A kerosene heater is one of the common space heaters that people use nowadays. It is cheap, warm, effective, and easy to use. However, I believe that there is a doubt in you about the use of this kind of heater to kill bed bugs. That’s why you come to this article.
The kerosene heater cannot kill bed bugs because the heat generated is intended only to warm up. To kill bed bugs, it takes at least 113°F of heat for 90 minutes to kill adult bed bugs and 8 hours to kill bed bug eggs. To shorten the eradication, we can increase the heating temperature to 122°F to kill bed bugs and their eggs. That is why we need effective heaters to kill bed bugs.
Before we start discussing it, you may want to read why a kerosene heater is not effective to kill bed bugs. But, if you don’t want to know, just skip it and use the following table of content to jump to the next section in this article.
What is a kerosene heater?
A kerosene heater is a portable space heater that uses paraffin as heating fuel. In some countries like Japan and others, people use this heater as the main heater in the house. Meanwhile, for other countries such as Australia and the United States, this heater is an emergency heat source.
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Commonly, a kerosene heater is used as a room heater because this type of heater is able to warm the entire room or only part of the room. In this case, the heater is usually divided into two types, namely convection and reflection heaters.
This type of heater is of course cheap in terms of cost, but unfortunately, the air in the room will be easily polluted by gases from combustion. Therefore, nowadays, people use the link between the combustion chamber and the outside air.
Why is a kerosene heater ineffective?
The use of a kerosene heater to kill bed bugs is certainly not effective because it requires so much heat at a constant minimum of several tens of minutes for one room. Heating a room means that we need to reach at least 113°F (45°F).
On the other side, kerosene is flammable. Based on this article, at 110 °F, kerosene will reach its flash point which is the minimum temperature at that liquid forms ignitable vapors. And then, at 410 °F the ignition starts. Well, it is completely dangerous and risky.
So, this is why a kerosene heater is only used to warm a room not to kill bed bugs. It is because the higher the heat, the more dangerous it is. In this case, we do not expect any ignition from kerosene that is accidentally spilled from the heater. It can cause a fire.
So it is completely ineffective.
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What kind of heater can I use to kill bed bugs?
There are tons of heaters on the market today. It’s just that most of these heaters are not really used to kill bed bugs. Most of the heaters that are sold are indeed only used for heating the room only. Therefore, here are some effective heaters that are indeed used by professional exterminators to kill bed bugs.
Portable Bag and Chamber Heater
One other type of heater that is often used by professionals is a portable heater. Its use is quite simple, that is, insert objects that are indicated to be hiding places for bed bugs into the bag or chamber, heat it up, and wait for it to finish. Then, bed bugs will die completely.
This portable heater is very useful for people who do not have too much time to explore the small folds in the mattress or the narrow crevices around it. In addition, sometimes we often miss a point or two where bed bugs live and will breed again in the future. Of course, this kind of tool is more practical and saves energy.
This portable heater can generate heat up to 120°F which is enough to kill bed bugs and their eggs. With the heat at this level, you can also kill bed bugs hiding in electronic devices. However, for electronic devices, of course, you have to read the manual from the device because not all electronic devices are able to continue to operate properly after being heated to such a high temperature.
This type of heater has several variants, ranging from the smallest to accommodate suitcases to the largest to accommodate furniture. Of course, the price is different from each other. It is tailored to our budget and needs as users. For small houses, the bag heater is a good option because it does not take up much space.
Steam Heater
The steam heater is a multifunctional heater that is able to kill bed bugs, mites, and clean objects in the house using hot steam power. Basically, this tool uses water that is heated and then sprayed to the destination points in the form of very hot steam.
The steam produced is hot up to 210°F which is more than enough to kill bed bugs and their eggs. This type of heater is very suitable for cleaning carpets, mattress folds, narrow crevices around mattresses, pillows, mattresses, bed covers, etc. which tend to be hiding places for bed bugs.
This heater has many accessories that are very useful for reaching small crevices where bed bugs hide. As we know, bed bugs often choose hidden places to lay eggs and breed. Therefore, if the spread of bed bugs is only around the bed, then this tool is certainly right for us.
In addition, this tool can be used to clean shells, dirt, and even the remains of dead bed bugs that are usually difficult to clean. This is because basically this tool is created to clean stains and dirt that are difficult to clean using hot steam. However, because the steam produced is very hot, this tool is the choice of professionals to kill bed bugs thoroughly while cleaning the remnants of the bed bugs.
Conclusion
Eradicating bed bugs with heat is a safe method because it does not cause pollution or leave residue after treatment. Unfortunately, in this case, a kerosene heater is not recommended because this type of heater is intended only to warm the room. On the other hand, to kill bed bugs, a fairly high temperature is required.
Therefore, the use of other heaters such as steam and portable bag and chamber heaters is recommended to eradicate bed bugs through the heat treatment method. This is because these two tools have indeed been proven to be effective in eradicating bed bugs and have also been used by professional bed bug exterminators. So, what are you waiting for? Immediately switch to using these two tools right now.