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Odd(non washable) items
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mhill0425
newbite
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 10offline
Posted 4 years ago
Fri Aug 22 2008 23:38:31
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I have 2 cats. I have a place to put them for the two days when the PCO comes(my parents) that i need to, but how can I make sure that my cats don't take any friends with them, or more importantly bring any friends back lol
Also,
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I have a few furs, and the process of cleaning furs doesn't really include heat, or obscene cold temperatures, so could i put them in say, my car in the hot sun, to kill any bugs?I've got a few other things that are just not regular items, i have a dress form(mannequin), a bunch of non washable fabric, and i need some ideas.
I heard that a hot car would work, but i want to know for sure(i've got a very small car, so I don't want to fill it up with a bunch of stuff if i don't have to, i mean i still have to drive it lol)
Thanks!
Matt
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 2,440offline
Posted 4 years ago
Sat Aug 23 2008 11:06:02
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Using a hot car is always a risky at best proposition. The thing is, for heat to kill bed bugs, the temperature at the core of any item needs to be 140 degrees for four hours.
Furs, by definition, are very good at insulating. I would think that trying to get them to 140 degrees in a sunny car in every nook and cranny of the fur would be really, really hard.
If you can live without them for a season or two, I would put them in sealed plastic bags in storage for 18 months. Or talk to a furrier about how to treat them.
The other problem with using a car to heat treat is that you run the risk of infecting it. I only used my car to heat up items that had already been in it, and I only treated an item or two at a time--empty suitcases and other travel bags. Each one was wrapped in a black garbage bag and was empty, and I only did it on really hot days when I was sure I could sit the car in the sun and let the whole thing heat up to 140 degrees for enough hours. My car is very old and the weather stripping around most windows is, shall we say, not as effective as it used to be, so I'm much more confident that between that and the car's design (it's compact and a hatchback, so I'm not worried about the "trunk" staying cool since I can simply remove a cover panel and have the whole "trunk" be exposed to bright sunlight and easily heat up too) allow all of it to get up to the required temps. I used a meat thermometer inside the car that I could see from the outside to make sure it got up to and stayed at the temp it needed.
I also live in So Cal, where we routinely have very hot, very sunny, very dry days. If I ever get really worried, I can drive out to the desert, where air temps routinely reach 120 in the summer and leave it in the sun there for a few hours.
I'm not sure that even in the hottest places on the east coast, that's an option. While it often hits 100 degrees in the summer back east, it doesn't usually hit 120, and the humidity is almost always much higher there. (I know; I lived back east for about 20 years. I was totally floored the first time I saw a weather report on a hot day here and the humidity was in the teens. One time, it even dropped below 10% and I about died from shock.)
As for my cat, I took her in a carrier devoid of blankets or towels to a groomer for a bath, and then the carrier got scrubbed out and inspected before she came back into the apartment. I also advantaged her for good measure. I don't think anyone knows whether the chemical in it works on bed bugs, but it can't hurt, and it also helps assure the PCO that it isn't fleas.
You also might see if there's a place that has a Vikane chamber. It sounds like all those items, except the cat obviously, could be treated at once in a Vikane chamber.
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mhill0425
newbite
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 10offline
Posted 4 years ago
Sat Aug 23 2008 18:09:58
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hmmm.. well heat might be an issue in the car, how cold does it have to get?
i can always seal some stuff up now and put it in the car when it gets into the middle of winter, haha..
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 2,440offline
Posted 4 years ago
Sat Aug 23 2008 18:33:17
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Cold is a much less reliable killer than heat, and with cold, you have the same problem that you're going to have with heat with the furs. After all, there's a reason people wear fur in cold weather--because it insulates so effectively.
Search the FAQs for the article on the life cycle of bed bugs in various stages of development at different ages. Heat has a really powerful effect on them. In order for it to get cold enough to kill the bugs, you're talking about the kind of cold only found in sub-zero freezer units, not the kind of cold it gets to be in the Northeast even in January.
The bottom line is that bed bugs are not a pest you can self-treat. You need to call in professionals and see what they have to say about your particular situation.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 13,714offline
Posted 4 years ago
Mon Aug 25 2008 0:27:15
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This FAQ gives factual information about "leaving stuff in the car" as well as dryers and freezing:
http://bedbugger.com/2007/05/18/dryer/Here's more on freezing:
http://bedbugger.com/2007/08/04/faq-leaving-stuff-out-to-freeze-walk-in-freezers-etc-how-cold-and-how-long/(Sorry that info is split, it's one of the FAQs that needs re-working.)
Commodity fumigation (gassing your stuff in a truck with Vikane), or fumigating your home with your stuff in it, are two possibilities.
If individual valuables are of concern, anoxic fumigation might be a pricey but delicate option (here are two threads with a lead on this):
http://bedbugger.com/forum/tags/anoxic-fumigationAnd DDVP (vapona) strips in a sealed garbage bag is cheap and might also do the trick. Start your research on this here (note: this is controversial and could be unsafe if done improperly--read every thread linked from this tag and do your research):
http://bedbugger.com/forum/tags/ddvp
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