How Many Thermal Treatments Can a Home Take? « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

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How Many Thermal Treatments Can a Home Take?

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aballen

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Posted 4 years ago
Thu Dec 18 2008 21:34:27
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We had our Thermal the week before Thanksgiving. I was bitten thee nights later, and have been every five days or so with the exception of one 8 days period ( I was so encouraged only to be let down again). My question is how many times do we thermal treat, can the house take it, and should anything else be done in combination with the thermal?
BrooklynNurse

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Posted 4 years ago
Thu Dec 18 2008 22:17:13
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Oh no now you're scaring me with this thermal treatment. I'm getting my coop thermally treated on monday. I had high hopes for it, but then it is only 90% effective. I'm gonna chemically spray right after the thermal treatment with phantom and gentrol; plus i'm gonna dust my home with drione dust and DE and seal up cracks and crevices.
I dunno the answer to your question. Is this a home or apartment???
Are you sure they came back???
Nobugsonme

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 1:54:45
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aballen, did you use the same thermal provider as another forum participant who had a recent failure?
buggyinsocal

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 11:54:26
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BrooklynNurse,

Don't despair yet! I had thermal treatment back in June, and it worked the first time. I haven't seen any confirmable signs of bugs in my place since (I had a scare in August having developed bites that I'm 98% sure were bed bug bites, but there is no sign in my apartment, so the best guess is that I got bitten at a movie theater I didn't normally go to and haven't been to since). I would also ask your PCOs about the chemical sprays you plan to use after treatment--assuming that they are full service PCOs. (My thermal company was a company we'd used for ants before, so I was surprised that they also did thermal. Of course, as I've said before, I was lucky in that on the west coast a lot of PCOs have been using thermal for longer, since it's an alternative to Vikane for termite treatment). They may be able to give you some feedback about how to use them most effectively and how long after treatment you can put them down and have them be effective.

Nobugsonme's question is a good one. Many of the pros here who use thermal will tell you that the failures they had were early in their careers as thermal providers because it can take a while to figure out the process of getting the heat evenly distributed and avoiding a cold spot.

Aballen,
I'm so sorry to hear that your problem isn't resolved.
BakedBedBugs

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 12:21:33
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aballen,

Your home should be able to handle a large number of thermal treatments with no adverse affects. The only thing you will likely see is some cracking of drywall joints as the building materials expand and contract.

As buggyinsocal states try not to judge the "technology" by a couple of early failures. We are over 93% one treatment success with most of our failures being early as well a couple of recent ones where a technician took some shortcuts.

We have started applying DE in multiunit apartments to offer a measure of protection against neighbouring infestations or re-introduction. Beyond that you should not require anything else.

Brooklynnurse, does your co-op have concrete floors? If so, make sure you advise your thermal provider of this. That is one area that has been difficult for us in the past. All it takes is changing your fan and heater layout to solve it but you need to be aware of it inorder to ensure success.

As DougSummner said in an earlier thread "Heating an entire structure is an art" (or something close to that). It takes time and experience to refine your technique and process for each type of struture you encounter.

Tony Canevaro
aballen

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 22:49:11
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I live in a single home. And, yes, I did use the same company that had failure here with another bedbugger a few weeks ago. I think they got treated for a second time today. They are new, only doing it since 9-08, but very professional and want to do a good job. I do not think all of the house was heated all of the time, in fact I know one bedroom was not as I went to check on them when they were "heating it up" at 9 PM and then they were done one hour later. They are coming to my home again shortly after Christmas. We have not used any pesticide or DE along with it. Should I? I got scared about the poisons, but I have to get rid of the problem. We were using Phantom and Gentrol along with DE. We noticed a positive reaction to the poison combo, but we were not supposed to have to use it with therma. Please advise, especially PCOs, Baked Bugs and No Bugs.
BrooklynNurse

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 22:55:28
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Thank you Buggyinsocal for your inspiration and hope. I look forward to the thermal treatment, although my family says it's a fortune. But I'm tired of pesticides. They will just keep coming back. I will do a chemical treatment once the thermal treatment is completed.
BrooklynNurse

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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Dec 19 2008 22:58:45
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Bakedbedbugs I don't know if my floors are concrete. My floors are polished wood.
Nobugsonme

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Posted 4 years ago
Sat Dec 20 2008 3:40:06
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aballen,

I am not a pro and so can't give professional advice.

I would personally request a retreatment if I felt one had failed. This is an option for you, right?

I think this is preferably to applying anything yourself (which in general, I don't think is a good plan). The pros will tell you if you can or should supplement.
mckennagene

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Feb 24 2011 16:32:46
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I did 2 thermal treatments on my house within about 15 days. The house temperature got up to 150 degrees in some places.

I had a few issues:

1) they burned my hardwood floors by not properly protecting them. This was a large propane torch outside blasting heat in through tubes. They didn't properly insulate the hard wood floor at the entry point. Fortunately they are paying to fix it.

2) the paint on my door frames bubbled. It was probably the oldest paint in the house. It was already badly chipped and needed redoing, so I didn't mind, but all 5 of them now have bubbles. no where else did my paint bubble.

3) my celing dripped sap. Not, i have a non-conventional ceiling. my ceiling and roof are one in the same (no attic). If you live in California and know what an Eichler is, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. In a few places small amounts of what looks like pine sap dripped out and landed on my carpets, leaving a sap stain on them.

4) not sure if this is related but an electronic controller in my dishwasher broke about a week after the 2nd treatment. it was only a 5 year old dishwasher. could be coincidence.

the bigger issue is that it didn't work. i still have bed bugs. It definitely killed a bunch of the bugs. but at least a few survived. I would strongly recommend you combine heat with poison of some sort. Originally i was squeamish about poison (it sounds so bad right) but now I want to bring it on - bomb me back into the stone ages with poison, just get these bed bugs out of my house.
jrbtnyc

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Feb 24 2011 21:23:27
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mckennagene - 4 hours ago »
I would strongly recommend you combine heat with poison of some sort. Originally i was squeamish about poison (it sounds so bad right) but now I want to bring it on - bomb me back into the stone ages with poison, just get these bed bugs out of my house.

Um...do you realize what you're saying...some of the things those substances can do to you...you will FORGET ALL ABOUT bed bugs.
jrbtnyc

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Feb 24 2011 21:30:10
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And do you understand also: the bed bugs get resistant to the poisons but you and your loved ones and your pets don't. So you've sicced some god-awful affliction(s) on yourself and/or those you care about, and guess what, you still have bugs too.
Bug wary

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Feb 25 2011 0:08:07
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mckennagene

My city's official entomologist says that thermal shoud be combined with chemical pesticdes.