10 ms·
IIRC, below freezing also isn't generally good enough -- I forget what the specifics are from when I cared a lot about it 5+ years ago, but it's something like
by wcarss 3y ago
IIRC, below freezing also isn't generally good enough -- I forget what the specifics are from when I cared a lot about it 5+ years ago, but it's something like -20C consistently for a few whole days for all the stages of bedbug and their eggs to be destroyed by cold. They're surprisingly resistant to death from cold -- but a good hot dryer at 120F for ~30+ minutes will definitely get 'em.
- idlewords 3y agoThis exactly. Freezing is useless unless you have something like a lab freezer that gets to -50C. Hot dryer for clothes, and you can put empty luggage in a dark trash bag and leave it in the sun to heat treat.
- whitepoplar 3y agoHaving run the bedbug site, what's your advice on long-term travel? I've never gotten bedbugs, but I feel it's only a matter of time. How do you balance prevention with simply living your life?
- jstarfish 3y agoAlways use the luggage stand.
- idlewords 3y agoBedbugs are my valued business partners and I feel it's only right I should give back sometimes. I do a quick bedbug check (headboard, nightstand, boxspring) in hotels I visit and mostly don't worry about it.
- whitepoplar 3y agoHave you ever found any by doing that?
- idlewords 3y agoYes, once. It was a heavily infested room in a hotel in West Virginia, I could see multiple juvenile bedbugs along a seam in the box spring.
- ahartmetz 3y agoFromy my experience, they aren't great at stealth. I once had them in a hotel room, they came crawling towards me as soon as I laid down. I killed the first two and fled. Got a different room at the same place that was not infested (it was late and I was poor then). No bedbugs came home with me though I did put clothes in the freezer just in case.
- idlewords 3y agoIt really depends on how severe the infestation is, and how long it has been since the bugs had a meal. Very hungry bedbugs will come out in the open, less hungry ones will wait until the middle of the night to feed.
- ahartmetz 3y agoI do wonder how very hungry bedbugs exist in a hotel room. But the evolutionary pressure against gratuitously running over an uncovered bedsheet while the light is on is pretty clear, too.
- wkat4242 3y agoHmm that makes sense. I don't have a washing machine so I was worried about getting these from the launderette. Especially since some of their customers seem to be of the no fixed abode type. But I always wash my stuff at 60C and bedding and towels at 90C (for Fahrenheiters that's nearly boiling). And then dry for 30 minutes at 80C. I guess that does the job. I'm surprised my clothes don't shrink from those temperatures. I wear pretty much only cotton but it seems unaffected.
- Eisenstein 3y ago> Especially since some of their customers seem to be of the no fixed abode type. I would think homeless people would be less likely to get bedbugs, not more. They aren't lice -- they can't live on people.