Kill Bed Bugs With Clothes Steamer
The quality of the bed bug steamer you use is extremely important.
Kill bed bugs with clothes steamer. Then take dry clean clothes to a professional cleaner s for cleaning and pressing. Don t use the steamer that you d use to steam your clothes and don t use a carpet cleaner. Drying will kill the bugs but not clean the clothes. There will be far fewer.
Try to use a commercial steamer which has a minimum capacity of 1 gallon advisable with a steam volume control. Using steamers to kill bed bugs pdf. Can clothes steamers kill bed bugs. Steam can be used in cracks and crevices to a depth of just under three inches.
Steamers are an excellent chemical free way to treat for bed bugs and other pests such as dust mites. At 118 degrees the time is cut to 20 minutes. The carpet cleaning machines fail to reach high temperatures this cannot be used to kill bed bugs using steamer. This is because of how hot the water has to reach to achieve the state of being steam.
You may know that steam is an effective tool for removing stains odor and allergens but it can also be used to eliminate bed bugs. In order to kill them with a steamer the object has to be steamed with a heat that is at or above 140 f for two hours or 130 f for a period of three hours which will successfully kill most of the bugs and their eggs. Use a commercial steamer with a minimum capacity of 1 gallon preferably with a steam volume control. Check labels or call the manufacturer before using steam to eradicate the pests.
Hot steam can penetrate soft surfaces raising the temperature above tolerable levels for bedbugs. Most furniture mattresses box springs fabrics and flooring can be safely steamed. The surface temperature needs to reach 160 f 180 f to effectively kill bedbugs. The steamer that you use to steam clothes will not be effective to kill bed bugs.
Steamer should have a capacity of around a gallon of water. If you do repeat the process. When using steam as a treatment the quality of the steamer is very important. If you want to only kill bed bugs and do not need to wash your clothes simply putting infested items in the dryer for 30 minutes on high health will kill all the bed bugs.
Your average carpet cleaner will not work because the water does not get hot enough. These simply won t reach high enough temperatures to kill bed bugs. Steamers will kill bed bugs and their eggs on contact and thoroughly clean the infested area. Bed bugs may be resilient but they cannot withstand the high heat of a steamer.
However it is important to make yourself familiar with how to use these steamers properly. The steaming that you did before would have worked but there clearly were a few survivors. Water this hot will effectively kill bed bugs. Once you have used the steamer to kill the bed bugs and then used the spray leave it a few days and break out the magnifying glass or just take a real close look and see if you notice any signs.
Steam must be at 113 degrees for 90 minutes.