Is Hot Is Hot Shot Bed Bug Spray Harmful To Humans

Bed bugs are stealthy insect parasites that live with people in their homes. Adults are brownish-red, oval-shaped and flattened like a lentil. By day bed bugs hide in cracks and crevices, mostly in and near beds, and by night they become active to feed – but they are happy to adjust to their host’s schedule.  Bed bugs are not known to spread disease, but most people experience painful itching and swelling from their bites.

It only takes one mated female to start an infestation, and populations can double within 2 weeks. Bed bugs can last several months in the home, but without feeding, all life stages die after about 70 days.

Stop Bed Bugs From Inhabiting Your Home

Tips for the Home

• Seal cracks and crevices around floor moldings, cabinets, and plumbing fixtures.

• Inspect all rented or used furniture for bed bugs before bringing it home, including antiques and garage sale finds.

• Do not use bed frames, mattresses, box springs or upholstered furniture found on the street.

• Be conscious of what visitors might bring in their suitcases, and be aware of the potential risk when helping a friend to move or agreeing to store someone’s belongings.

• If you suspect you have been in a bed bug-infested room, wash and dry your clothing on hot settings or store it in a sealed plastic bag until you can.

Tips for Travelers

• • • Inspect hotel beds, closets, luggage stands and furniture for signs of bed bugs. Also check overhead luggage bins, taxis and other luggage contact areas. Inform management if bed bugs are found.
  • • Keep suitcases on luggage stands pulled away from the wall. Keep belongings stowed away.
  • • Inspect your bags before you leave and again before bringing them into the home.  If your suitcase was closed for most of your journey, it is unlikely bed bugs will be inside.  A quick swipe with a lint roller can usually find any hangers-on.
  • • If you suspect your baggage has bed bugs, contain and isolate it until it can be treated.  Wash and dry the contents of the suitcase and vacuum the inside and outside of your suitcase to kill any hitchhiking bed bugs.  There are also products available to safely treat luggage with heat, including PackTite decontamination systems.

How Do I Know If I Have An Infestation?

• Cup-shaped monitoring traps installed on bed legs will capture wandering bugs. Professionals also use dogs trained to detect bed bugs by smell. It is recommended that you use a third party certified bed bug K9 unit, such as those available through Pestec, to provide scent detection and inspection services.

Pest Smart mobile app
Read on to learn more about low-impact approaches to managing bed bug infestations. Also included is a comparison of the active ingredients commonly used in bed bug pesticide products.

Interested in finding out more about specific bed bug insecticide products? The Pest Smart app is now available in the iTunes Store. Conveniently access pesticide data on your iPhone and iPad while on the job, in the store, and at home.

• Search by product name or registration number.
• Search by pest to find pesticide products that target common household and garden pests like ants, fleas, cockroaches, lawn weeds and aphids.
• Quickly verify the eligibility of a pesticide product for use in the LEED v4-certified Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.
• Compare products and find least-toxic alternatives to streamline decision-making.
• Link to PRI’s Pest Management Bulletins to learn about low-impact methods of pest control that minimize pesticide use and exposure.

Low Impact Approaches

Using a combination of non-chemical methods for treating and preventing bed bug infestations is important for any successful control plan. These are measures that you can take, as well as methods that require special equipment and services provided by pest control professionals.

Exclusion
Don’t panic! Most items can be treated and saved. Throwing everything out is expensive, could further the spread of bed bugs and cause more stress, so discard infested belongings only if necessary.

• • • Seal as many cracks as possible that bed bugs can enter through and use as hiding places. Bed bugs will take advantage of all cracks and crevices, especially inside walls and around doors and windows.
  • • Temporarily prevent bed bugs from accessing a clean bed. First, move the bed away from the wall and other objects. Then make the bed legs impossible for bed bugs to navigate by either placing each leg into a container of water or oil to form a moat, or coating the legs in petroleum jelly.
  • • Place interceptor traps on all legs of a piece of furniture to help prevent bed bugs from infesting it and reduce the movement of bed bugs already on that piece of furniture to the rest of the room. Interceptor traps are inexpensive an can be made out of common household items.
  • • Consider using mattress covers specifically designed to keep bed bugs from establishing a population in your bed. Note that more research is needed on their effectiveness.

Sanitation
Sanitation is key for both treatment and prevention. Keep clutter down to reduce hiding places.

Heat Treatment For Rooms
Pest control professionals have developed total-room heat treatments that are highly effective at killing bed bugs and their eggs. Pestec was an early adopter in using heat to manage bed bug infestations for residential, commercial and hospitality clients and continues to use this technique for treating heavier infestations, cluttered spaces and contaminated items.

• • • Using large heaters, temperatures are gradually raised 130 to 140 ºF (54.4 to 60 ºC) for two to three hours within an infested room.
  • • High velocity fans are used to blow the superheated air into all corners of the room, where heat sensors are strategically placed to monitor temperatures in cracks, crevices and other hard-to-reach areas where bed bugs like to hide.
  • • Once all sensors show that the thermal death point (113 ⁰F) has been reached, the heating process is continued for another hour or more to kill all bed bugs and their eggs.
  • • Belongings, including most electronics such as computers and appliances, remain unharmed. Before heat treatment, unplug electronic devices and check the manufacturer documentation for heat sensitive devices like plasma TVs to find the safe temperature range.

Steam Treatment for Beds and Furniture
Steam cleaning is an effective way of reducing bed bug infestations, particularly in locations where insecticide use may be undesirable.

Cold Treatment for Infested Items
Exposure to an extended period of below-freezing temperatures can kill all life stages of bed bugs.

• • •  Temperatures below 25^oF will kill bed bugs within hours. Home freezers are usually not cold enough to be completely effective.
  • • Putting items outside in freezing temperatures can kill bed bugs, but it can take at least 4 days when the temperature is 0° F and almost a week when the temperature is 20°F.
  • • Some pest control companies use commercial freezers or use spot-freezing equipment to treat areas where bed bugs are found or suspected. Used correctly, this will kill bed bugs and eggs.
  • • Use of cold treatments provides is no residual protection against re-infestation. Spot-freezing and steaming methods also have a limited ability to penetrate wood, fabric and other materials bed bugs inhabit.

Bed Bug Pesticides

Potential Consequences of Using Bed Bug Control Pesticides

Recognize that when you use bed bug control pesticides, you should be ready to deal with these potential consequences:

Precautions to Take When Using Bed Bug Control Products

If you determine that pesticides are necessary, take these precautionary steps to reduce the potential for adverse effects:

• • • Avoid the use of insecticide foggers or  “bug bombs.” Exposure is inevitable with these products, either through breathing the fog or touching a surface contaminated by fogger residue.
    • Avoid daily spray treatments. These approaches are ineffective, contribute to bed bug pesticide resistance, and put people at unnecessary risk of exposure.
  • • Pay special attention to whether the product is approved for indoor use, and make sure that it is intended for bed bugs.
  • • Apply powdered pesticides only in locations that are inaccessible to children and pets.
  • • Inform everyone living and working in the area of the treatment plan and the safety precautions they should take to avoid illness.
  • • Always read and follow the label instructions on the pesticide product. The label is the law and you could be liable for any damage resulting from not following instructions.
  • • Use only U.S. EPA-approved products (see Regulatory Update below for more details).

Types of Bed Bug Pesticides

There are more than 300 pesticide products approved for use against bed bugs; most of these contain compounds called pyrethroids as the active ingredient. Many bed bug populations have developed resistance to pyrethroids and their botanically derived cousins, pyrethrins. Some bed bug pesticides are restricted for use only by licensed pest-control professionals. In general, professionals have the resources and experience to apply pesticides more effectively than residents can do on their own.

Is Hot Is Hot Shot Bed Bug Spray Harmful To Humans

While public health agencies recommend against do-it-yourself treatment of bed bug infestations, knowing what’s involved – from correct identification to the range of treatment options available – will go a long way towards ensuring a safe and successful resolution to your bed bug problem.

No. It is not harmful to humans. Hot Shot Bed Bug Spray is a pesticide that contains pyrethrins and piperonyl butoxide. These ingredients are synthetic versions of naturally occurring substances that act as insecticides in the body of insects. These insecticides are very effective at killing bed bugs.

Because these ingredients are synthetic, they are manmade and do not occur naturally in nature. They also do not have any effects on humans because they are not absorbed into the bloodstream like other insecticides can be. The only way you could get poisoned by this product would be if you licked or swallowed some of it!

List Of Is Hot Is Hot Shot Bed Bug Spray Harmful To Humans