Bed Bugs are a huge source of trouble for residents of the Upper West Side, Western Illinois, and West Hollywood and everywhere in between. No matter where you encounter these pests and how desperate you are to get them out of your home, it is never a good idea to use thermal heat treatments to solve bed bugs.
Bell Environmental cannot repeat and reiterate our point often enough that customers shouldn’t ever use radiant heat to get rid of bed bugs in any location. Not in Montauk, New York, Moline, Illinois, to Monterey, California.
Why not? The simplest reason is that this treatment method causes fires. It’s not worth risking or actually burning your house down to get rid of bed bugs.
Unfortunately a family in Moline, Illinois chose this unsafe bed bug treatment method to try to resolve its bed bugs. The results were a disaster for this Quad City family and impacted their neighbors.
As WQAD reported on april 23, 2018:
MOLINE, Illinois — A fire broke out at a home next to La Rancherita 2 restaurant near the intersection of Ave. of the Cities and 16th St. in Moline on Monday afternoon as it was being fumigated for bed bugs.
The owners were not home but Iowa – Illinois Termite and Pest Control inspectors had been on the premises to exterminate bed bugs, according to Moline Fire Inspector Jerry Spiegel. No one was hurt.
Spiegel said the fire was caused by excessive heat during the fumigation.
Slight smoke and fire damage was visible to the exterior of the home, but Spiegel could not confirm the amount of loss at this time.
The fire was under control by 1:45 p.m. but traffic in the area would be partially blocked until about 2:30 p.m., said Spiegel.
When asked for comment, Iowa – Illinois Termite and Pest Control refused.
We’ve said it before: “Fire Up Your Grill Not Your Home This Summer,” “Where There’s Heat There’s Too Often Fire,” and “Watch Out! Heat Treatment Spread Bed Bugs Through A NYC Co-op.”
And we’ll keep saying it again and again to try to help consumers avoid this dangerous treatment approach.