patrick.net

Ok, let me first start out with saying I do not have Bed bugs and do not want bed bugs. There has been a lot of reports in the media about the bed bug epidemic in this country. One of the newer methods of exterminating bed bugs is by using heat. If you apply heat to a room or building that is at least 135 degree for at least 15 minutes, it drys out the bed bugs, there eggs and they die. Generally this is done for about an hour to make sure it more than enough to kill them. What I can't understand is the prices these guys are charging for this. "Thermal remediation will run anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000..." 6K?! For what? When I used to work construction we used to set up propane heaters inside incomplete buildings in the winter so the sheet-rockers could plaster the walls and get them to dry. it would easily push the temperatures in the house to 80 or 90 degrees. Usually what the sheet-rockers would do is open most of the windows to get some cool air while working inside and it still be pretty hot inside. Anyway I'm trying to figure out how they can get away with those kind of prices. For a couple hundred bucks you could buy 2 or 3 propane heaters and connect them to propane tanks, and fire them up. I'm sure you could rent them for less.

My only concerns are:

A. How to control the inside temperatures.

I guess you run the propane lines inside the house through a crack in a few partly open windows and have a thermometer inside on a window. When the temperature gets up to 140 or so you could turn the propane supply down or off.

B. Would the propane heaters use up all the oxygen in the house before they could get the temperature up to 140 or so degrees.

If the house HVAC heat was turned up first to 85 or so, I imagine the heaters would have enough air to raise the temperature up the additional 60 degrees or so. The air could be pretty dangerous after an hour, (lots of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide) but after hour shut off the propane from the outside, open the windows you had cracked for the propane hoses from the outside, and turn on a fan, blowing fresh air from outside through the house to another window you open on the other side. After awhile you could hold your breath run in and open other windows from inside the house and rush out. After a trip or two all the windows would be open, you give the house a few hours to air out before going back inside.

C. FIRE!

Well obviously having open flame inside the house is of some concern. I recall once the heater was placed on a rug and it melted the rug where it was sitting. We started using plywood to place the heaters on. So each heater would be placed on a full sheet of plywood and placed in the center of the room with nothing near it. Any kind of loose paper would have to be removed from the house, paper doesn't burst into flames until it reaches 451 F, but all the heat blowing around the house could change the way the air moves. A few loose pieces of paper or a tissues coming into contact with the heat and blowing around could ignite fires pretty quickly. Also anything that is soft plastic, remove it as well. I guess I could watch the heaters closely from the outside with a Fire extinguisher at the ready, but entering a hot house with carbon monoxide in the air would be dangerous.

Any thoughts? Did I overlook anything?