What to Expect During a Bed Bug Heat Treatment
Heat is one of the few tools that reliably reaches bed bugs where sprays and dusts struggle. When applied correctly, it kills every life stage, from eggs tucked deep in a sofa seam to adults wedged behind a baseboard. If you have never experienced a whole-home heat treatment, the process can feel mysterious and a little intimidating. Here is how it actually unfolds, what professionals watch for, and what you can do to make sure the heat does its work the first time.
Why heat, and why it works when other approaches stall
Bed bugs are hardy, but they are not heat tolerant. Sustained temperatures above roughly 118 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit kill adults and nymphs, and eggs succumb slightly higher or with more exposure time. That simple physics is the foundation. Heat moves through air and materials, so it can reach cracks where liquids and powders have a hard time penetrating. It also avoids the resistance issues that have weakened several common insecticides.
There are trade-offs. Heat is a day-long production that requires power, specialized equipment, and careful monitoring. It does not leave a residual barrier. If you bring an infested bag or a used nightstand into the space a week later, there is nothing left to stop a fresh introduction. Many pros pair heat with targeted dusts in voids and interceptors on bed legs to add long-term insurance.
The first visit: inspection and candid talk about scope
Any reputable company starts with a detailed inspection. Expect flashlights, crevice tools, and a slow, methodical survey of beds, couches, recliners, and the places people sit. Technicians look for fecal spotting, cast skins, eggs the size of a pinhead, and live bugs. They will probably pull back mattress covers, run a card or spatula under piping, and check the backside of headboards and nightstands. In some homes, large sectional sofas harbor more bugs than the bedroom, especially where people nap.
The goal of that first visit is not only to confirm activity but to scope the job. A small studio with a platform bed is different from a three-bedroom home with heavy dressers, a waterbed, and a baby’s room. Homes with overflowing closets or piles against walls require more prep and often more time to move air through the space. At this stage, a pro will talk about whether to heat the whole structure or a subset like a unit in a multi-family building, and how to handle sensitive areas such as aquariums, musical instruments, and server closets.
Good inspectors also set expectations. Heat kills what it reaches at lethal time and temperature. It does not fix building-wide spread in an apartment complex where adjacent units are untreated, and it does not prevent reinfestation if the source is a roommate’s infested car or a weekly visitor’s bag. That honesty matters.
Preparing your space without undermining the treatment
Overprepping causes more failures than underprepping. I have seen people bag every item in a home and stack the bags to the ceiling, creating insulating towers that never get hot enough inside. You want a clear, breathable space where hot air can circulate, not a warehouse of plastic bins.
A practical prep usually means a few focused actions:
Declutter to the extent that air can move along baseboards and into closets, but avoid sealing items in plastic unless the company plans to heat those bags. If you must consolidate, use breathable laundry baskets or open-top boxes. Remove items that cannot safely experience 140 degrees F, such as candles, crayons, aerosol cans, pressurized cylinders, certain cosmetics, and perishable foods like chocolate. Place them in sealed totes and store them in a cool place outside the treatment zone. Unplug electronics that do not need to stay on. Most consumer electronics tolerate the temperatures used in structural heat, but it is wise to power down computers and game consoles and to detach external drives. Fish tanks and pets must be removed entirely. Loosen the bed environment. Pull beds 6 to 8 inches from walls, stand pillows upright, unzip mattress encasements slightly so heat can enter, and open dresser drawers so heat does not spend an hour warming a closed wooden box. Launder bedding and the clothing you plan to wear during treatment if your provider requests it. Dryer cycles on high heat for 30 to 45 minutes are lethal to bed bugs. Bag clean items in new bags and store them away from the treatment zone until after the job.
If you are unsure whether a specific item can handle heat, ask. High-gloss vinyl records, wax-based art, some adhesives, and old family photos deserve special handling. Pros often bring insulated coolers to protect a few sensitive pieces while still treating the room.
What the equipment looks like, and why airflow is everything
Expect a mix of heaters and high-volume fans. In apartments, technicians often use portable electric heaters that draw from multiple circuits. In larger homes, they may deploy trailer-mounted propane units that pump heated air through flexible ducts. In either case, the principle is the same: bring the interior to roughly 130 to 140 degrees F in a controlled, even way, and keep it there long enough for heat to penetrate furniture and structural nooks.
Fans are not optional. Without airflow, hot air pools near the ceiling and cool zones persist under beds, behind dresser backs, and inside couch frames. Crews create convection. They aim fans under furniture, into closet bottoms, and through stairwells so heat does not stratify. In a typical bedroom, you will see two to four fans, all pointed to create a loop. In living rooms with heavy upholstery, expect more.
Temperature sensors, either wired thermocouples or wireless probes, are the quiet stars of the show. Pros place them inside couch cushions, under mattress seams, and at baseboard-floor joints. Killing a bug requires temperature at the bug, not at the thermostat. Technicians watch those readings for the climb to target and for the hold period that finishes eggs. If a probe under the far end of a sectional lags, they will rearrange fans or add a heater until it catches up.
How a treatment day unfolds, hour by hour
On treatment day, you will meet the crew on the front steps. They will walk the space one more time to confirm prep and to note anything that changed. Most companies https://rentry.co/3bmnqke5 ask occupants, pets, and plants to leave for the day. Health guidelines differ, but a good rule is to be out at least six to eight hours, sometimes longer in large or cluttered spaces.
Once the space is vacated, the team stages equipment, establishes safe power, and sets up temperature probes. They start heating gradually. It takes time to warm materials without melting plastic blinds or blistering varnish. Expect the first hour to be a controlled climb. Doors to rooms stay open, and vents on HVAC systems are typically sealed so the home’s system does not fight the process.
As the space climbs into the 120s F, the true work begins. Technicians rotate items, flip couch cushions, tip recliners onto their backs to reveal the frame, and reposition fans repeatedly. Heat finds bugs faster when fabric seams are exposed and when thick items are not stacked. Expect the crew to check probes every few minutes at first, then at longer intervals once all sensors clear target. A common threshold is pushing every monitored location to at least 125 to 135 degrees F, then holding for an additional hour or more, depending on readings. Eggs are tougher, so pros err on the side of endurance.
During the hold period, crews keep moving, especially in problem zones. I have watched treatments where a stubborn cold spot lived behind a built-in bookshelf. The team cut the cooling by redirecting two fans into that dead corner and by nudging the ambient a few degrees higher. That kind of micro-adjustment separates good outcomes from mediocre ones.
The final phase is a controlled cool down. Heaters power off, fans keep running to dissipate residual heat and to normalize the space. No one wants a sudden temperature drop that could crack something delicate. When temperatures settle into the 90s, the crew walks room to room, resets furniture, removes probes and ducting, and opens windows if weather allows.
Safety, practical limits, and what actually gets warm
Most household items tolerate the temperatures used in professional heat treatments. Think of a hot car in summer that reaches the 120s F inside. The difference is duration and uniformity. A structured heat job maintains those temperatures longer and into areas rarely warmed by ambient conditions.
A few categories deserve attention. Wax, lipstick, certain glues, and chocolate will soften or melt. Pressurized cans are a no-go. Some vinyls can warp if pinned under a sunbeam hot spot. Acrylic paints and finishes usually do fine, but antique lacquer and certain shellacs can craze if rapidly heated and cooled. Photographs, candles, and cosmetics are easy to remove and are not worth the risk.
Electronics are better than you think. Laptops, TVs, and game consoles are designed for operating temperatures that flirt with 100 degrees F and storage temperatures that exceed that. The extra margin up to 135 is uncomfortable but survivable, especially if the device is powered down and not in a tightly closed case. That said, I prefer to open media cabinet doors, pull devices a few inches forward, and aim a fan across them to prevent any local hot pocket.
Sprinkler systems and fire alarms are often a concern in apartments. Professional crews carry heat shields and know the trip points of common sprinkler heads, usually well above treatment temperatures, but they shield and monitor them anyway. Smoke detectors and heat sensors sometimes need to be covered or temporarily disabled in coordination with building management. This is not a DIY detail to guess at in a multi-family building.
How long it takes and what success looks like
Time varies. A tidy one-bedroom unit might be on the hot clock for three to four hours after setup, with a total project time of six to eight hours. A cluttered home with thick furniture and carpeted stairs can run all day. The slowest part is not raising the air to 130, it is pushing that heat into a packed dresser bottom and the thick frame of a sleeper sofa, then holding long enough to be confident about eggs.
Success after heat is oddly quiet. There is no chemical smell, no residue to see. What you notice is a normal-looking home that feels dry, with beds and couches reset. The more useful signals arrive at night over the next week: fewer bites, then none. Bed bugs do not die and vanish instantly, but a correctly executed heat job produces a sharp drop in activity. Live bugs found afterward can mean one of three things: a missed cold spot that allowed survival, reintroduction from a neighboring unit or an outside source, or a misidentification. Pros schedule follow-up inspections for exactly this reason.
What you should do during the treatment window
Most companies ask you to be reachable by phone but out of the building. If you stay nearby, take anything you bring with you as a potential reintroduction risk. Do not carry the throw blanket from the couch to your car, and do not return mid-treatment for your favorite hoodie from the bedroom closet. If you must retrieve medication or a work laptop, let the crew bring it to the door in a clean bag. Sounds fussy, but I have watched a half-finished treatment get seeded with a bug hitching on a purse strap.
Think ahead about pets. Dogs and cats go to a friend’s house or a kennel for the day. Fish tanks need relocating or a plan for a separate, sealed zone with active cooling and oxygenation, which is rarely practical. Reptiles are heat-sensitive and must leave. Houseplants are damaged by high heat and should be moved as well.
Matching heat to the severity and structure
Not every infestation calls for a whole-home bake. In a single-family home with isolated activity in a guest room, a focused heat treatment can make sense. The crew seals thresholds with fire-safe barriers, sets up a smaller array, and pushes target temperatures in that zone. The risk is migration. Bed bugs dislike heat and will try to flee as the temperature climbs. Crews counter that with vacuuming along baseboards early, light dust applications in wall voids done on a prior visit, and aggressive airflow to keep bugs from finding cool edges.
In multi-unit buildings, whole-home for a single apartment can work, but it must be coordinated. If the next-door unit, above or below, is actively infested, the bugs can move through gaps and return later. Some property managers schedule stacked treatments, three or four units in a vertical line, to address this. It costs more, but it respects the way bed bugs travel in shared walls.
The cost, and what drives it up or down
Pricing varies by region, company, and building type. Expect a range that starts in the high hundreds for a small, simple unit and runs into the low thousands for larger, complex homes. The biggest drivers are square footage, clutter level, the number and type of furnishings, and whether the job requires after-hours building access or special handling of sprinklers and alarms. Trailer-based propane systems are efficient but come with fuel costs and transport. Electric-only setups in older buildings may require creative power balancing to avoid tripping breakers, which adds time.
Ask the estimator to explain their time-in-temperature standard, how they monitor, and what follow-up is included. A rock-bottom price without probes, or with a promise of two hours start to finish, is a warning sign.
Common pitfalls and how pros avoid them
Heat treats are straightforward in principle but full of small traps. Thick textiles, like piles of folded denim or stacks of blankets, insulate themselves and can stay ten degrees cooler than the air. Closed drawers and packed closet floors do the same. Technicians open, spread, and stir those zones during the hold period. Recliners with cavities in the arms and under the footrest are notorious hiding places. Crews tip them, expose the frame, and let heat reach inside.
Floor-to-ceiling bookcases loaded with papers are another challenge. Paper is dense. Pros fan along the toe kick, pull a few books back to create channels, and, when the infestation is heavy, remove and heat paper items separately in a controlled box. Inside walls can harbor bugs if baseboards were heavily trafficked. Some companies apply a thin line of dust behind baseboards weeks before the heat job to add a residual inside those voids.
Attics and crawlspaces are rarely heated unless they are finished living spaces, but they can act as heat sinks. If you have open attic hatches or gappy access panels, crews seal them so thermal energy stays where it is needed.
What to expect after you come home
When you return, the house will feel warmer than usual, but not dangerously so. Surfaces might still be warm to the touch. Your job is to live normally while doing a few small things that protect the investment. Put encasements on mattresses and box springs if they are not already in place. Encasements trap any stragglers that lived deep inside and make future inspections simple. Install interceptors under bed and sofa legs. These are small cups that catch bugs trying to climb. They are passive, inexpensive, and useful as a monitoring tool for the next several weeks.
Avoid deep cleaning for a day or two, especially with wet mops under baseboards, if the company applied any dusts in voids earlier in the process. Normal vacuuming is fine. If you bagged sensitive items, do not dump them back into the treated space without thought. If possible, run bagged clothing through a dryer cycle before returning it to drawers. For items that cannot be heated, a quarantine in sealed containers for several weeks starves bed bugs, but that is a slow method and not necessary if the heat job was thorough.
You might see dead bugs in odd spots, often along baseboards or near bed legs. Vacuum them. If you find a live one, do not panic. Note the location and call the company. Most offer a follow-up visit to inspect and, if needed, touch up with spot heat or targeted chemistry.
Combining heat with smart habits and simple monitors
Heat is a reset button, not a force field. A few habits help keep it that way. Be careful with secondhand furniture. If you must bring in used items, quarantine them in a garage and, if possible, heat treat them separately with a smaller, controlled setup or a dryer for fabrics. When traveling, use luggage stands and keep bags zipped. When you return, run travel clothing through the dryer before it goes into hampers or drawers.
In homes where the original introduction came from a frequent visitor or a particular workplace, take small steps to break the loop. A hard-sided bin by the door for work bags, a dryer cycle for a jacket that lives in an office chair, or a rule that backpacks never go on beds can make a difference. Bed bugs hitch, they rarely wander in from outside on their own.
When heat is not the right tool, and viable alternatives
There are situations where heat is not feasible. Power limitations in old buildings, sensitive medical equipment in a home office, or a unit with strict restrictions on sprinklers and alarms can make a full bake impractical. In those cases, a thorough chemical program with multiple visits, steam on seams and edges, encasements, and diligent monitoring can still achieve control. It is slower and requires strict cooperation with prep and follow-up, but it works when executed well. For isolated items, portable heat chambers or dryers provide a middle path.
Fumigation, the tent-and-gas method used for termite control, also kills bed bugs completely, but it is rarely used for single apartments and is overkill for most residential cases. It requires vacating for several days and specialized licensing. It is a tool for severe, widespread infestations in structures where heat is impossible.
How to vet a provider before you sign
Not all heat treatments are created equal. Before you hire, ask practical questions. How do they monitor temperatures, and where will they place sensors? What minimum temperatures and hold times do they target? How many people will be on the crew, and how long do they expect to be on site? What items do they ask you to remove or protect, and how do they handle sprinkler heads and alarms? Do they include follow-up inspections, and what is the warranty period?
Listen for answers that reflect real field experience. Vague promises of instant, one-hour results or a lack of mention of probes and airflow are red flags. Good companies talk about moving furniture mid-treatment, about flipping cushions and opening drawers, and about the tricky places that need extra attention. They also talk openly about reinfestation risk and the limits of a single-unit job in a multi-family building.
A realistic timeline from first call to all-clear
From the day you schedule to the day you sleep bite-free varies. A typical sequence looks like this: inspection within a few days, prep window of two to seven days depending on your schedule, treatment day that takes most of a workday, and a follow-up inspection about one to two weeks later. If monitors stay clear and you have no new bites, many companies close the case after 30 days. If there is residual activity, a targeted retreatment might follow. Most customers see immediate relief and steady improvement, with the last stragglers disappearing by week two.
What success feels like six weeks later
People underplay the psychological weight bed bugs carry. Sleep improves. You stop waking at every itch. The faint rustle at night no longer sends you out of bed with a flashlight. That change is the real measure. The practical measures help too: clean interceptors week by week, no new fecal spots on mattress encasements, and no bites on ankles or along the waistline. Heat, done with patience and attention to detail, delivers that outcome more reliably than any single method I have used.
If you go into the process knowing what to expect, with a room prepped for airflow and a plan for a calm return home, you give the crew what they need to do their best work. Heat is not magic. It is physics plus sweat, careful monitoring, and follow-through. Applied that way, it earns its reputation.
Business Name: Dispatch Pest Control
Address: 9078 Greek Palace Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89178
Phone: (702) 564-7600
Website: https://dispatchpestcontrol.com
Dispatch Pest Control
Dispatch Pest Control is a local, family-owned and operated pest control company serving the Las Vegas Valley since 2003. We provide residential and commercial pest management with eco-friendly, family- and pet-safe treatment options, plus same-day service when available. Service areas include Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, North Las Vegas, and nearby communities such as Summerlin, Green Valley, and Seven Hills.
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People Also Ask about Dispatch Pest Control
What is Dispatch Pest Control?
Dispatch Pest Control is a local, family-owned pest control company serving the Las Vegas Valley since 2003. They provide residential and commercial pest management, including eco-friendly, family- and pet-safe treatment options, with same-day service when available.
Where is Dispatch Pest Control located?
Dispatch Pest Control is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their listed address is 9078 Greek Palace Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89178 (United States). You can view their listing on Google Maps for directions and details.
What areas does Dispatch Pest Control serve in Las Vegas?
Dispatch Pest Control serves the Las Vegas Valley, including Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, and Boulder City. They also cover nearby communities such as Summerlin, Green Valley, and Seven Hills.
What pest control services does Dispatch Pest Control offer?
Dispatch Pest Control provides residential and commercial pest control services, including ongoing prevention and treatment options. They focus on safe, effective treatments and offer eco-friendly options for families and pets.
Does Dispatch Pest Control use eco-friendly or pet-safe treatments?
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Call (702) 564-7600 or visit https://dispatchpestcontrol.com/. Dispatch Pest Control is also on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and X.
What are Dispatch Pest Control’s business hours?
Dispatch Pest Control is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Hours may vary by appointment availability, so it’s best to call for scheduling.
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