Using freezing cold temperatures to kill bed bugs is one option.
Kill bed bugs with cold.
That leaves bed bugs an extended period in which they are free to mingle and perhaps even escape your sealed bag.
Bed bugs resort to a process called supercooling to deal with temperature drops but are not not as freeze tolerant as some other bugs like cockroaches.
In most cases the pest can die at temperatures that are lower than 3.
Extreme cold doesn t work to kill bed bugs but extreme heat will so we have learned that bed bugs are very tolerant of cold weather much more so than other pests.
They would need to be in 0 degree weather for several days in order for them to reach 100 mortality.
Other experts suggest the required period is at least two weeks.
So what temperature will kill bed bugs.
When it comes to high temperatures more than 100 degrees fahrenheit 37 778 c starts to damage bed bugs whereas 113 f 45 c can kill bed bugs in 90 minutes and 118 f 47 778 c can kill them in 20 minutes.
The epa says that even at 0 f cold weather can take several days to kill bed bugs and almost a week when the temperature is 20 f.
Temperature that kills bed bugs a similar process can be used with heat.
Cold weather will not necessarily kill bed bugs.
But they also found that bed bugs no matter in what life stages they are and their feeding status can be killed after being exposed in temperatures of 16 degrees cold for 80 hours.
You can compare your insect to the pictures on our identifying bed bugs.
What they have very little tolerance for however is intense heat.
The researchers said that bed bugs could survive cold temperatures as low as 25 degrees celcius.
Joelle found that bed bugs are tolerant to cold to an extent.
Put an infested object such as bedding or pillows in a sealed plastic bag then put it in a freezer at zero degrees fahrenheit for about four days.
Think through your treatment options don t immediately reach for the spray can.
The eggs of the bugs survived in short term exposure to even lower temperatures of 25 degrees c.
As for the low temperatures 13 f kills both adults and bed bug eggs in about several days.
Instead they are freeze avoiders and produce their own antifreeze.
Make sure you really have bed bugs not fleas ticks or other insects.
However compared to other insects the bed bug is not good at supercooling to keep the chemical and physical tactics unfrozen.
Bed bugs don t form internal ice crystals and then thaw out.
Therefore the insect is vulnerable to cold.
Top ten tips to prevent or control bed bugs.