What leaks out or melts during heat treatment? Lotion? Batteries? Contact paper?

Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Bed Bug Treatment

What leaks out or melts during heat treatment? Lotion? Batteries? Contact paper?

(9 posts)

Tags:

futureBBmom

junior member
Joined: May '11
Posts: 104
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Sun Jun 26 2011 22:06:46
#

Login to Send PM

If this stuff is going to leak or melt I'd rather just throw it out. I think the mess from that isn't worth it.

These are the things I've run across so far that I'm unsure of.

batteries
contact paper
tape (scotch, duck, masking)
shampoo bottles or tubes
lotion bottles or tubes
insulation strips with that sticky stuff on the side
tubes of caulking

Thank you so much!

ps
Ok I know this sounds dumb, but when it says flammable it means do not get near flame right? I have these individually wrapped lens cleaner clothes that say flammable. Heat treatment won't make that go poof right? Just direct flame?
jrbtnyc

Member
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 1,001
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Sun Jun 26 2011 23:20:16
#

Login to Send PM

With appreciation to buggyinsocal see...

http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/list-of-do-not-heat-items#post-111380

* * * *

[Hey post #500 (brags).]
futureBBmom

junior member
Joined: May '11
Posts: 104
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Mon Jun 27 2011 1:08:22
#

Login to Send PM

Thank you! That helps a little bit.
jrbtnyc

Member
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 1,001
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Wed Feb 15 2012 13:52:26
#

Login to Send PM

jrbtnyc - 7 months ago »
...
* * * *
[Hey post #500 (brags).]

[Hey post #1,000 (brags).]
[Can't resist those metrics and stats. ]
[But the best part is, beating Paul Bello to 1,000!!! ]
cilecto

oldtimer
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 3,869
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Wed Feb 15 2012 14:03:31
#

Login to Send PM

Is hitting 500, or 1000 posts a good thing?
buggyinsocal

oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 2,440
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Thu Feb 16 2012 14:11:28
#

Login to Send PM

My brief recollections:

I store my batteries in the fridge anyway. As a result, I wasn't worried about them.

PCOs will tell you to remove batteries from any electronic device that is staying in the home during treatment. ALL electronic devices that remain in the home ABSOLUTELY MUST BE DISCONNECTED FROM ALL POWER SOURCES during treatment. Anything with a plug should be unplugged since many electronic devices today draw power to run in the background even when they aren't "on." Anything with a battery or batteries must have those batteries removed. If your electronic device has batteries that can't be removed, then that device needs to be removed during treatment. This includes a lot of Apple products like the unibody MacBook Pros, iPads, iPods, etc.

I didn't have any contact paper except on my shelves; the stuff on the shelves came through fine.

Tape: I'd toss the tape and get new stuff post treatment. I can't remember what happened to my Scotch tape, but I can tell you that the masking tape dried out faster than normal, and the duct tape was a stuck-to-itself mess. Tape is cheap anyway.

I didn't have any expensive lotion that I cared about, so I think I just pitched what was there and bought new stuff. (I think that was based on my experience with liquid fabric softener, not during treatment, but, well, so Cal is warm during the summer. I do laundry at a friend's house, so the liquid fabric softener lives in their non-climate controlled garage, and my LFS gets clumpy and thickens if I don't use it fast enough. I was afraid lotion would do the same.)

I did have several pump top bottles (big ones) of expensive hair product (Mixed Chicks if you must know), and the conditioner was fine, but one of them--the shampoo I think (which I don't use any longer) did this weird thing where it started coming out of the pump top.I guess as it expanded with the heat, anything that was in the tube just expanded out of the top of the pump. It dripped a little.

I didn't have insulation or caulking, so I can't speak to those.
goingcrazywithbb

newbite
Joined: Feb '12
Posts: 7
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Thu Feb 16 2012 18:58:40
#

Login to Send PM

buggyinsocal - did the heat treatment work????
buggyinsocal

oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 2,440
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Fri Feb 17 2012 13:30:14
#

Login to Send PM

did the heat treatment work?

Yes.

The PCO I went with was a PCO that we had used for an ant problem before. We originally found them because a friend who was a homeowner a few towns over had used them for decades for pest control at her house.

In addition, in southern California, heat treatment has been used as an alternative to Vikane for dry wood termites for a long time, so my PCO was very experienced with thermal in general.

As with all other treatments, whether a particular type of treatment works is dependent on the quality of your PCO.

The process of choosing your PCO is really the most important factor in success, not the kind of treatment.

My PCO used heat to treat my entire 1 bedroom apartment, even though they were pretty sure the bugs were only in the bedroom. I live in a multi-unit building, but all other units were thoroughly inspected by the same PCO. I had the treatment the Thursday before Pride weekend. I had to be out of town that weekend in San Francisco for a wedding in the family; when I came home, my apartment was 100% free of live bugs and eggs. (I did find a few dead ones that I had to clean up, but there weren't nearly as many as I thought there would be.)

I did have one bed bug scare the following fall; I'm pretty sure that in retrospect I was bitten by bed bugs at a movie theater.

I don't know why, but my PCO gave me a 6 month warranty on the work, so the fall scare was still during the warranty period. I called the PCO, and the company sent out an inspector. He did a thorough inspection and found nothing, and I've been bed bug free ever since.
goingcrazywithbb

newbite
Joined: Feb '12
Posts: 7
offline

Posted 1 year ago
Fri Feb 17 2012 14:54:42
#

Login to Send PM

Thanks for replying. I'm so nervous it's not going to work. We have a 5 bedroom house and it's a minimum of $3500. Thanks for the reassurance and I'm jealous you are bed bug free!!