the house needing re-moisturizing, among other things. However, when my electronics fail, they do so by 'toasting' a key part like the CPU and then failing to work, not by spontaneously bursting into flames big enough to set the house on fire. In fact, since we unplugged everything except the 'fridge and pulled every battery we could find, we didn't have any immediate failures (although I would strongly recommend backing up all data ahead of time.) House wiring has a fuse box for exactly the same reason -- to provide a safe failure mode.
I expect that we shortened the eventual life of everything electronic that went through the heat, though -- BBGen0cide is quite right about that.For many sagas of thermal treatment, good & bad, click on the 'thermal' tag at the top of the page. In general, if your PCO is not detail-oriented, then getting a thermal with them will not be any more successful than getting several rounds of conventional IPM with them would have been.
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