How to Choose and Use the Best Bed Bug Heaters

There aren’t many things that can give us the heebie-jeebies more than bed bugs. Blood-sucking insects in general are gross, but these little insects can make getting a good night of sleep more difficult than it ever should be. They bite, and they’re virtually impossible to banish.

But don’t give up hope! You may not have heard of a bed bug heater, but our Pros know that using one is a super effective way to kill bed bugs and their eggs and make sure they don’t ever come back. Heaters are useful if you want to DIY bed bug removal, hire a pro, or buy one to use in your own cleaning company.

What is a Bed Bug Heater?

When people have a problem with pests, whether they’re insects or rodents, they may browse the shelves of their local hardware store looking for either a pesticide spray or a trap. While sprays and traps can be effective with other pests, bed bugs are a horse of a different color, so to speak. They’re hardy and resistant, and that’s why using high heat to get rid of them is what we recommend. It’ll kill bed bugs at every life stage, from eggs to nymphs to adult bugs.

Before you head out to research and buy a bed bug heater, you should know that you’ve got options available, including two types of heat and two strengths. For example:

• Propane heaters
• Electric heaters
• Residential models
• Commercial models

Most DIYers should opt for a good quality, electric, residential heater, since these are the easiest to use and have enough power to handle most infestations.

How Does Heat Treatment for Bed Bugs Work?

Bed bugs are some of the most irritatingly resilient pests around. They’re super tough to kill and eradicate. That’s why a lot of homeowners bite the bullet and hire a professional exterminator after trying every possible DIY method first.

The key to killing bed bugs with heat is making sure that the treated area gets hot enough to kill them. A room has to be really hot to take care of things. These are some of the basic steps that illustrate how heat treatment should work.

Step 1: Bed bug heaters destroy bugs, eggs, and nymphs by raising the temperature in a room to between 120 and 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: Bugs must be exposed to heat for a long enough time to kill them. Pro bed bug heat treatments may take up to a full day depending on the extent of the problem.

Step 3: Heaters kill bugs at every stage of their lives, meaning that they’ll kill adult bugs, nymphs (the word for newly hatched bed bugs), and eggs, as well.

After a heat treatment, you’ll want to launder everything and you may want to use a vacuum to get rid of dead bugs, nymphs, and eggs.

How to Prep a Room for Bed Bug Heat Treatment

Before you pay a professional or spend money on a home bed bug heater, run through these steps to verify the problem and get your room ready for treatment.

Step 1: Look for evidence of a bed bug infestation. Some of the signs include bites, blood on your mattresses or bedclothes, feces on infested areas, pale yellow nymph skins, and eggshells.

Step 2: Rule out look-alike bugs. Unfortunately, bed bugs don’t have much in the way of identifying features and there are other insects that look a lot like bed bugs.

• Bat bugs
• Fleas
• Spider beetles
• Ticks

Step 3: Next is figuring out the extent of the problem. In a heavily-infested home or room, bed bugs aren’t only in the bed. They may hide out in other furniture, such as couches and chairs, under loose wallpaper, and even in electrical outlets. It’s really important to search every possible hiding place to make sure your treatment is thorough.

Step 4: Make sure that hot air can circulate throughout the room that you’ll be treating. That may mean moving furniture 4-6 inches away from walls and bagging any loose items. Heat may not disperse evenly if things are in piles. Placing them in trash bags will allow the treatment to work and allow you to move possibly-infested items into the laundry room without spreading bed bugs.

Step 5: Go around the room and unplug all appliances. Your heater’s going to use a lot of power, and you don’t want to risk blowing a fuse.

Step 6: High heat can damage house plants and cause distress to your pets, so make sure they’re not in the room you’re going to treat. Our Pros also warn that high heat can damage inanimate objects too, so move aerosol cans, plastic items, and so on.

We don’t suggest using any type of spray or chemical treatment. The heat alone should be enough to destroy bed bugs and a chemical spray may cause bed bugs to flee into another room – and that’s the last thing you want to happen.

Following these steps will improve the odds that your heat treatment will successfully kill all bed bugs in the treated area.

How to Use a Bed Bug Heater

After prepping the area to be heat treated, here are the steps you’ll use to eliminate nasty bed bugs from your house.

Step 1: With a home heater, you’ll want to seal off the room to be treated, since most home heaters can’t treat an entire house. Use fans to circulate the air. In some cases – more on this below – you may need to move the heater and fans to make sure you get everything.

Step 2: Run the bed bug heater for two to 24 hours.

Step 3: Be mindful that cement and concrete absorb heat, so if the room you’re treating has a concrete floor, you may need to move fans to redistribute heat and be sure that all bugs are hit with high heat.

Step 4: Buy bed bug monitors, which serve as an early detection system. They’re treated with an aroma that bed bugs are attracted to. Putting them near the legs of your bed and around any other area you treated will help you verify that the treatment has (or hasn’t) worked.

Step 5: Run any clothing or bedding from the infected areas through the washing machine with hot water, and dry them on the highest heat setting.

Check out this video to see the whole process.

Pros and Cons of Using a Bed Bug Heater

Before you spend any of your money on a new bed bug heater, here are some important pros and cons to think about.

Tips to Choose a Bed Bug Heater

Deciding to buy a bed bug heater is one thing. Choosing the best one – one that will give you the best odds of eradicating the problem – is another. Here are our best tips to help you while shopping and comparing heaters.

• Before researching heaters, calculate the area of the space to be treated.
• Use this online BTU calculator to determine how many BTUs will be required to get rid of your bed bug infestation.
• Check your electrical outlets for voltage. Any heater you consider will have specs that will help you determine if it’s right for your home.
• Look for bed bug heaters with a metal casing and not a plastic one. Plastic is a potential fire hazard due to the high temperatures required to kill bed bugs.
• Choose a heater with a resistor instead of coils. Resistors produce steady heat and may require fewer fans than one with coils.
• We suggest buying a heater with a two to three year warranty.

Remember that a less expensive heater is probably cheap for a reason: it’s not very effective. You may need to pay a little more for a heater to get the no-bed-bug result you’re looking for.

FAQ About Bed Bug Heaters

Conclusion

It’s gross to have bed bugs, but it feels good to know there are things you can do to get rid of them without paying an arm and a leg for an exterminator. For a fraction of the cost, and with just a little preparation, you can do the job yourself.

Use these tips from our Pro cleaners to properly identify a bed bug infestation, prepare for treatment, and eradicate bed bugs from your bedrooms and other areas of your home. Our guide can help you find the best bed bug heater for your needs and send your (or your client’s) uninvited guests to the great beyond.