[toronoto.bedbug (OP)]

bedbugs are still a major public concern and there are some serious factor, but there seems little evidence that bug-tracking is a major priority for public health officials?

[majorminor]

Change and wash your bed sheets regularly?

[graham.d]

Actually from a program I saw on the TV they can be very hard to get rid of if you get an infestation. They don't stay conveniently in the bed but nest under floors, behind skirting boards etc. The solution that was shown was to bring in equipment to heat the whole house up to some quire high temperature for a while. It is very expensive and, in the example on the TV, was only temporarily effective as the source of the bugs was in a neighbour's house (it was a terraced house) which was not sterilised by this action; the bugs were breeding there and getting through via a common roof space I think.

[majorminor]

Cant say Ive ever noticed them  but I am sure they there. We have an understanding, they dont show themselves and I dont scream like a girl.

[CliffordK]

Heat would seem like an easy, non-toxic method to get rid of pests. 
How hot does it have to get?  How long?

It might be a pain to heat the house to over a hundred degrees in the winter, but say on a 90 degree summer day, one could imagine boosting the temp up to 130 or 140 or so inside the house. 

[confusious says]

Bed bugs are an increasing problem, you need to hire specialists teams to destroy them, they hide in pockets and creases of mattreses, the headboard and other places, and are not easy to locate, a suitable pesticide is used to kill them.

[wolfekeeper]

Heat would seem like an easy, non-toxic method to get rid of pests. 
How hot does it have to get?  How long?

It might be a pain to heat the house to over a hundred degrees in the winter, but say on a 90 degree summer day, one could imagine boosting the temp up to 130 or 140 or so inside the house. 

You need to get it up to 75... 75 centigrade, that's 167 F.

And if you do it slowly... they adapt and don't die.

Cant say Ive ever noticed them  but I am sure they there. We have an understanding, they dont show themselves and I dont scream like a girl.

They come out at night, at about 5am when you're asleep, trundle over to you, suck your blood, scuttle back into the skirting boards, and breed. They do this every few weeks, up to once every 9 months without dying of hunger. The longer it goes without you finding them, the more of them there are, and the more they do this.

[Mazurka]

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.

[evan_au]

The following podcasts discussed a bedbug infestation in New York:
3 minute "cute" video: http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/27/2010/psychological-reappraisal-of-bedbugs.html
10 minute audio: http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/08/27/2010/bedbugs.html
12 minute audio: http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/12/09/2011/inbreeding-to-blame-for-bedbug-renaissance.html

Their method of reproduction is somewhat extreme...

[evan_au]

Some information on treatment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug_control_techniques
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbugs#Management