A case study of Heat Treatment for Bed Bugs at a property in London, UK
This is a case study of Bed Bug Heat Treatment which we did at a property in London.
We were contacted by a lady in London who had experienced some uncomfortable bites during the night and was worried that she might have bed bugs. She had removed her bed covers and couldn’t see any signs of bed bugs so contacted pest control.
We explained how to check for bed bugs and what signs to look for such as blood spots on bed covers and advised her to wash her bed covers at 60 degrees and then call us back in a few days if the bites continued.
Sure enough, a few days later she called and the bites were getting worse and she had started noticing some small red spots on her bed sheets.
The survey to find signs of bed bugs
We visited the house in London and upon closer inspection for bed bugs we found signs of eggs in her bed slats and bed bug skins which had been shed. We do not always visit a property as the signs of bed bugs are usually very clear and we can identify them from your description over the phone or from a few photos which you can send us via WhatsApp or through our website contact page.
Our advice was to immediately remove the infestation with heat treatment. Bed bugs can be persistent pests and difficult to completely eradicate. Although some pest controllers may recommend pesticides, bed bugs have developed to become resistant to their active ingredients and many no longer effective completely removing the infestation.
This was a small 2-bedroom house and our advice was to treat the whole house and not just the area showing signs of an infestation. This is because bed bugs can travel between rooms and can easily hide in sofas and carpets as well as cracks in skirting boards. They can also travel on humans or pets meaning they could have spread anywhere.
We arranged to return a few days later and left the customer a bed bug heat treatment preparation checklist to make sure her property was ready on the day of treatment.
The day of bed bug heat treatment
On the day of treatment, we arrived at 8am in our unmarked van. The property had been prepared and we checked that all items were moved away from walls of the room to allow the heat to circulate. We also checked the items that could not be heated and treated these with insecticide before removing them from the property.
Fortunately, the customer had read our checklist and turned up her heating a few hours before we arrived. This meant that the house was already beginning to get warm before we started the heat treatment.
We set up our large diesel bed bug heater at the front of the property and ran the pipe up into the main bedroom where we had identified the infestation.
We also ran the pipes into the other rooms and placed our fans into the rooms to circulate the heat.
Once the heater was running, we closed all windows and doors and within an hour the property was up to 141 degrees Fahrenheit. We turned on the fans to agitate the air and circulate the heat.
At this point the heater keeps working to maintain the temperature and we use our thermal heat sensors to check for cold spots within each room. We move smaller items around to ensure the bed bugs do not have anywhere to hide.
We continue to monitor the temperature of each room for the next 4 hours, continually checking for cold spots and moving items where necessary.
During this time we start to notice dead bed bugs lying on the floor around the base of the bed and in the corners of the main bedroom.
There are also signs of eggs and larvae on the bed slats which we can see under our microscope.
We continue to heat the property for another hour to ensure that every bed bug, egg and larvae is killed.
Treatment aftercare
Once the treatment was complete, we turned off our heat machine, removed our fans and began to clear up.
At this point the house was still very warm, so we opened some windows to allow it to cool down.
On returning to the property the customer was shocked at how many dead bed bugs were on her floor and under the bed.
Once complete, the heat treatment carries a 6-month guarantee, so if any signs of bed bugs are noticed we will return to re-treat the property.
Our heat treatment guarantee
We are so confident in our service that we offer a 6 month guarantee with any bed bug heat treatment undertaken.
If you think you might have bed bugs, please visit our bed bug advice page or contact us to arrange a telephone consultation or a free no obligation quote.
