Bed bug heat treatment only requires one visit, temperatures of 118°F (48°C) or higher kill bed bugs at all stages of life - including the eggs.

Sub-par preparation can then void or diminish the warranty offered while at the same time vastly increasing the likelihood that the bedbugs will survive, compounding the frustrations. And to make the problem even worse, this extensive and expensive preparation must be done not once but twice, because chemical treatments require two visits as described above.

The preparation for heat treatment is much easier. While preparation is still required, it is less extensive, less time consuming, and less costly. Preparation for heat treatments is generally done very well, even in rental apartments, thus ensuring full coverage under the warranty. And, because only one visit is required, preparation for heat treatment, if done properly, must only be done once.

Chemical treatments are toxic to begin with. But, a January 2016 study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology has shown that bed bugs are building up a concerning tolerance to pesticides, rendering chemical treatments much less effective. You can read the study here. As a result, higher doses of chemicals must be used to achieve the same effect, increasing health risks for pest control operators, homeowners, children, tenants, and pets.

Heat treatment for bed bugs is 100% environmentally responsible and non-toxic for humans and household pets.

With a pure heat treatment application, no chemicals whatsoever are sprayed into your home, leaving no worrying residue behind for your children or pets to find.

Even within the Heat Assault unit itself, only environmentally-friendly Heat Transfer Fluid is used.

By their very nature, bed bugs tend to nest in places where chemical sprays are less likely to reach – behind the cover plates of light switches and electrical boxes, inside heat vents, behind picture frames, inside clothing, in plaster cracks, underneath carpeting.

This makes chemical treatments a deficient form of treatment for bed bugs. In many cases, the chemical does not even reach their nesting place. The hope is that bed bugs will eventually encounter the chemical when they emerge from their secluded nest for a blood meal, but as described under “How To Identify Bed Bugs”, bugs don’t feed every day. They generally only feed once a week, so there is a good chance the chemical may break down before the bugs emerge for a meal and encounter it, rendering the multiple toxic chemical treatments and the expensive and time consuming preparation useless.

With heat treatment, there is nowhere to hide. Powerful heater-fan pairs quickly raise the temperature into the kill zone, and the operator monitors the temperature dispersion with heat-sensing equipment and periodically adjusts the direction of the equipment in each room to ensure that the heat is evenly distributed and that every corner of every room is brought to temperature. The heat is then maintained for a period of hours, ensuring full saturation of clothing, wall cavities, and anywhere else a bed bug may be nesting.

As also discussed above, heat treatment is also more effective than chemical treatment because of the tolerance to pesticides and chemicals that seems to be emerging in the bed bug population.

If you find live bed bugs or evidence of bed bugs, stop your search immediately.

If you continue the search, or if you attempt to declutter and reorganize, you may cause the bed bugs to scatter and become more widely disbursed, worsening the problem.

Continuing the search may disturb the nest causing the beg bugs to disburse and hide, further spreading the infestation.