Do Fans, Air Conditioning or Dehumidifiers Affect Bedbugs in Wandsworth?

People ask about this in summer, when the fan is running all night, and in winter, when the dehumidifier is on in a damp flat. Others have read that bedbugs dislike heat and wonder whether turning the heating up would help. The short answer to all of it is no. Here is why, and what each appliance actually does.

Fans

A bedroom fan moves air across the room, but bedbugs spend almost all their time tucked into seams, joints and cracks where the air barely reaches. They are not blown away, and they do not dry out. A fan running all night can make bites feel less itchy by keeping you cool, and that is all.

Fans do not stop bedbugs feeding either. They find a sleeping person by warmth and breath, and a breeze across the bed does not hide either.

Air Conditioning and Cold Rooms

Very severe cold can kill bedbugs, which is where the idea comes from. A comfortable air-conditioned bedroom is nowhere near cold enough, and the bugs inside the mattress and frame are sheltered from it anyway. Turning the air conditioning down only makes the room less pleasant for you.

Opening windows in winter is the same: the room feels cold, the bedbugs in the bed frame carry on.

Dehumidifiers and Damp

Damp and bedbugs are separate problems. Bedbugs live on blood, not on moisture in the air, and they settle into dry, well-heated homes as happily as damp ones. A dehumidifier is worth running for mould and condensation, but it will not dry them out of a bed.

Silverfish and some other small insects do prefer damp rooms, which may be why the two get connected. If you are not sure what you are looking at, our London guide on bedbugs or something else helps you tell them apart.

Turning the Heating Up

Bedbugs do die at a high enough temperature, but ordinary central heating, a portable heater or underfloor heating is designed to keep people comfortable, and it keeps bedbugs comfortable too. A warm flat is, if anything, a pleasant place for them. Please do not try to heat a room yourself with extra heaters, a hairdryer or a heat gun: it will not work, and it is a fire risk. The Wandsworth Town page covers flats with underfloor heating in more detail.

The Fans We Do Use

The fans that matter are the circulation fans in a professional heat treatment. Heaters raise the whole room to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive, and the fans keep the hot air moving so it reaches the floor, the backs of wardrobes and the inside of the mattress as well as the ceiling. The room is then held there and checked with a thermal camera for cold spots. Our London guide on how heat treatment works explains the equipment, and the heat treatment page for Wandsworth covers what it looks like in local homes.

Before a Treatment

Leave your fans, dehumidifier and air conditioning where they are unless we tell you otherwise. For heat treatment, some electronics come out of the room first, so if you are unsure about a particular appliance, ask when you ring. For chemical treatment, see the chemical treatment page for Wandsworth.

← Bedbug Control Wandsworth · Bedbug Control London