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Santa's been checking his list, and every last bedbug is on the naughty list!
This year, Santa has a present for all bed bugs: HOT DEATH!!
Bedbugs are nationally in the news this year, and I have encountered them in a hotel that I use for business travel. I avoided bringing the bugs home by building my last bedbug killing machine for my luggage (http://www.instructables.com/id/Kill-Bedbugs-in-your-luggage/)
Why do you need to treat your luggage for bed bugs? Simple. If you happen to be staying in a place that has bedbugs, it's possible for them to hide in the seams of your luggage, which apparently is a favorite place for them to hide after feeding. This can happen in any kind of hotel (in my case, a good-quality business hotel I had stayed in many times before) and it can still happen even if you check the room for bed bugs. I checked, didn't find any, and was still bitten on the first night I was there.
Like my last project, this one uses heat to kill bedbugs. It's similar in operation to commercially available products like the Packtite (http://www.packtite.com/) using a heat source in a heat chamber to raise the temperature of items to 125F to kill bed bugs and their eggs.
There was a lot of discussion on my last project - someone called it a "Hacktite" - and people were concerned about the amount of wiring that was necessary and I was thinking about an improved version. Fortunately, inspiration struck while I was hanging my Christmas lights...
Why Christmas lights? I needed a heat source that could put out between 350-400 Watts of evenly distributed heat. Hotplates and hairdryers put out too much heat; and things like room heaters don't have thermostats that go up to 125F. Christmas lights are perfect for the job!
This is a simpler project than my last bedbug killing machine, it requires only the most basic home electrical skills. This version is cheaper, and for this one you don't even need to take a trip down that weird aisle fully of funny-looking connectors at the Home Improvement store for supplies since most "big box" general retailers will have everything you need.
This project necessarily brings electricity in close contact with metal, and uses an electrical appliance (the lights) in a method for which it was not intended. You must follow all the safety precautions in this instructable. Even so, you do this at your own risk, if you have any concerns about building or using this device, please buy a commercial product like the Packtite or hire a professional Pest Control Operator instead.
This year, Santa has a present for all bed bugs: HOT DEATH!!
Bedbugs are nationally in the news this year, and I have encountered them in a hotel that I use for business travel. I avoided bringing the bugs home by building my last bedbug killing machine for my luggage (http://www.instructables.com/id/Kill-Bedbugs-in-your-luggage/)
Why do you need to treat your luggage for bed bugs? Simple. If you happen to be staying in a place that has bedbugs, it's possible for them to hide in the seams of your luggage, which apparently is a favorite place for them to hide after feeding. This can happen in any kind of hotel (in my case, a good-quality business hotel I had stayed in many times before) and it can still happen even if you check the room for bed bugs. I checked, didn't find any, and was still bitten on the first night I was there.
Like my last project, this one uses heat to kill bedbugs. It's similar in operation to commercially available products like the Packtite (http://www.packtite.com/) using a heat source in a heat chamber to raise the temperature of items to 125F to kill bed bugs and their eggs.
There was a lot of discussion on my last project - someone called it a "Hacktite" - and people were concerned about the amount of wiring that was necessary and I was thinking about an improved version. Fortunately, inspiration struck while I was hanging my Christmas lights...
Why Christmas lights? I needed a heat source that could put out between 350-400 Watts of evenly distributed heat. Hotplates and hairdryers put out too much heat; and things like room heaters don't have thermostats that go up to 125F. Christmas lights are perfect for the job!
This is a simpler project than my last bedbug killing machine, it requires only the most basic home electrical skills. This version is cheaper, and for this one you don't even need to take a trip down that weird aisle fully of funny-looking connectors at the Home Improvement store for supplies since most "big box" general retailers will have everything you need.
This project necessarily brings electricity in close contact with metal, and uses an electrical appliance (the lights) in a method for which it was not intended. You must follow all the safety precautions in this instructable. Even so, you do this at your own risk, if you have any concerns about building or using this device, please buy a commercial product like the Packtite or hire a professional Pest Control Operator instead.
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Signing UpStep 1Materials
For this project you will need:
- A 30 gallon or larger metal trashcan
- Between 350 and 400 Watts of incandescent Christmas lights:
- "C9" bulbs are usually 7W each and usually come in strings of 25 bulbs, making 175W per string. Start with one string initially and add a second string if it's cold outside and you need more heat. Two strings (50 bulbs) will give you 350 Watts.
- "C7" bulbs are usually 5W each and usually come in strings of 25 bulbs, making 125W per string. Start with two strings initially. Three strings (75 bulbs) will give you 375 Watts and might work a little better if it's colder where you live.
- A thermometer with a remote probe
- A thermometer with a long probe (optional, but it will help to make sure you don't destroy your luggage)
- A christmas light timer (try to get the kind with a built-in GFCI circuit breaker)
- If your christmas light timer doesn't have a built-in GFCI circuit breaker, then you must either have a GFCI outlet on your house to plug into, or a separate GFCI plug, or an isolation transformer available.
- A 3-conductor extension cord (one with a ground prong)
- A 3-prong replacement electrical plug
- A 3/8" clamp connector for 1/2" knockout (optional, but recommended)
New safety items needed since this Instructable was originally posted:
- A small sheet metal screw or a ground screw
If you use the wiring method:
- A short length (about 2 feet) of green stranded (not solid) ground wire
- Another 3-prong replacement electrical plug or a grounding adapter plug
- A grounded power splitter (the one I'm using here is a 3-way)
If you use the almost-no-wiring method at step 2:
- A long length of green stranded (not solid) ground wire, long enough to reach from your bedbug death chamber to the nearest copper water pipe
- A ground clamp (sometimes called a saddle clamp) that allows you to connect a ground wire to a water pipe - there's a picture of it at step 2.
Tools:
- Screwdriver
- Drill (optional, but recommended)
- Wire cutter
- Wire strippers
- If you choose to follow the "no cutting, no wiring' method at step two, you'll need a pipe wrench or similar tool with large jaws.
- A 30 gallon or larger metal trashcan
- Between 350 and 400 Watts of incandescent Christmas lights:
- "C9" bulbs are usually 7W each and usually come in strings of 25 bulbs, making 175W per string. Start with one string initially and add a second string if it's cold outside and you need more heat. Two strings (50 bulbs) will give you 350 Watts.
- "C7" bulbs are usually 5W each and usually come in strings of 25 bulbs, making 125W per string. Start with two strings initially. Three strings (75 bulbs) will give you 375 Watts and might work a little better if it's colder where you live.
- A thermometer with a remote probe
- A thermometer with a long probe (optional, but it will help to make sure you don't destroy your luggage)
- A christmas light timer (try to get the kind with a built-in GFCI circuit breaker)
- If your christmas light timer doesn't have a built-in GFCI circuit breaker, then you must either have a GFCI outlet on your house to plug into, or a separate GFCI plug, or an isolation transformer available.
- A 3-conductor extension cord (one with a ground prong)
- A 3-prong replacement electrical plug
- A 3/8" clamp connector for 1/2" knockout (optional, but recommended)
New safety items needed since this Instructable was originally posted:
- A small sheet metal screw or a ground screw
If you use the wiring method:
- A short length (about 2 feet) of green stranded (not solid) ground wire
- Another 3-prong replacement electrical plug or a grounding adapter plug
- A grounded power splitter (the one I'm using here is a 3-way)
If you use the almost-no-wiring method at step 2:
- A long length of green stranded (not solid) ground wire, long enough to reach from your bedbug death chamber to the nearest copper water pipe
- A ground clamp (sometimes called a saddle clamp) that allows you to connect a ground wire to a water pipe - there's a picture of it at step 2.
Tools:
- Screwdriver
- Drill (optional, but recommended)
- Wire cutter
- Wire strippers
- If you choose to follow the "no cutting, no wiring' method at step two, you'll need a pipe wrench or similar tool with large jaws.
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I have now added instructions for grounding the can. If you have already built one of these, PLEASE look at the new instructions and add a ground. It only took a few minutes to do. This is for your safety, do it before you next use it!
Also some experiences:
I am mostly using ONE strand of lights and getting the air temperature in the can to 100-120F. That's still enough to get the luggage contents to 125F. The temperatures I was using earlier (150F-175F) were melting some of the plastic parts on my luggage.
GCFI will work fine with only 2 prong and no ground. GFCI does not use the ground to detect fault. a GFCI trips when the hot wire current and neutral wire current are not equal. when a ground fault happens, current goes from the hot and straight to ground, causing more current to go through hot than neutral, and the GFCI trips.
After thinking some more I realized that if a bulb breaks or if the insulation on the lights fails, and if the can subsequently becomes electrified, then the can could actually stay electrified and the GFCI won't trip immediately. Then whoever happens to touch the can would become the path to earth and THEN the GFCI would trip.
It would probably hurt a bit and probably wouldn't be fatal to a healthy adult, but they keyword here is probably. I will update the instructable later this afternoon to include a ground for the can.
You'd also have to consider whether CO2 would kill any eggs that might have been laid in your luggage, my guess is probably not.
You're on the right track though. Is there any other gas that could be used to gas bedbugs to death? Vikane gas has been shown to do it (it's the same gas used by professional pest control operators when they "tent" a house for termites)... It's also quite deadly to humans as well unfortunately.
Can anyone think of an effective and safe way to gas bedbugs to death?
But who knows, I'm sure there has to be some case studies which yield the appropriate information regarding low temperatures and lack of oxygen...one has to think about what makes an egg germinate...ie....what triggers it's birth?
Two years is a long, long time for anything to lay dormant. I guess in comparison to the cicada insect, it's nothing..
I have heard that diatomaceous earth will kill almost all insects including bed bugs.
Does anyone have any information about this?
Mickey
And..... No More Fleas!!! Good Luck!!
DE is a truely amazing thing to behold. There are some cautions to include:
a) Apply With Care Because its a sharp micro particulate, and it
can suspend in the air where we then inhale it into our delicate lungs.
Humans must be cautious to spray it or use it without combining it with
some kind of liquid or moist media such as oil or food, etc. Combine DE
and water with a sprayer, is the best way to apply, it keeps the DE from
being in the air and then you inhaling it. There are tons of sprayers
you can get, usually on the same websites or amazon. Some are
specially made for cracks and crevaces. Application is key with DE.
b) Clean-Up after applying DE can be just as toxic to lungs, as you can
stir up the dust again, avoid vaccuming it up, use a damp mop. Avoid
applying it on a carpet unless you can cover it with a drop cloth or
avoid the room for a while, etc. Its like moon dust, and will stay
suspended for some time.
b) Consumption - internal, be sure to get "food grade"... and if/when
you take it, best to also add bentonite clay and also fiber, such as
psyllium and flax seed, with AT LEAST 10 oz water with the DE mix,
and 10 oz afterwards. A good idea is to chase that with probiotics.
That is even more comprehensive than I could have imagined.
Now I am prepared for the little bug---s just in case.
Mickey
If anyone can think of how to either protect or decontaminate a bag safely and effectively with Diatomaceous earth, your own instructable awaits you!
Also you could add a CPU fan to circulate the air inside the container... Another saftey feature would be to add an Earth/ ground to the metal can incase you accidentally leave liquid in the luggage.
However there are some things that can't be washed and dried, like the suitcase itself!
Since bedbug behavior is to eat and then hide, the natural folds and crevices in the average piece of luggage are an attractive hiding place for them.
If you think you've been staying in a location that has bedbugs (or might have bedbugs), I think you need to decontaminate your luggage as well as the contents.
Final thought/warning on using a public facility like a laundrette or laundromat to decontaminate your stuff: if doing so, PLEASE make sure that you don't let any bedbugs loose in the facility. If you do that, and one of them hitches a ride home with someone else, then you just contaminated someone else, and that person could easily bring their infested bedding to the same laundromat that you use...
the new "eco" dryers and washers, are being built not to get the water or
air very hot, to save energy. And what this seems to be doing is a) rendering
dryers and washers ineffective in the fight against bedbugs/lice/etc. but also in some cases b) giving cotton mites or other bugs a nice cozy place to reproduce, making the problem worse.
My sister is a pharmd, and they tried EVERYTHING to get rid of their lice. All sorts of nasty chemicals. With professionals involved. With MD's involved.
With an entemologist. She did the homework on the dyers. They actually installed an upgrade to make their washer and dryer hotter. Hot water should be over 140 I believe to be effective. I no longer use the dryer and hang all my stuff outside. The UV from the sun kills things. Dryers or washers with silver in them can help.
If I make one suggestion. A temperature controller would help hold the lights at 125F. This would avoid getting too hot and allows the user to not have to monitor the temperature.
http://screwdecaf.cx/yatc.html
After building the first one and realizing that the amount of power needed to heat the can was a lot less than I expected, I put the thermostat way down on the 'optional list". Given that the amount of heat this puts out (350-375 Watts) is about a quarter of what an average hairdryer puts out, and we're dealing with a pretty large volume and mass of stuff to be heated, the rise of temperature is going to be pretty slow, and I chose to monitor it manually.
But, if a thermostat makes you happy, go for it.
nice instructable
I ran mine for an hour or so, and it crept up to almost 170 f.
It has no thermostat, but I imagine some dehydrators do.
The temperature could be adjusted by changing the amount of ventilation, but that might create a condition of uneven temperature.
I think the author is dead on with the lamps. There are other items but lamps seem safer and just easier to deal with, and trouble shooting a bad filiment is easy it either lights up or it doesn't.
Making a circuit that controls the voltage to the bulbs in relation to temperature is what is really needed. Not turn them on/off . If you find a crappy element dead food dehydrator , and pull the thermostat control it might work.
I doubt my bud has time but, I will ask him if he can make one up, if so I will post it.
And
7 or 4 watt lamps on a loop are way way better then the plans I had for the food dehydrator since they used 2-4 big lamps. The little ones, while more expensive, let you string out the heaters like a heat coil in a toaster. they heat more evenly.
ciao
There are places that sell appliance parts , but there technical staff may not have answers. They are used to a part number and then read a spec, not the reverse. Open coils would force you to make a double drum for safety. Nope your idea with the lights is a good one, the only other option is making a false floor and and placing the coils beneath it and then a set of stand offs (grill) to be sure the unit never touches the suitcase.
this is one http://www.repairclinic.com. I have bought many parts from them, and learned how to fix a few things as well.
the dryer is calling so
ciao
http://screwdecaf.cx/yatc.html
Couldn't you just put your suitcase in a large cardboard box, cut a small hole in the top, stick a hair dryer in there for 15 minutes? 120 degrees for 10 minutes will kill the evil, but I can't imagine the hair dryer could get up to 451 degrees or whatever the combustion point of the suitcase materials. Could it?
This instructable is not going to help you if you already have an active bedbug infestation except POSSIBLY as part of an overall pest-control strategy laid out by a professional.
As for the box-and-a-hairdryer idea, if you can make it work safely, go for it. One problem you might have is heating up the inside of the box too fast for the heat to penetrate to the core of the luggage... definitely use the hairdryer on its lowest setting until you know how hot you are making it. Part of my idea of using the steel can was that if you do accidentally set fire to your luggage, then the fire is contained within the can at least and hopefully denied oxygen to keep burning.
A thought I had which combines both ideas would be to cut a hole in the can and place the nozzle from the hairdryer into the hole, hopefully keeping the hairdryer in its normal operating range while still heating the contents of the can. The can wouldn't cut off oxygen to a burning suitcase, but it would still be contained.
Perhaps even simpler would be to use an unadulterated galvanized can and heat the whole thing from the outside, for example, with a fan heater directed at it, or with a hotplate under it. I haven't tried either one of these, but if you can make one of them work, please make a new Instructable and cross-link from here!
Another thought I had was
it's simple, fast, and cheap :)
- Heat (as in this instructable)
- EXTREME cold, for a period of days or weeks
- DDT (banned in most countries, and there is some evidence that they are resistant to it anyway)
- Vikane gas (which is really deadly to humans too, should only be used by licensed pest control operators)
- Mechanical damage, for example, with diatomaceous earth which cuts them open at a microscopic level
- Starvation - but they can survive 18 months without a meal...
175F = 80C degrees approximately.
Good wrap-around insulation would be a great help in keeping the heat in and would speed up the process considerably.