Pest Management Professional, September 2012

Bed Bug Supplement dryer test Hanging Them Out to Dry A tumble in the dryer proves bed bugs cant take the heat Paul Bello Contributor W e entered an apartment to check out a reported bed bug infestation It was a two bedroom apartment occupied by a family of four and a cat We found bed bug fecal stains on all three bed frames the couch and a few walls We found live bed bugs and eggs in the box springs and couch frame There wasnt much clutter to deal with a successful treatment was expected If theres such a thing as a typical bed bug job this was it The mom understandably was concerned and listened intently as the service manager explained how the job would be performed including information about the pre treatment preparations required of the family The tech answered her questions She wanted to know about mattress encasements pesticides cleaning vacuuming and laundering clothing The service manager told her running various garments through a thermal clothes dryer for 20 minutes would be sufficient to kill any bed bugs or bed bug eggs How many of us have told bed bug clients to run their clothes through the dryer and for how many minutes How do we know To help ensure we know it seemed logical to measure temperatures reached by a few different dryers We randomly tested the performance of five Laundering bed linens dryers in our residential clothes and other garments community ours and has become an important four neighbors dryers part of bed bug control to see how hot they got after Heat dried garments five minutes of operation can be rendered bed bug The accompanying table free if lethal threshold indicates the average temperatures are reached temperatures reached in five different clothes dryers after five minutes of run time at the high heat setting After each clothes dryer was run empty for five minutes we measured temperatures from the back and middle of the drum and the interior surface of the door with an infrared thermometer We calculated the average of these three temperatures for comparisons sake We performed towel tests in three of the five dryers to measure the temperatures of garments after five minutes in the dryers We placed a large beach towel measuring 35 inches by 65 inches in each of the three dryers and ran the units on their high heat settings for five minutes We measured the temperatures at various spots on the towel and the highest temperature was recorded for each towel tested As you can see from the table the towel fabric temperatures are significantly higher than those temperatures recorded for the interior dryer surfaces because garments in a dryer retain heat longer than the dryers drum and door surfaces With this test its clear instructing customers to run their clothes through a dryers hot cycle can be good advice to render these garments bed bug free provided the dryer temperature exceeds bed bugs lethal temperature threshold for a sufficient duration of time PMP Paul Bello is an independent pest management consultant and author of The Bed Bug Combat Manual available at the PMP bookstore and his website at www pest consultant com You can reach Bello at paul bello@ att net or 770 500 0460 Brand Power Loading Temperature Towel Test Name Type Type at 5 Minutes at 5 Minutes Fisher Gas Top 1150 F N A Paykel GE Gas Front 1480 F 1680 F Maytag Electric Front 1430 F 1750 F Kenmore Gas Front 1270 F 1710 F Maytag Electric Front 1200 F N A S4 September 2012 Pest Management Professional www mypmp net