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Thermal: Schendel or SOS Pest Control, Kansas City? How to choose?
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KansasCityBugged
newbite
Joined: Jul '10
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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jul 15 2010 13:58:20
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I have recently discovered that a used couch we purchased brought bed bugs in to the house. They are everywhere and the best solution seems to be Thermal treatment for the whole house. I have had the two companies I found in Kansas City out to give estimates, and would like to hear any feedback about either company. SOS Pest Control, or Schendel of Kansas City. Neither one has a very good guarantee (14 days), so I am very concerned about spending so much money only to discover the problem wasn't solved (such as eggs deep in the house hatching and not noticing the tiny bugs in the 14 days)....
Is 14 days a standard length of guarantee for this sort of treatment?
They seem to use two different machines for the actual heat. I don't know the brands. Does any one have more info about what is the "best" heating machinery, or results with different systems?
One company claims to heat the house to a core temperature of 130 degrees for 3 hours. The other says 120 degrees for 3-5 hours...
Any help about how I can make a decision would be great! I did ask a lot of questions based on what I have read on this site, but I am pretty sure that one of the company's reps was a great "sales guy" and not 100% honest, so I am feeling unsure about trusting the responses I heard. Neither person who came out for the inspection was the actual tech who would be doing the job as well.
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baumannm
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Posted 2 years ago
Sat Nov 27 2010 18:14:09
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Hopefully I can help answer some questions coming from a different source. Im going to provide you with some sources from studies done by sources that are creditable. First is from thermapure which references a few studies in there articles(http://www.thermapure.com/bedbugs.php) which shows that all stages of bedbugs eggs, nymphs and adults are killed around the 114 degrees F mark.
The University of Kentucky states that a target temperature of a minimum 120 degrees F is the necessary temperature to kill all stages of bedbugs. (http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef636.asp)
The time period for the treatment 3-5 hours is to kill the eggs one part of the study from thermapure states,
"There is considerable documentation citing the temperature and time correlations necessary to kill bedbugs and their eggs. Several sources (Usinger 1966, Gulmahamad 2002, Quarles 2007) report that adults and nymphs die within 15 minutes at temperatures greater than 113ºF and 60 minutes to kill eggs. "
The time vary's because it is a result of what that company has found to be the most effective. There isn't really many guidelines out there, most company's are just now starting to go to seminars for bedbugs. I attended a seminar a couple months ago and the head speaker told us to look outside for barn swallow nest because they should be a mite and not a bedbug. That is how far behind a lot of companies are at the moment on bedbugs and treatments. Therefor it is very difficult to have every company treat bedbugs the same way.As fourth being concerned about the 14 days guarantee bedbugs can be treated in a household with a thermal treatment that day. The risk of having bedbugs again could possibly occur but the odds of them being in your house is not favorable. They usually have to be reintroduced similar to when u brought them home on used furniture, a friend coming over and sleeping on your couch, anything that was taken out of the unit before the treatment was it properly inspected and treated? There are numerous was to bring bedbugs into your house its just so hard to determine is this a new infestation or is this bedbug prior to the treatment? Trust me that is a big deal at every pest control company how do you guarantee your services when we don't know what happens after we leave.
I hope those two sights for references and a different point of view can help.
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kctarafied
newbite
Joined: Jan '11
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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Feb 18 2011 9:00:28
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Did you end up doing the thermal treatment? Has it worked?
I am thinking of doing the same treatment in my one-bedroom apartment, but hesitant about the cost and skeptical that the heat will penetrate all the walls before the bed bugs have time to escape into neighboring apartments.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Feb 18 2011 14:32:33
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kctarafied,
If you're thinking of going with heat/thermal, it's important to get a team with a lot of knowledge and experience.
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newbite
Joined: Jan '11
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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Feb 24 2011 16:18:54
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kctarafied - 6 days ago »
Did you end up doing the thermal treatment? Has it worked?
I am thinking of doing the same treatment in my one-bedroom apartment, but hesitant about the cost and skeptical that the heat will penetrate all the walls before the bed bugs have time to escape into neighboring apartments.Bedbugs will run from pesticides but are attracted to heat, as the room is heating up with Thermal remediation, the bedbugs will come out of their hiding place & go towards the heat. By the time they realize its getting too hot, it's too late (they do not move quickly) and they are already drying up from the high heat.
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kctarafied
newbite
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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Feb 25 2011 9:23:13
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Thank you for your response, bc bed bug expert! I think thermal might be the right way to go. I still haven't found any live bed bugs in my new apartment, but I did find some spotting on my sheets. http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/are-these-bed-bug-stains-on-my-sheets-what-else-could-they-be
I'm still trying to decide if these alone justify spending $1000 on a thermal treatment... -
kctarafied
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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16offline
Posted 2 years ago
Fri Feb 25 2011 9:59:41
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Thanks for your response, bc bedbug expert! I think thermal might be the right way to go. I haven't found any bed bugs since I moved to a new apartment, but I did find some spotting on my bed. I'm trying to decide if this alone is worth the price of a thermal treatment...
Are these bed bug stains on my sheets? What else could they be?
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newbite
Joined: Mar '11
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Posted 2 years ago
Wed Mar 23 2011 22:37:50
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There are other less expensive approaches to bed bug control. Using high concentrations of steam and the use of chemistry has been effective in some cases. I am a researcher and a Entomologist, expert in insects, and although using heat is effective, other options are available to take care of the bed bug epidemic.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Mar 24 2011 0:33:05
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Board Certified Entomologist - 1 hour ago »
There are other less expensive approaches to bed bug control. Using high concentrations of steam and the use of chemistry has been effective in some cases. I am a researcher and a Entomologist, expert in insects, and although using heat is effective, other options are available to take care of the bed bug epidemic.Board Certified Entomologist,
Since you are apparently also a Kansas City PCO (judging from the URL linked from your username) is this an attempt at advertising?
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Not an attempt just fyi. As I was reading thru all the comments no mention was made to the use of steam. There are situations where the entire home or apartment does not need to be treated with the thermal heat method. With a thourough inspection some situations can be controlled with the use of chemistry. In other situations the use of steam with the applications of chemistry is also an option. Then there is Heat. Just wanted to shed some light to the participants that there are other options out there that can be just as effective and not so expensive.
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buggyinsocal
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Joined: Jun '08
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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Mar 24 2011 10:31:04
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KansasCityBugged,
Done properly, heat treatment can be very effective. Most of the pest management professionals I've talked to who have experience with heat will tell you the same thing: treating with heat is as much art as science.
It's absolutely true that plenty of studies have shown that the temp at which bed bugs die is 114 degrees F. However, using heat to treat a structure means taking the temp up higher than that precisely because lots of our everyday stuff turns out to be good insulation against heat in addition to being our stuff: upholstered furniture, bedding materials, clothes, books--all of those (to say nothing of the structure itself) have to be heated to 114 degrees and kept there for a certain length of time.
At higher temps than 114 F, the bed bugs die faster.
What you're paying a professional for when you get heat treatment is the expertise of someone who ought to know how to move the heated air around so as to heat the whole structure at the right speed to kill the bed bugs effectively.
Done properly, heat treatment can be effective. For people who have concerns about their level of exposure to pesticides--either because they're sensitive to some chemicals, or because they are pregnant, or because they just want to lower exposure to pesticide, heat treatment (if done properly) can be a great option.
Heat treatment can also be a good option for people with a lot of stuff who live in small spaces; I know. I'm one of those people. I live in a small one bedroom apartment, and the kind of prep required for conventional pesticide treatment isn't really doable in my space.
Heat treatment, unlike conventional chemical treatment, can also be good for people who have trouble sleeping somewhere with the bugs. I have insomnia and did before I had bed bugs. Asking me to go to sleep every night for weeks knowing I was going to be bait for the bugs would have driven me into massive sleep deprivation very quickly.
So there are circumstances in which heat treatment can be a better option for a particular individual than chemical.
That said, chemical, when done properly, can also be highly effective. For a lot of people, it seems cheaper. Whether it's actually cheaper will depend, in part, on what your prep will look like.
Back when I had treatment, Packtite didn't exist. I would have had a lot of work clothes that I would have been expected to dry clean. Given dry cleaning rates where I live, plus the fact that I don't have a washer and dryer and have to do all my laundry at laudromats, all the costs in laundering, plus all the ziplocks, would quickly have made chemical just as expensive as heat.
None of us can likely tell you what treatment is best for you. And unfortunately, I don't recall a lot of reports from Kansas City, so I can't off the top of my head give you links to testimonials from people who've used specific PMPs in your city--either with chemical or heat.
Since many companies are worried about reinfestation, short warranties are often the norm. I had a fluke of a company that gave me a six month warranty post heat; I don't know why, but I've honestly never heard of another company with a warranty that long. Honestly, I suspect it's that I live in southern California (hence the user name) and they've been using heat here as a tool against drywood termites for a long time.
If you have't read the FAQs yet, I would definite check them out in general. In particular, this link to an FAQ on how to choose a good pest control professional is definitely worth looking at.
How much choice you have varies from city to city.
With heat in particular, I would pay particular attention to how many treatments the company has done, what their criteria for retreatment are, and what evidence they would need to retreat if the treatment fails. It can be tough talking to pest control professionals while you're in the middle of an infestation. Or, at least, for me it was really hard to be as rational as I usually am. Once I managed to talk to the professionals who ultimately did my treatment, while I still had concerns (because bed bugs make you paranoid like nothing else), I was at least convinced that they knew their stuff, which made it easier to eventually believe that the treatment would work, which it did.
That said, done improperly, heat can not only not solve your problem, it can damage things. My failure to unplug three electronic devices meant replacing about $800 worth of electronics. Done *really* improperly, there can be damage to the structure itself. You do want to make sure--esp. for the amount of money a single family home will cost--that you've done good research on the companies in question.
If there's no reason to shy away from chemicals, if you have your own washer and dryer, and/or if you can tolerate the idea of having to sleep in a home that still has the bugs while the chemicals work, you may be able to find a good PMP who'll do chemical and give you a longer warranty after treatment.
As with most services, it's a matter of prioritizing which costs and benefits (because every treatment has both) are most important to you and your situation.
Hopefully, something in there will be useful to you.
If I might ask, after you've had treatment and you're clear of bed bugs, if you could find the time to drop back by the boards and post your success story--even if it's a brief one, I'd be very appreciative of that. The more data we have from folks who've beaten the bugs, the more resources there are here for others to use years after the original poster solved his or her problem.
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