WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The occasional infestation of bed bugs into University of Florida dorm rooms has motivated researchers there to develop portable eradication devices for the bothersome little bloodsuckers.
The invention, created with less than $400 in equipment, can heat to 113 degrees and is big enough to slide a mattress or dresser into.
The heat destroys the bed bugs, but doesn't damage the furniture.
A study using the device appears in the current issue of Journal of Economic Entomology.
"You're very limited in what you can do to fight bedbugs," said urban entomologist and UF professor Phil Koehler.
Bed bugs have made a resurgence following the ban on pesticides that were found to damage the environment. Treatments include massive fumigations, where entire buildings are tented.
A more recent patent was awarded to a private company that developed a way to heat treat an entire building. But for universities, which have thousands of students living in close quarters, large-scale treatments can be burdensome and unnecessary.
Treating a single room, or floor of rooms, could be accomplished more efficiently with UF's new portable heat chamber.
"It's somewhat like cooking a turkey," Koehler said of the bed bug banishing process, which includes putting probes in some infested items to monitor temperatures.
UF researchers note that while it is can be effective to put clothes and sheets in a standard dryer on high heat to eliminate bed bugs, no one should attempt to build their own heat treatment device for furnishings.
Home-built devices could lead to fires, they warn.
Kimberly Miller writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: kimberly(underscore)miller(at)pbpost.com.