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ThermaPure Heat treatment went terribly, next step?
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BuggyinLA
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Joined: Nov '09
Posts: 15
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 1:16:08
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I live in a tiny studio apartment in LA and had a ThermaPure Heat treatment provided by Precision Environmental yesterday. After the inspection last week they seemed like a great company - they claimed they could treat our wood floors (where the bugs are likely hiding in HUGE cracks), walls, numerous bags of contaminated clothing from previous failed spray preparations, and our wood furniture. Their very confident salesman told us that our electronics would be safe, that the heat was a low 150 and slow - perfect to kill bugs without any damage to our belongings. Best of all, they claimed to have a 100% kill 30 day guarantee! So after meticulously combing our apartment for candles and aresol cans, and moving our bagged clothes back into the closets (per Precision's instructions), two guys from precision showed up to treat 3 different units in the building. They claimed that anything we cared about should be removed from the apartment- suddenly we had to decide if our laptops and antiques were safe. We tried to stay calm and left.
Twelve hours later we came home to find the company still there. Our apartment was "done" but they were still there working on one of the other "severely infested" units. We walked into an apartment that was largely untouched beyond the bed. Some walls were warm at random, but most everything was cold. Two candles that we had accidentally left upside-down were un-melted. The apartment was not rifled through at all - it was dirty, but it didn't seem like anyone had walked around checking internal temperatures.
Not more than 20 minutes after entering the apartment I saw a bug bed run across the bed. ON THE BED. Assuming that they did bother to point a heater at the bed, our best guess is that the floors and infested clothes were left untouched, so the bugs just crawled back after the heat treatment.
In my panic I squashed the bug, so although I was able to get the technician back into the apartment he didn't believe that there really had been a bedbug. He said that when they were heating there had not been any bugs running around, there was "no visible activity," and therefore they could do nothing. He suggested that we wash all of our clothes again (even though the inspector has explicitly stated that we would not need to wash any clothes. I caught another live bug about an hour later.
So, what's next? I have no idea really. Our management company has decided that Precision can't really solve the problem and that heat won't work, so although they are Precision's client (and I am not), they are uninterested in pushing Precision to do more. Although management is being accommodating their current plan is to have Precision come back in a few weeks and have us move to another building while treating all of our belongings in a PackTite.
I'm looking into the future and all I can see is lost work time, bugs, and living out of an empty apartment. Any advice on advocating that Precision live up to their original 100% claim would be greatly appreciated. We're certainly looking into vikane treatment, and any SoCal experiences regarding that would be great too. We spoke with Lloyd's in Anaheim and they seem like they seem sure that vikane will work, but Precision also claimed that they could solve all of our problems so I'm very skeptical. HELP!
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I just don't understand why your landlord would pay for a treatment with a 100% kill 30 day guarantee and then when the problem was not solved, would not insist they honor it. Thermal is expensive. I would pressure the landlord on this one first of all.
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nervousaboutbedbugs
junior member
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 69
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 11:41:58
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We had thermal treatment in September, twice actually. Thermal seems to be a great tool for killing bedbugs, but I've heard from quite a few people on this forum that required more than one treatment. I think there are a lot of new people getting into the field and it takes a while to learn the 'art' of heating a home or apartment. If I had it to do over, I would have gone Vikane.
When our thermal provider came back a second time, I was very careful to walk them through the house and show them all of the areas I was concerned about (bins of clothes, etc.). I also showed them the places where the bug dogs had alerted to. During treatment I came home several times to check in. Although it's hot, you should be allowed in to check temp sensors if you request it. I did that not so much because I didn't trust my provider but because I was curious as to how the process was going.
To be honest, I'm still not sure if the 2nd treatment was successful, but I'm more hopeful this time around. After the first treatment, my daughters were definitely still bitten - this time around there are still some bumps, but no huge welts.
One caution, though... on the 2nd treatment, I suspect the provider upped the temperature to insure success, and there was a bit more damage. We have a set of Hitchcock dining chairs and the glue seams between the wood seats changed colors, probably weakening the chairs. We also had a wax seal in one of our toilets start to leak after the treatment. In our minds, these were prices worth paying if the treatment actually worked.
Good luck - I hope your landlord gets them back in there for you!
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,129
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 12:14:56
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I had thermal treatment from Hydrex back in June 2008.
This is the second account I've heard from someone in the greater Los Angeles metro area of a thermal treatment that as described doesn't sound like it was done properly. (Unfortunately, the previous person who complained about thermal did not name his or her PCO, so I can't tell anyone if it's the same company or not.)
It is possible that the provider didn't think your unit was esp. infested.
Nobugs is absolutely right on this. For what the landlord likely shelled out for treatment, I would think the landlord would be the person concerned with making sure the company lives up to their guarantee.
The candles that weren't melted are a big red flag for me. I had several tapered candles in my kitchen that I missed that melted into giant pools of wax.
On the other hand, I did have a few votive candles in the bedroom that were in candle shaped plastic casings (a box of votive candles in a drawer I had forgotten about). Even though I know my bedroom got plenty hot, those candles didn't melt. So I wouldn't say the unmelted candles are a total giveaway that things weren't done properly. (The bug crawling across the bed, on the other hand, is).
In the event that there is a reheat, I can offer this about electronics:
unplug everything electronic. My TiVos both bit the dust because the PCO neglected to tell me to unplug them.
I personally wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my laptop in during treatment because it's a pretty expensive item and unlikely to have bugs in it in my case (I almost never use it on my bed at home, and at the time of my infestation, I hadn't ever had it in the bedroom.) In severe infestations, bed bugs will sometimes get inside electronics, but it's not as common as you might think.
If your laptop is older, less expensive, and/or something you could live with replacing, it would probably be okay inside during treatment IF you removed the battery before treatment.
Short of electronic items with thermal safety switches (I lost an old microwave because its touchpad couldn't sense my fingers any longer and a few old surge protectors--the best guess on both is that it was thermal sensitivity switches or devices that the thermal fried), electronic items that are totally and completely unplugged with batteries removed should be okay IF the thermal provider doesn't raise the temp too much.
Hope that helps.
Oh, and also: I don't think all items would be treated with a PackTite. A Packtite is only about the size of a roll aboard suit case.
They may put items in a container like a truck and heat the truck, but it would take much too long to packtite a whole apartment's worth of materials one load at a time.
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elias2000
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Joined: Nov '09
Posts: 1
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 12:38:56
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BuggyinLA: very sorry that something seemed to have gone wrong. It is extremely unusual and absolutely not acceptable. I'll make sure we look into it immediately.
As for electronics... smaller electronics that can be susceptible to heat are normally removed. If not, the provider should be covering them (and the larger electronics) with thermal blankets.
Alan Elias
ThermaPure -
watkinsnewan
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Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 329
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 13:03:32
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NOW That is service from a respectable company.....
Hope every thing works out.. -
BuggyinLA
newbite
Joined: Nov '09
Posts: 15
Posted 1 week ago
Sat Nov 7 2009 13:52:33
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Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone. I'm sure we'll be back to this thread soon with more questions for all of you; the combined experience of this forum is invaluable.
We've PMed Alan Elias (Elias2000) from ThermaPure with our contact information, so we'll see how that goes and report back to you all with the results!
NervousAboutBedBugs: What thermal provider did you go with, if you don't mind me asking? (You're welcome to PM us.)
BuggyInSoCal: Is there a specific PCO/specialist at Hydrex that you would recommend that we contact whom you liked? I can PM you or you can PM me to discuss further privately.
Elias2000: We PMed you with our contact information. Since we've reached out to the Precision Environmental/ThermaPure representative that did our initial inspection/sales pitch and haven't heard from him yet, we'd absolutely LOVE to speak with you or someone else directly about how to resolve this situation. Thank you for reaching out to us on the forums and we hope to speak with you soon.
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