Toronto Heat Wave – A Perfect Time to Treat Your Car for Bed Bugs!

June 30, 2018

Concerned about bed bugs in your car? This weekend’s heat wave in the Greater Toronto Area will be a perfect opportunity for you to effectively do a bed bug heat treatment for your car!

With the temperatures anticipated for this weekend, leaving your car in the sun for only 5-10 minutes will turn your car into a heat chamber that can kill bed bugs within minutes.

If you have small items you also wish to treat for bed bugs with heat, you can further take advantage of the heat wave by securely sealing them in clean bags and leaving them in your car for the afternoon also.

How much heat kills bed bugs?

Heat treatment is a proven non-chemical method of killing bed bugs. All life stages (adult, larva, and eggs) die within minutes at a temperature of 49°C.

Bed bugs exposed to 45°C will die if they receive constant exposure to that temperature for 90 minutes or more. However, they will die within 20 minutes if exposed to 48°C. Interestingly, bed bug eggs must be exposed to 48°C for 90 minutes to reach 100% mortality.

How hot can a car get?

At 21°C on a sunny day, after half an hour, the temperature inside a car is 40°C. After an hour, it can reach 45°C. When temperatures outside range from 26°C to 38°C, the temperature inside a car parked in direct sunlight can quickly climb to between 54°C to 78°C.

So, if you were not looking forward to the scorching temperatures forecasted for this weekend, neither are any bed bugs looking to hitchhike (pun intended) in the city!

– Paolo Bossio