The morning routine, or that of the evening, is composed of various essential moments such as brushing your teeth or drying your hair. If you have little time to get ready but still want to have your hair done, a blow dryer will prove to be a precious tool.
You can use it to dry your hair quicker to avoid getting ill, or whether you need it to achieve the perfect blow-dry. In this article we will answer the question : Can you get rid of Bed bugs with a blow dryer ?
About Blow dryers
The blow dryer, also called hair dryer, is an indispensable object for many men and women on a daily basis. However, it is not necessarily good for the hair that you expose it to high temperatures. It is therefore essential to choose a device adapted to your hair type.
A hair dryer or blow dryer works with a rechargeable battery or via electric plugs. The principle is simple: the air is sucked in from the rear and projected forwards thanks to a fan driven by a motor.
The minimum temperature of a hair dryer is 122°F (50° C), the average temperature is 194°F (90° C), and the maximum is 257°F (125° C). If you use a hair dryer incorrectly, it can really damage the hair and even worse, burn them. Be cautious when you use a blow dryer. We will see later in the article that the projected heat of the device is what will kill bed bugs.
How to know if you have bed bugs?
First you need to ensure that you are experiencing a bed bug infestation.
Unfortunately, these pests are difficult to spot. We often notice their presence after a few months by noticing the more and more recurrent bites or by coming face to face with a bed bug.
Bed bugs, as well as their feces (black spots visible to the naked eye) or their eggs, are generally found in the folds of mattresses, box springs, sheets, clothes or even curtains. Traces of blood can also appear on the sheets, following the crushing of a bug during the night.
Their bites are often grouped together by 3 or 4 on the skin at the level of the exposed parts of the body: the face, the hands, the arms, the back or the legs. These bites disappear by themselves in about ten days. As far as possible, avoid scratching them, to limit skin scarring.
About Bed bugs
Bed bugs, often hidden in bedding, bite sleepers to feed on their blood. We recognize their presence by the red lesions of the skin due to the bites, by the small black spots on the sheets, corresponding to their dejections. You can also find streaks of blood on the sheet left by a crushed bug.
Where do bed bugs live?
If you want to get rid of bed bugs with a Blow Dryer, you need to know where those pests are located in your home.
They are nocturnal insects. Those insects are mostly active at night and try to avoid light. This is where you can usually find them :
- Close to the bedding area. Which means close to their food source (you!). It could be in the mattresses, the box spring, bed frames or the mattress headboard for instance.
- Living room sofas, cracks in walls and floors, behind paintings, curtains, where they hide during the day.They indeed also live in dark, tiny and quiet places.
- They also can live in the washing machine if they have been brought there by contaminated laundry and if the washing is always done in lukewarm water.
They are attracted to vibrations, heat, odors and carbon dioxide (CO2) released by the individual.To obtain their food, they bite the sleepers during the night. But, they never live directly on human beings.
These insects cannot fly. They only move by walking a distance of a few meters and are therefore most often transported from one place to another when moving an infested item. This item could usually be a bag, a suitcase or clothes for example.
The presence of bed bugs is not linked to a lack of cleanliness. Anyone can see their home infested.
Can you get rid of Bed Bugs with a Blow Dryer?
A bed bug, regardless of its life stage (adult, nymph, egg), dies when its body reaches a temperature of 140°F (60°C) for a few seconds. So heat is lethal to those bloodsuckers. This is why you can kill them with a hair dryer if you aim it with hot air directly at them.
You can usually find Bed bug eggs directly in the nest. Using a blow dryer is an effective way to get rid of them. Because the heat emitted from the hair tool. With this method you won’t risk an allergic reaction due to the insecticides sold to treat those pests.
No method alone can guarantee you a 100% effective treatment against those bloodsuckers. So you need to try several treatment methods. Even professional exterminators often try several types of treatments before they get the better of them. They usually use heat treatment along with other professional grade items. Some companies even use a trained dog to detect bed bug infestations.
You can use a hair dryer to get rid of some of those invaders in your furniture. But do not count on ending an infestation with a hair dryer only. Indeed there will be spots that will be hard to treat with a hair dryer. Such as cracks and crevices or the seams of a mattress. That is why if you plan to eradicate them by yourself, you should use it in addition to other DIY methods. Such as steaming, washing your clothes and bedding on high heat mode, vacuuming, encasing your bed, and using bed bug traps, among others.
Another way to kill these insects using heat is to get them in a Sauna. To learn more, you can have a look at our article on Saunas and Bed Bugs.
Will a blow dryer kill bed bug eggs ?
Bed bug eggs have the particularity of being sticky. This is due to the special substance that completely covers them. Thus, the eggs can attach themselves to materials such as concrete, wood or even clothes. Once laid, they stick together forming small clusters. You can usually find them in the nests.
Their eggs have a slight resemblance to a grain of rice, having a slightly translucent, whitish color. And being around 2 mm of size.
Their eggs cannot survive temperatures above 150°F (65° C). So they will not be surviving if you pass slowly onto them with the heat coming out of a hair dryer.
How to get rid Bed bugs with a Blow dryer ?
In this section we will see how you can use a blow dryer to get rid of bed bugs :
- Locate the bed bug’s nest. And identify where they could be passing by to feed. (They could climb the bed legs to get to you during the night for example.)
- Start heating those areas with your blow dryer in high heat mode. One method is to first do the high section of a room, to slowly work your way down to the lower part of the room. Hold the blow dryer at least 8 inches away from the surface you are treating to avoid any burning.
- Heat with your device cracks, crevices and any small dark spots in your room. Because this is where those insects like to hide.
- Repeat this heat treatment as long as you detect their presence in your home
Whatever the case is, you should always follow the instructions delivered in the user manual in the blow dryer you purchased. If you interested about DIY heat treatment you might want to have a look at our Space heater and Bed bugs article.
Conclusion
Heat is a great quick way to kill bed bugs. However if you want to use heat to end an infestation you cannot only rely on a blow dryer. To answer the question : Can you get rid of Bed bugs with a blow dryer ? The answer is Yes. Done poorly, these remedies can be ineffective.
To be sure to kill all the eggs of the pests, you might as well bet on a product designed to kill those bloodsuckers. The best is indeed to have heaters that are specifically designed to get rid of them.
By heating the whole room to reach every crack and crevices. Which would be hard to reach with a blow dryer. If you want to know the best heaters for bed bugs available in the market. You can have a look at our Best Bed Bugs Heaters Buying Guide.