I-Team: Bedbug Treatments Leave Homes in Flames

People who get bedbugs often say they would try anything to get rid of the bloodsucking pests, and now there's debate over a type of heat treatment after several fires across the U.S. and Canada are being blamed on bedbug exterminations gone wrong.

In the summer of 2011, a 50-unit condominium in Edmonton, Canada burned when exterminators used a pest control treatment known as radiant heat, according to investigators there. It promises to eradicate bedbugs using industrial space heaters and fans to bring every square inch of an infested room above 120 degrees. Exterminators say more than an hour and a half of exposure to such high temperaturesensures a 100 percent bedbug kill rate.

The problem is, warming confined spaces with powerful heaters carries serious fire hazards, according to some experts.

The worst that can happen is you can burn your house down, and youre risking your life, said Glenn Waldorf, of Bell Environmental Services in Fairfield, N.J.

After the Edmonton condominium building burned, Canadian fire investigators issued a $10,000 fine to Calgary-based pest control company Bed Bug Task Force. The exterminators were found to have used propane heaters against fire code. The owners of the apartment building are now suing Bed Bug Task Force for $3.5 million in damages.

Bed Bug Task Force did not return the I-Teams email seeking comment.

Radiant heat treatments have led to other disastrous fires closer to New York City. Last month in Woodbury, N.J., fire officials said a man accidentally set his house on fire while attempting to kill bedbugs with a do-it-yourself radiant heat treatment. In October of 2012, fire investigators in New Hampshire said a three-family home burned down during a heat treatment. Last Valentines Day, firefighters in Dayton, Ohio, responded to a second-floor fire and found a pest control company was using heaters and fans to kill bedbugs.

Consumers are panicked. You have bugs in your home. Youve got these little vampires in your bed biting you, and they imagine companies have solutions and dont think through what the issues are with any of the various solutions out there, said Waldorf.

Waldorf said using cryogenic freeze technology is much safer than using heat to kill bedbugs. But while some pest control outfits warn against thermal treatments, others stand by radiant heat as the gold standard in bedbug extermination.

Robert Suriano, president of Bliss Pest Protection Services in New York City, recently invested tens of thousands of dollars in heaters and fans intended for bedbug eradication. He said the recent fires prove only that homeowners should trust trained professionals and avoid low-cost, do-it-yourself heat treatments.

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I-Team: Bedbug Treatments Leave Homes in Flames