Killing bed bugs with heat

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Since moving to MA I've heard a lot about the scariness of bed bugs and why people don't often take used mattresses or cushion-y furniture. I heard and read a few unsupported claims that you could kill bed bugs with heat. I contemplated how I would heat an entire mattress up to extreme (non-inflammatory) temperatures. However, I recently found http://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/, which seems like a relatively trustworthy place to get such information, and apparently all it takes is 113F (45C) for 1 hour!? This is mind boggling. I can seal a mattress inside a plastic bag and slide it into the sealed bed of my truck on a sunny day to easily accomplish that.

Why isn't this a more commonly known/implemented solution?

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

You would need to take some care to get the whole thing (or at least the whole surface of the thing) up to temperature. For instance, if you did try your truck method, I'm guessing the side that was down against the truck bed would be sufficiently insulated as to not heat up much at all. You would need to put the mattress on a grate of some kind and propped up a couple of inches so it had good airflow.

And of course without far better controls, this method would never be certified, but it's useful to hear that the necessary temperatures are so (relatively) low.

[squirrelitude]

Not to mention the inside of the mattress! A meat thermometer with a mattress-puncturing tip is probably called-for here.