Bed bug heat treatment?

Thanks in advance....


I'm pretty sure I saw a bedbug in between the keys on my macbook pro (purchased in 2011). I am getting a heat treatment to my whole apartment and was wondering if anyone has gotten this procedure done and left their macbook in their home. The temperature of my apartment is said to reach 120-135 degrees.


Has anyone had success ridding their macbook of bed bugs through this heat treatment or another kind of treatment?


Any help would be great!

Posted on May 28, 2013 2:15 PM

Reply
15 replies

May 28, 2013 4:30 PM in response to CMCSK

CMCSK wrote:


User uploaded file



You got to do what you got to do.



The only pesticide that can kill bb's has been discontinued due to health risks to children.


They bite and move fast, have infected many locations in NYC, including Google and Nike/stores near the Apple Store.


http://www.businessinsider.com/niketown-bedbugs-2010-9



All those people dragging their bb infected Mac's into Apple Stores?


They are certainly next. 👿

May 28, 2013 2:49 PM in response to roc2020

roc2020,


See Apple's recommendations:


Operating environment Operating your MacBook Pro outside these ranges may affect performance:

 Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)  Storage temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)  Relative humidity: 5% to 90% (noncondensing)  Operating altitude: 0 to 10,000 feet (0 to 3048 meters)


It might OK I would also investigate an alternative if in fact one exists. You might also try calling your local Apple store and asking what they suggest. Apple support 800-275-2273 see if they have an answer.

May 28, 2013 3:45 PM in response to roc2020

Your MacBook Pro and other electronics cannot handle this sort of heat and will leave too many internal spaces inside untreated where they will simply re-emerge again.



Basically to get rid of them requires stripping the place bare to the walls of any items that they can hid in or lay eggs on unseen.


Then dusting the hidden spots with a fine powder of boric acid, then doing the heat treatment, then caulking every crack and crannies possible from ceilings to the floor, then buying all new everything and only walking into the unit butt naked after a good shower outside each and every time.


Since they piggyback on items, you can't have clean items come in contact with infected or places that are infected, and must maintain a wide separation between clean and infected items and yourself with a shower in between to get them off your person.


For instance you can't use your vehicle for clean items as since your home is infected, so thus is your vehicle and thus will get on those new items to transport into your newly cleaned home.


If you don't see their tell tale dark stains on your sheets, or see them in the cracks of your mattresses, then there are bed bug catchers that slip under your bed posts on the floor. Pull the bed away from the walls and keep blankets and sheets from contacting the floor, that way they will seek to go up the bedposts and get stuck in the traps, where you can see if they are bed bugs with online pictures.


Since they feed at night mostly, but if really hungry or disturbed will travel in the daylight, you can powder the floor with boric acid powder around your bed or favorite lounge chair at night and act as bait, thus they travel through it and leave telltale marks (as well as other bugs) and the boric acid gets on them they clean themselves and it kills them. Although you can't have animals or children around this type of procedure.


Another method is still experimental is using the same medicine given to people who have parasites or lice, they ingest this for months and if the bb's bite, it poisons them and kills them too. However one will have to find a doctor to prescribe the medicine and daily dosage, it's not yet approved for bb's.


A bedbug has to feed five times before it can lay eggs, then it needs a mate, and they can lie dormant for a long time between feedings, so if you can interrupt this cycle with a war of attrition you can keep them from regaining a foothold again.


If your place is heavily or moderately infested, nothing works but getting rid of everything they can hide in or lay eggs unseen. Even lightly infested, one can't do enough to make sure they are all gone or so reduced they can't come back.


I know of one person who's had them and the infected their old white MacBook going into the ports and optical slot, despite everything they tried they finally had to get rid of everything they own.


Supposedly one can drown them, like on clothes that can be submerged in water for a few days, then washed and subjected to high heat drying, that supposedly works. But of course doesn't work for electronics or on areas they lay their eggs hidden.


Due to the high amount of traffic and hotels where I live and the people I deal with, I routinely drown all my worn clothes for two days in a garbage can and wash outside before coming into my house after being at those locations or at homes of people who work at those locations.


I never place my computer down, or cases, bags or anything they can crawl into and I don't sit except on a edge of a table or chair for short periods only.


Also they can drop off the ceiling into your hair or bed, that's what a friend of mine watched one do that crawling across the ceiling after spraying the floors with ineffective bed bug killer (which just drives them into all the cracks and into other apartments etc)


Best method is to keep them close to your bed and kill them with a war of attrition, not scatter them.


I wish you luck 🙂

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Bed bug heat treatment?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.