Are bedbugs afraid of hot steam?

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

Bed bug eggs are just as vulnerable to hot steam as adult insects. That is why steam is more effective against eggs than many insecticides - most insect repellents have little effect on eggs, while hot steam simply physically burns bed bug eggs, denaturing proteins, and the developing embryos die.

On a note

Some steam cleaners operate on vacuum principle- in them, steam is formed at a reduced pressure and a lower temperature. Accordingly, if the steam generator does not heat the steam above 50 ° C, it is pointless to use it from bedbugs - they simply will not die.

Should not be used against bedbugs in pairs from simple teapot... Not only is such a process extremely difficult, dangerous and ineffective, it can also lead to damage to furniture. Therefore, if you really start the fight against 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 eradicate bed bugs in a room. If only because even a jet of steam cannot get into some places where - into the joints wooden parts the frame of the bed, for the baseboards, for the wallpaper. Therefore, the destruction of bedbugs with a steam cleaner can only be carried out where they are on open surfaces: on mattresses and beds, on the back of carpets hanging on the wall, under things.

Freezing bedbugs in a room is possible only where there is no water supply and heating system. For example, in garages, chicken coops, sheds, summer cottages, where temporary cooling will not damage the pipes.

Unfortunately, in many cases it is almost impossible to freeze living quarters from bedbugs. Even if you completely drain water from all plumbing systems, temperatures around minus 20 ° C can be detrimental to wallpaper and plaster, so freezing bed bugs in an apartment or private house can have more costly consequences than calling professional exterminators.

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

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

Safety rules for temperature removal of bedbugs

The main thing when fighting bed bugs using high and low temperatures is to follow safety rules during work:

Sometimes fan heaters (heat generators) are used against bedbugs - analogs of household ducks. They allow you to increase the room temperature for several hours to 60-65 ° C, and after such treatment, all bugs die out. However, such powerful devices are rather bulky, expensive and difficult to access, and therefore this way used only very large companies specializing in pest control. The main advantage of such systems is that the bugs die during their operation, even without targeted treatment of the nests.

The most comfortable temperatures for bedbugs are in the range of 20-30 degrees above zero, and this unites them with a person. At the same time, they are able to survive in the range from -30˚C to + 50˚C. Such a wide range is explained by the mechanisms of biological protection of insects from the action of critical temperatures.

So, for example, when the temperature falls below + 10˚C, the bugs sharply reduce their vital activity, triggering their process of falling into a kind of suspended animation. In this state, bloodsuckers are able to withstand frosts and go without food for up to 12 months.

Another protective function is performed by the so-called heat shock proteins, which belong to the class of chaperones. They prevent and repair protein damage caused by extreme temperatures environment as well as other forms of stress. As their name suggests, heat shock proteins were initially associated with the body's response to overheating, but later it turned out that bedbugs also use their protective properties sub-zero temperature and with dehydration.

But, of course, the resources for resistance to thermal stress in insects are not unlimited. Interestingly, bedbugs die at extreme temperatures, both high and low, for the same physiological reason - denaturation of body proteins. Their structure is destroyed, and proteins lose their properties necessary for the life of the insect.

Remember how the structure of egg white changes after heat treatment:

When bedbugs die at deadly temperatures, something similar happens in their bodies.

At what temperature of heating do bed bug larvae and adults die?

This experiment helps to determine at what temperature bugs die when washing clothes and bed linen. In fact, 50 degrees is a critical temperature for both adults and larvae. To make sure there is no doubt, we recommend our readers to wash their clothes at + 60˚C.

In addition to washing, there are other ways to heat treat small personal items, any furniture, and even a room. For example, if the weather is hot outside, then the contents of bedside tables, shelves and cabinets can be folded into black plastic bags and taken out in the sun for the whole day.

For heat treatment upholstered furniture steamers or steam generators will do. If there are no such devices, you can use a kettle with a narrow spout to spill boiling water on the seams and folds in the upholstery. Crevices in baseboards, wallpaper, under windowsills, as well as wall hangings and other potential hiding places for bedbugs in the room can be carefully worked out with a hot hair dryer (hairdressing or construction).

When carrying out such events, it is important to understand that bedbugs die only through direct contact with a deadly temperature. If they hide in deep places, out of reach for sufficient heating, then they will survive.

IN THE USA special services provide the service of complete heat treatment of the living space using bulky heating equipment that is brought in by truck. According to bedbugs.org, this procedure costs the customer an average of $ 1,200.

How much can bed bugs withstand low temperatures?

How they react to the cold and what extremely low temperatures the bugs withstand have been investigated by various scientists. While there is still a need for further study of this issue, some important data are already available to us.

It can be said with certainty that the action mild temperatures from -5 to +10 degrees for bedbugs is practically not dangerous. In one of the experiments, the death of insects at -5˚C occurred only after three weeks of constant exposure, and some of them survived. At 0˚C, the bugs did not die at all. A temperature of -10˚C killed the bloodsuckers in two weeks.

Table "Deadly temperatures for bedbugs"

If you have a serviceable carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, then they can also process furniture, the outlet gas temperature is below -70 degrees. In case of a direct hit, the bugs will die immediately. Some services use liquid nitrogen equipment that generates temperatures of -196˚C.

One of oldest ways the fight against bed bugs is the so-called freezing. This method has been used in cities and villages for centuries and is extremely reliable. In this article, we will explain what the advantages and disadvantages of this method are.

Mechanism of action

As you know, all insects are cold-blooded creatures. Their body temperature is unstable and depends on the environment. Cold-bloodedness provides insects with a slow metabolism, so that they can go without food for a long time.

Freezing

If you decide to use freezing methods, then first of all you need to wait for the right weather. As soon as the thermometer reads below -15, you can start pest control.

First of all, you need to take all the furniture out of the house, especially the one on which you and your household sleepers. In the house itself, you need to open all the windows, and, if possible, the doors, so that the room is properly frozen. 2-3 days after the start of pest control, you can shake out dead insects from the furniture and bring it back. At the right temperature, the bedbug freezing method kills 100% of the insects and their offspring.

Advantages

In severe frost bed bugs die with a guaranteed result, which even the most effective and expensive insecticide will not give. In addition, freezing does not require money - for three months a year you are provided with absolutely free frost. This is where the advantages of the method end and the disadvantages begin.

disadvantages

The first and foremost disadvantage of freezing is the weather. Old grandparents often complain that winters are not what they used to be - temperatures below -20 are quite rare and often occur only two or three days a year. V middle lane Of Russia average temperature in winter it is -8-12 degrees. Of course, you can freeze bed bugs even at this temperature, but few people can leave home for several weeks.

However, not everyone can live outside the home for two or three days. At the time of freezing, you will have to ask yourself to visit relatives or friends, move to a dacha, live in a hotel or rented apartment... Since not everyone has such opportunities, this greatly limits the application of this method.

Alas, at low temperatures, not only bed bugs freeze, but also water in household communications. Even in a private house, the use of freezing is associated with certain troubles - you need to drain the water from all heating radiators and drain the drain. V apartment building this is not always possible, especially in old houses. And if in some cases the heating can still be turned off, then this trick will not work with the sewage system - severe frost can cause a real breakdown in the plumbing of the whole house and huge losses. And that's not counting such trifles of life as the ice floors of the neighbors upstairs. For this reason, freezing is rarely used for pest control of residential buildings. Most often it is used in garages, chicken coops and other industrial facilities.

Another disadvantage is ... thieves. Taking the furniture outside and leaving the house with the windows wide open for several days, you run the risk of facing a banal theft of your things.

Outcomes

The freezing method is effective remedy, which allows you to quickly and cheaply kill bedbugs. However, a number of limitations make it available only for processing. technical rooms, and even then not always - the weather imposes certain restrictions. However, this does not mean that this method should not be applied at all.

When using chemical methods of pest control, many are faced with what is needed, clothes and mattresses. Nobody wants to do this, even when using odorless products - especially in the case of children's clothes and bedding. In this case, frost comes to the rescue - just take the mattress and infected things to the balcony for a few days. In the warmer months, things can be treated with contaminated items in the freezer. It will be especially convenient for owners of large freezers - they are spacious and capable of creating a very low temperature.

So freezing in residential buildings can be used as an effective additional method of pest control. But as the main method of treatment, it is better to choose insecticides - they create a long-term protective effect and can be used almost anywhere. If you do not want to use insecticides, then you can resort to another thermal method of pest control. We are talking about the so-called burning, which acts in exactly the opposite way than freezing. Special powerful heaters are brought into the room, which warm the air to a temperature of + 55-60 degrees. At such a high temperature, bedbugs die within a few hours - for all their thermophilicity, they withstand heat much worse than frost. The method of burning out is also 100% effective, but this treatment is much more expensive than the classical chemical pest control.

The practice of killing bedbugs has proven that these insects react poorly to temperature changes. Therefore, the answer to the question of whether to be afraid of frostbugs is positive. Since ancient times, in the absence of powerful insecticides, bedbugs were corroded precisely by high and low temperatures. Even small deviations from average temperature marks (-10 and +20 ° C) are difficult for the bed bug to withstand. This weakness of pests is successfully used in the fight against them, especially if the use of poisons is unacceptable in the room (there are animals and children, there is expensive furniture).

The question of whether bedbugs are afraid of cold needs to be answered with the help of science and practice. Observations have shown that these insects are susceptible to low temperatures, however, in to a greater extent cannot stand high. At temperatures below -10 ° C, bugs fall into suspended animation and safely survive unfavorable conditions. At a temperature of -15 -17 ° C, bugs die on average in 3-4 days. The most destructive for bedbugs is temperatures below -20 ° C. In such conditions, they die in a few hours. Bedbug eggs are much more hardy, in order to destroy them, you need to keep the temperature below -20 ° C for more than a day.

At high temperatures ah bedbug nests die out in minutes. This success can be achieved when exposed to steam at +50 ° C. A little more time, namely half an hour, is needed to kill bedbugs with a temperature of +45 ° C. Ovipositions of bedbugs are less susceptible to high thermometer marks, so it takes a day that they died at such temperature indicators. Adult bugs die almost instantly from exposure to hot steam.

Even promising results do not justify such measures. At what temperature insects die, regardless of whether it is high or low, at the same housing deteriorates. For a day in such conditions, furniture and equipment will seriously suffer, if you do not take out everything first (and where to take out all the furniture?), The wallpaper will peel off, and the floor covering will swell. Of course, no one wants to risk interior items, and less aggressive actions are unlikely to help. Even implementing such global measures is very difficult. But a steam generator that is safe for furniture against bedbugs does not give brilliant results.

At what temperature do bedbugs die during warming up

You can warm up an apartment up to +50 ° C using industrial fan heaters. This method is preferable because it allows you not to use chemical substances and aggressive poisons. Warming up can be applied at any stage of bedbug breeding, because eggs and adult bedbugs die from exposure to high temperatures. Thus, two problems are eliminated at once. In addition, it will take only a day to solve the problem in this way.

The destruction of bedbugs with steam is best accompanied by chemical action. This will help avoid re-infection. However, it is very difficult to do the procedure yourself. You will need special and very powerful equipment, which hardly anyone keeps on the balcony. We'll have to order equipment, pay for transportation, install. There are many factors to keep track of in the process, not just turn it on and go. Only experienced SES specialists know the procedure thoroughly. They can correctly assess the thermal dynamics of housing, they know at what temperature the bugs die. Due to inexperience, you can harm not only the apartment, but also yourself. Prolonged exposure to heat can cause fainting or worse.

You need to start processing from the foci of infection, but not everything can be found with an independent examination. The bug steam generator helps literally in ten seconds, but too powerful a jet will simply blow away the insects and aggravate the problem. It is difficult to reach the "favorite" pest settling sites with a steam generator. Steam treatment from bedbugs is not possible at the joints of furniture, in the crevices of the baseboard and wallpaper.

Is it possible to freeze bedbugs

The question of whether bedbugs are afraid of frost has already been clarified: low temperatures are better perceived by bedbugs, therefore, the lowest possible thermometer readings are required. Bedbugs die only from prolonged exposure, because even -30 ° C they will calmly survive if the cooling is short-term. Not higher than -20 ° C for several days - this is what winter bugs are afraid of. Freezing bedbugs is recommended to be carried out in non-residential premises or used locally, for small items or single pieces of furniture. In winter, you can keep the windows open, and then the bug dies in a few days. It is necessary to maintain the temperature for more than a day, because not all bugs die on the first day, and even more so. In addition, freezing is recommended to be repeated several times. But such freezing can only be carried out in a house with individual heating, because freezing when central heating will damage the pipes. And even in the case individual heating, equipment under such conditions will fail.

If you can't leave your home in any way, you can take the most contaminated furniture out into the street at low temperatures. Bedbugs do not freeze out immediately in the cold. The insect dies only with stable and strong cooling, and a temperature within the range of -5-7 ° C will only stop their reproduction. Small items can be kept in freezer, however, in this way, bed bugs freeze out for more than a week.

Bed bugs are incredibly tenacious insects. They are able to go without food for a long time, are resistant to mechanical stress and quickly develop resistance to insecticides. It is especially difficult to kill bed bug eggs because of their dense protective shell.

Having adapted to life next to a person, the bugs pampered and lost some of the abilities useful for the survival of the species. So, for example, their development occurs in a very narrow temperature range from +15 0 C to +40 0 C. A further decrease or increase in temperature leads to the termination of reproduction and their death.

Optimal for the life and prosperity of bedbugs are indicators from +20 0 C to +35 0 C. Under these conditions, they actively feed and reproduce, and the higher the temperature, the faster development occurs. However, this early maturity has a downside. With an increase in the thermometer, their life expectancy is reduced, they more often need to eat. A prolonged hunger strike in hot conditions is poorly tolerated by adult insects and can cause the colony to die out.

In the course of long-term studies, the following regularity of the life span of bedbugs from the ambient temperature was revealed:

• at +20 0 C, the life processes in the insect's body slow down, it eats less often, sleeps more and is able to live for about 15 months;
• an increase in temperature up to 30 0 С causes accelerated maturation, intensive reproduction and short-term life, the total duration of which does not exceed 9-10 months;
• the most comfortable for the development of insects is the interval from +22 0 С to +25 0 С, that is, the usual room temperature... Under these conditions, they live for about a year, of which 1.5 months. leaves for the development of the larva, and the remaining 10-11 months. insects are exclusively engaged in reproduction.

Interesting fact! Bedbugs can survive a long hunger strike, sometimes exceeding 1.5 years! All this time they are in suspended animation, from which they can only be removed by the smell of food - warm fresh blood.

Critical temperatures

The survival rate of bedbugs in extreme temperature conditions depends on the stage of their development. For example, larvae tolerate cold and heat more easily than adults. Eggs are even more resistant to temperature effects. They are able to remain viable even with prolonged freezing for several days. So, at what temperature do bedbugs die at the stage of eggs, larvae, adult insects - adults? Let's find this out.

At what temperature do eggs and larvae die?

Bedbug larvae have a rather flexible mechanism for adapting to critical temperatures. They are able to withstand short-term frosts at -22 0 C, as well as a short rise in temperature up to +50 0 C. At -20 0 C, they can survive for three days. They tolerate heat worse and die within a few hours when the thermometer readings are slightly above +50 0 С.

The eggs are surrounded by a fairly dense protective shell that protects the embryos from environmental influences. Thanks to her, they have a very high resistance to unfavorable factors, among other things, they can boast of greater endurance than larvae to sudden changes in temperature. The death of embryos occurs only at -30 0 С and heat at +55 0 С.

Critical temperatures for adult insects

We found out at what readings of the thermometer the death of eggs and larvae occurs. And at what temperature do adult bugs die?

1. Freezing the premises in winter frosts for several days.
2. "Roasting" things in the sun.
3. Washing clothes at temperatures above +50 0 С.
4. Treatment of the room and furniture with hot steam.

You can also iron the folds of clothes and upholstered furniture covers, or put a bag of contaminated items in the freezer. At the same time, one should not forget that larvae and eggs are able to endure cold for a long time, and the average temperature in the freezer, as a rule, does not fall below -18 0 C.

How to get rid of bedbugs using heat treatment, see this video: