Can Drying On High Heat Work
Good news even your standard washer/dryer should be able to take care of them. When dealing with an infestation as far as machine washable places go, bed bugs can reside on your curtains as well as in your blankets sheets, you might want to wash any removable furniture covers after spraying treatment.
Most washers/dryers on the highest heat setting are enough to kill bed bugs and their eggs. Its common for pest control operators in North America to require customers to launder all their clothing to kill bed bugs. While people are often told to wash on hot and dry on hot, a hot dryer alone is sufficient for doing the bed bug laundry.
A hot dryer apparently runs at about 180 F. I doubt this temperature is achieved after five minutes, though. Can five minutes on a temperature somewhere below 194 F be enough, when companies providing thermal treatments do so at a core temperature of 140 F for four hours?
A sustained temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit will kill all stages of the bed bug’s life cycle.
Since some believe washing and drying and storing clothing properly can make such a difference to bed bug treatment, I emphasized that we want to be sure were doing it right. It would be such a blessing for people to only have to dry things on hot for five minutes.
At this point the dryer would have to be run for at least 3 hours. It would save not only time, but lots of clothing items simply can’t handle washing on hot and drying for an hour on hot. But I have done a regular cycle with hot water in the washer and run the dryer on the highest setting.
Personally, through habit I always recommend drying for over an hour. I always say, dry on hot till its bone dry, then add 20 minutes. That habit has worked for me afters years of working in the pest control industry and with bed bugs and my home, Thank God, has never been infested.
I might just have been lucky (No).
This is not by luck but, by taking precautions. It’s bothersome to take those extra steps but, those steps can help us avoid an infestation.
All this running the washer and dryer on the hottest setting is all fine for getting rid of bed bugs on your cloth. However, you need to treat the entire apartment/house in order to actually get rid of an infestation. Just washing your clothes and linens is not enough to get rid of them because they don’t normally live on your clothes anyway. We need to eradicate the problem at it’s source.
Fabric Softer Sheets
Another thing that is said on the internet and it is false is, Can fabric softener sheets kill bed bugs? Even though I’d be out of a job, I wish they did.
How great would that be?
Someone spread the word on the internet that they worked. Unfortunately this is one of the many bed bug myths out there, and the truth is that they just do not kill bed bugs. There is no scientific evidence the dryer sheets repel or even kill bed bugs.
Hair Dryers
Yes, it is effective, if the hair dryer is exposed to bed bugs for about an hour at 113 degrees. The heat produced by a hot hair dryer is sufficient to kill bed bugs. It can generate up to 140 degrees of heat. This temperature is capable of burning human skin the moment it is exposed to it.
Use a hair dryer for small areas to concentrate the effects on bed bugs. Once you have completely eradicated the infestation, there is a reduced chance of invasion of bed bugs. It is a well-known fact that it is very hard to kill bed bugs.
Things like borax or a hair dryer cannot solve the problem.One cannot completely eradicate the bed bug infestation with a hot hair dryer. It can only prevent them for a short period of time and only after a long exposure.
It is not the most recommended way of killing bed bugs. If you have other options then go for them instead of a hair dryer. This is only a temporary solution to the bigger problem.
Conclusion
The good news if you’re trying to get bed bugs out of your clothes: Washing your clothes in hot water will probably kill them, and spinning your clothes in a hot dryer will certainly kill them.
In fact, just stuffing your bug infested clothes in a trash bag, sealing it and putting it out in the sun on a hot day will kill any critters inside.
We just have to make sure that our cloth are the only thing that is infested and not our entire house. Learn how to do a home inspection of bed bugs and it will save you a lot of headaches and for sure a lot of money.
Thanks For Reading,
BedBugKillerAuthority
I read your Blog and found a nice and very informative article. I will share this blog with my friends.
Hopefully, you continue to write like this article.
Thanks
Boot Dryer Reviews
Thanks for the comment and you are welcome. I am just trying to pass on what I have learned in this business. Bed Bugs are frightening when you have them in your home. We have to keep a cool head and go through the steps to eradicate them.
I will definitely keep writing helpful articles about my knowledge in the business and continue to help people with their problem and save them some money at the same time.
Thanks for your time,
Carlos
BedBugKillerAuthority