QUESTION:
Amvac had an online brochure for the use of
heat with their Nuvan Pro-strips for bed bugs.
Not a heat machine for bed bugs, just a small
electric radiator type. The chart showed the
difference with and without heat and it was
phenomenal. The use of heat gave you complete
kill in 48 hours rather than the 7 without. My question is this. The label still allows for large furnishings, etc. to be put in sealed rooms, but no mention of heat, and the sales brochure has been removed from their website. Do you know if they are no longer endorsing the
heat approach?
ANSWER:
At the NPMA Conference last month I attended every possible educational session on bed bugs, and really increased and updated my knowledge on them. Nuvan Prostrips, I have to say, got a pretty good plug in several of the sessions, and the use of heat along with the strips was mentioned several times. However, since the use of heating devices along with the Nuvan strips is not currently on the Nuvan label I suspect Amvac is being very, very careful with the subject. They have a fantastic product that fits a very important need for us – the fumigation of electronic equipment to eliminate any bed bugs or their eggs within – and they would hate to blow the opportunity by jumping the gun and having the EPA come back with some regulatory punishment.
One session presented by Dr. Phil Koehler out of the Univ. of Florida highlighted some field studies he did using Nuvan strips in vacated college dorm rooms. He tested the results with 3 options – Nuvan strips alone, Nuvan strips with a fan blowing past them, and Nuvan strips with a fan blowing past a heater and then the hotter air flowing past the Nuvan strips. As you mentioned, the time for complete control of bed bugs planted in that room dropped from 7 days to 1 day, for the Nuvan alone versus Nuvan with fan and heat. HOWEVER!! A representative immediately stood up and politely cautioned everyone in the room that this was currently NOT a labeled use of the Nuvan, but only a field research study that may lead to some new labeled uses.
At the Amvac booth in the exhibit hall the Amvac reps also now tell us that heat greatly diminishes the time needed for kill of bed bugs and their eggs. For example, the current university recommendation for fumigating computers within plastic bags is 2 weeks, to be certain the eggs are all killed. Amvac reps suggested that if the heat within that bag can be increased to about 85 degrees it drops the needed time to only 5 days. The heat volatilizes the dichlorvos from the resin strip faster, causing the concentration of the dichlorvos to reach the necessary level faster for killing the insects and, very important – their EGGS.
So, this is probably the reason you now do not find Amvac literature touting the use of heat along with the Nuvan strips. They prefer to wait for EPA approval or blessing before making this suggestion. All of the literature a manufacturer makes available is referred to as the product “Labeling”, as opposed to the product “Label”, and if it is in writing from the manufacturer it is the same as a recommendation. They are just being careful, but I’d look for this in the future. In the meantime, hopefully our industry members will NOT use added heat until it is legal to do so, or we are likely to blow a good thing.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
Pest QuestionsNovember 18, 2011
