Bed Bug Heat Treatment Preparation Checklist

Bed bugs have made a massive comeback in the past few years, and thousands of people are suffering from this horrible pest.

Treating your home for bed bugs involves several steps. One crucial step that is often overlooked is preparation before treating your home with heat or chemicals. Preparation is key to getting rid of bed bugs as quickly and effectively as possible. Below is a list of things you should do before you begin treatment.

Clothes and Folded Fabrics

To help ensure that bed bugs are exterminated, layout your folded clothes and fabrics on tables or the floor. Then, set your dryer to high heat and turn it on for at least 30 minutes. Afterward, gather up and tie off all of the clothes in bags that you can leave outside or in a garage or shed.

Please remove the following heat-sensitive items from the property before a bed bug heat treatment

1. Remove all pressurized cans or aerosol such as asthma inhalers, bug spray, cleaning products, and deodorants.
2. Oil paintings, crayons, candles, wax figurines.
3. Any animals or plants.
4. Medication/Medicine.
5. Food-Chocolate, vegetables, fruits, and bread. (Heat sensitive items can be put in the fridge)
6. Beverages such as carbonated drinks and full bottles of wine.
7. Vinyl records, fake vinyl plants, and vinyl window blinds.
8. Stringed musical instruments.
9. Flammable materials such as fuel for food warmers, solvents, butane lighters.
10. ‘Crocs’ shoes.

There’s no need to remove these items since they are not damaged by heat: Electronics, VHS tapes, CDs/DVDs, books, and furniture.

General Home Instructions

• Before you begin treatment, please make sure your home is cleaner than it’s ever been. This means vacuuming thoroughly, cleaning up any stray powders, and discontinuing the use of any “bug bombs” or DIY sprays. These products can cause bed bugs to scatter, leading to infestations everywhere.
• If your mattress sits on the floor, please advise us to take special precautions to ensure bed bugs don’t find refuge in the walls or trim work. If you need to schedule a follow-up treatment, please make sure your bed is elevated and in a frame for three weeks before re-treating to allow any hidden bugs time to come out of hiding.
• To prepare for the heat treatment, we recommend that you leave all current bedding on the beds, deflate any air beds, and drain any water beds.
• Before we can heat treat your home for bed bugs, please clean wood-burning fireplaces of any chemically treated fire starter logs or burnt wood.
• Ensure that closets and other parts of your home are decluttered enough that air will flow through all the contents.
• Please make sure any monitored fire alarms or smoke detectors are disabled.

Returning After Bed Bug Heat Treatment

After having a heat treatment for your bed bugs, you need to be especially careful about what items you bring back into the treated space. Bed bugs can live for up to 18 months without feeding, so any item that has been outside of your unit during the treatment could potentially harbor bed bugs.

The temperature in the room will also be higher than when you left, so it’s a good idea to open the windows or turn on the air conditioning. This will help cool down the space after the treatment. It may take several hours or days to return to normal.

If you have questions about our heat treatment methods or want more information, don’t hesitate to give Bed Bug Heat Pros a call.