At what temperature do bed bugs die and will steam treatment help?

Both adult bugs and their larvae, called nymphs in the scientific community, do not tolerate significant temperature fluctuations. Both low temperatures and too high are destructive for them, and even minor deviations from the norm have a very negative effect on the reproduction of these insects. Next, we consider at what temperature the bugs die and how this weakness of the parasites can be successfully used in their breeding.

People have long used the method of freezing bedbugs in their houses, and carrying out soft furniture contaminated with parasites into the street in winter is one of the most well-known methods for inexpensive destruction of bedbugs in sofas, armchairs and beds.

Very effective also destruction of bedbugs by the so-called burning.This does not mean the use of an open flame in the room - we are talking about heating the air in an apartment or house to 55-60 ° C and maintaining it at this level for about 2-3 hours.

Often used from bedbugs and a steam generator, through which nests are processed at even higher temperatures: bugs die on contact with hot steam almost instantly.

However, the effectiveness of such methods is somewhat limited, and the technical implementation is quite complex, which does not allow temperature control methods to compete with the use of insecticides in terms of frequency of use. However, in some cases, only such methods can become, perhaps, the only salvation from bedbugs, so it is useful to get to know them more ...

 

Critical temperatures for bedbugs

Adult bugs and their larvae can withstand temperatures of about minus 15 - minus 17 ° С during the day, which makes them sufficiently resistant to moderate freezing of the room.

At temperatures below minus 20 ° C, bugs die within a few hours.

Bedbug eggs even more resistant to low temperatures.They can survive short-term cooling to minus 30 ° С, and at minus 7 ° С they die only after a month and a half, but at the same time their development stops completely. At + 50 ° C and high humidity, bugs eggs can remain viable throughout the day.

It is possible to freeze bugs only in those rooms that are not afraid of long chilling, and in regions where in winter the temperatures stay below -15 ° C for a long time. At the same time, freezing should be repeated at least twice: this is a guarantee that during the repeated procedure, bugs will die, which will be derived from the eggs that survived the first freezing.

The parasites are less resistant to high temperatures. For example, the temperature at + 45 ° C bugs stand for about half an hour, and at + 50 ° C die for several minutes.

It is interesting

At temperatures below + 10 ° C, the development of bedbug eggs stops, and the embryo falls into anabiosis. At temperatures below + 14 ° C female bugs stop laying eggs, and the larvae do not grow and do not shed. It is interesting that in nature in the conditions of caves, where bed bugs come from, in fact, moved to human housing, they normally develop and multiply at temperatures of about + 9 ° C.

 

Are hot steam bugs afraid?

Hot steam is even more detrimental for bedbugs than just high air temperatures. Under a stream of steam with a temperature of about 100 ° C, the bugs die instantly, but under steam with a temperature of about 40 ° C (more precisely, this is the so-called hot fog) can be without damage for a long time.

Bedbug eggs are as vulnerable to a hot pair as adult insects are. That is why steam is more effective against eggs than many insecticides - most insect repellents do not work on eggs, while hot steam just physically burns the eggs of the bugs, denaturing proteins, and developing embryos die.

Due to this hot steam can be used for self-control of parasites. Steaming from bugs is usually done using special steam cleaners - devices for cleaning surfaces with water vapor. The steam cleaner for bedbugs can be used by anyone capable of heating the steam jet to a temperature above 60 ° C.

On a note

Some steam cleaners work according to the vacuum principle - in them steam is formed under reduced pressure and lower temperature.Accordingly, if the steam generator does not heat the steam above 50 ° C, it makes no sense to use it from bedbugs - they simply will not die.

Do not use steam from a simple kettle against bedbugs. Not only is such a process extremely complicated, dangerous and inefficient, it can also lead to furniture damage. Therefore, even if we start fighting bedbugs with steam, it is worth using steam cleaners or steam generators.

 

We destroy bedbugs with a steam generator

Generally speaking, a steam cleaner or steam generator is unlikely to completely destroy the bugs in the room. At least because even with a steam jet it is impossible to get into some places where bugs can hide - to the joints of the wooden parts of the bed frame, for the baseboards, for the wallpaper. Therefore, the destruction of bedbugs with a steam cleaner can be carried out only where they are on open surfaces: on mattresses and beds, on the back of carpets hanging on the wall, under things.

To remove bedbugs steam cleaner (steam generator), it is necessary to adjust the temperature of the steam above 60 ° C, and wrap the nozzle with a cloth so that the steam jet is wide. The ferry should handle all places of possible habitat for bedbugs, which makes this method of struggle rather time-consuming.

As a rule, a steam cleaner for bed bugs will not help in one application, unless it allows to get rid of insects on the same mattress or on the same sofa. And best of all, he copes with insect accumulations in their nests, where, due to the high concentration of eggs and individuals of different ages, bugs die en masse with minimal time and effort.

But with regular processing of found clusters of parasites with the help of a steam generator, bugs, at least from most of them, can sometimes be disposed of within a few weeks. But in this case, with a high probability, only individuals will remain in the apartment, who will later be able to produce offspring.

 

Freezing bedbugs: fighting parasites in a popular way

In winter, bugs in most parts of our country can live only in human habitation. On the street in such conditions, they quickly die, having no chance of survival. Moreover, only in apartments and houses bed bugs constantly find a source of food, without which the bugs would also quickly die (although sometimes without food, bugs live up to 6 months or even more).

Freeze bugs in the room can only be where there is no water supply and heating system.For example, in garages, chicken houses, sheds, in summer houses, where temporary cooling will not lead to damage to pipes.

Unfortunately, freezing of premises from bedbugs in many cases is almost impossible. Even if you completely flush water from all plumbing systems, temperatures around minus 20 ° C can be detrimental to wallpaper and plaster, so freezing out bedbugs in an apartment or a private house can have more costly effects than calling professional desinsectors.

In other rooms for freezing it is enough to open windows and doors on a frosty day and leave them for the maximum possible period. With a frost of minus 20 ° C, most of the bugs will die on the same day.

In addition to this, whenever possible, sofas, armchairs, and mattresses are taken out into the street, in the thickness of which the temperature can fall slowly, and therefore, bugs die in them for a longer time.

 

Safety rules for thermal breeding of bugs

The main thing in the fight against bedbugs using high and low temperatures is to follow the safety regulations during operation:

• Do not send hot steam to yourself or another person.
• Do not steam surfaces and fabrics that may be damaged by high temperatures - varnished, wooden, covered with wallpaper.
• When working with steam with a temperature of more than 70 ° C, it should be avoided that it hits plastic surfaces, as they may be irreversibly deformed.
• Do not tune the steam generator to the so-called high humidity of steam - 20-30% will be quite enough, otherwise you can spoil the furniture being processed. With this humidity, the bugs die almost as quickly as when they increase it.
• Do not freeze rooms with existing heating and sewage systems.

Sometimes anti-bugs are used fan heaters (heat) - analogs of household duque. They allow you to increase for a few hours the temperature in the room to 60-65 ° C, and after this treatment all bugs die out. However, such powerful devices are rather cumbersome, expensive and difficult to access, and therefore this method is used only by very large companies that specialize in disinsection. The main advantage of such systems is that bugs die during their work, even without the directional processing of nests.

If you don’t have a desire to fight bugs on your own, you can always call special pest control services which, for reasonable money (from about 1,500 rubles for processing a one-room apartment), will burn or evaporate bugs in it, or (in most cases) will offer classical insecticide treatment. In any case, the removal of parasites by the hands of professionals will be safe and short.

 

What is important to know about bedbugs to successfully combat them

 

Useful video with an example of the use of a steam generator for processing linen and furniture from bedbugs