Pest Management Professional, March 2011

with some logical thought and care an effective device can be constructed In the past Ive used a plastic trash bag with a hairdryer simply by rubber banding the bag around the nozzle of the hairdryer This is much easier and cheaper however holes must be placed within the bag to allow for the excess air to escape Otherwise the bag may dislodge from the hairdryer In either case this may allow for bed bug escape and no one but the bed bugs wants that While placing a thermometer within the empty device we can get the temperature up to more than 150 F in just five minutes We also need to know how long it would take to get to lethal bed bug temperatures To settle my curiosity and for the purpose of this article I conducted a brief heating trial The starting temperature was 72 F A thermometer was placed within a sneaker wrapped within a towel to provide simulated garment density and thermo resistance The hairdryer was set to high heat at the low fan setting The results were as follows Bed Bugs Time Temperature 0 minutes 72 F 5 minutes 94 F 10 minutes 108 F 15 minutes 124 F A colleague mentioned the need for insulation of the container If need be a suitably sized cooler box could be used instead of a plastic storage container However the hairdryer releases so much heat that I dont believe insulation is really necessary While we can use plastic bags the heat of the sun or DDVP strips to successfully kill bed bugs that may be hidden in our work clothes there are certainly times when we prefer to render our items bed bug free more quickly By using such a device as described here it is possible to heat treat suspect items in just a few minutes And by using a power inverter it may also be possible to heat treat technician service clothes and shoes while driving from account to account or by plugging it in at the account while working in a spare set of clothes pmp You can reach Bello president of PJB Consulting at paul bello@ att net DWDO WWUDFWLRQ Ê ÁÊÀ ÌÊÌÀ ÁÊ ÕÃiÌÀ À ÁÊ ÛiÊV ÌÕÀiÊ ÕÃiÌÀ ÕÀiÊÌ i Ê Ê Êi ÌiÊ À i ÌÃÊμÕ V ÞÊ ÊivwV i Ì ÞÊ Ü Ì ÊÌ iÊi ÃÞ Ì ÕÃiÊ iÃÃÊ ÁÊ ÕÃiÌÀ Ã Ê Ê ÁÊÀ ÌÊÌÀ ÃÊ Ê À ÁÊ ÛiÊV ÌÕÀiÊ ÕÃiÌÀ Ã Ê iÊÌ ÊÃiÌÊ ÊV Ûi i ÌÊ Ì ÊV i ÊÌ iÃiÊ ÕÀ L iÊÌÀ ÃÊ vviÀÊÞi ÀÃÊ vÊ i i L iÊ ÃiÀÛ ViÊ ÊÃ Ì ÀÞÊ º Ì ÕV Ê À i ÌÊ Ã Ã q ÊÌ i Ê ÃÕ iÀ ÀÊÌ Ê ÃÌÊ Ì iÀÊÌÀ Ã Ê ÊÌÀ ÃqÜ V Êv ÌÊ Ê ÃÌÊL ÌÊL ÝiÃq Êi ÃÞ Ì L ÌÊ À ÃÊ ÀiÊÌ iÊ ÕÀ Êivv V i ÌÊÃ ÕÌ ÃÊ v ÀÊV iÌiÊÀ i ÌÊV ÌÀ 603 6 6 17 5 DOO RXU ORFDO GLVWULEXWRU WRGD IRU DOO RXU QHVV VXSSOLHV iÃÃÊ v Ê Ê V nää Ó Ç xäÈÓ ÜÜÜ iÃÃ V By using a power inverter it may be possible to heat treat technician service clothes and shoes while driving from account to account or by plugging it in at the account while working in a spare set of clothes mypmp net Pest Management Professional March 2011 67