PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
A local agency is giving bedbugs the sauna treatment, but it's anything but pampering for these pests.
The Bud Clark Commons, a public housing complex at 655 N.W. Hoyt St., uses a "bedbug sauna" to keep bedbugs out of the building.
New tenants coming in are required to put all their belongings in the closet-sized treatment room.
The bedbug sauna is then turned on and the room begins to heat up. The items must maintain at least 130 degrees for two hours to kill the bugs and their eggs, according to Rodger Moore, assistant director of property management for Home Forward, the agency in charge of the building.
Moore said the bedbug sauna was being used by a similar facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, so the local designers included it when the Bud Clark Commons was getting off the ground.
He said it has been very successful, but the property managers also stress education and the importance of early reporting about potential bedbug outbreaks to tenants.
"It is one tool in a tool box," Moore said of the bedbug sauna.
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