You can't seriously be suggesting that people heat their homes to well over 100 degrees right? Sounds like that could be very damaging to your home and your health. I'm not even sure it's possible to get a house that hot just using a conventional furnace.

The advice I've always heard for heat and bed bugs is to pull out your hairdryer. Find them where they're hiding and zap them!

So no...I don't think heating works by cranking your thermostat. Heating works by targeted attacks with a hair dryer or heat gun.

Yeah, pretty sure they mean using things like heat guns, steamers, and hot dryers anything that can be washed.

This is very misleading! Having had tenants that had BBs, I heard (and read) several competing thoughts on the temperature in which they would not survive. Never anything as low as 113 though! Most were well over 300. Regardless, they will scurry when the heat comes and will live in the cracks and crevices of floorboards, baseboards, windowsills, in walls, behind electrical sockets, etc.. I've seen this happen! I've seen someone try to steam their mattress to get rid of them and while that may kill some of them on the mattress, the others that crawl away will reinfest the rest of the room/house. While I am very green and environmentally conscious, sadly bedbugs do not respond to those applications. They barely respond to repeated treatments of toxic chemicals. Little jerks.

This article reads as incomplete. Heat the mattress how? Surely not by turning up the thermostat. It may be cute to end the story by implying we turn up our thermostats, but it's not very helpful.

Have to agree with everyone here... sounds a little crazy. However, I hear that freezing them does apparently work. Cold weather is around the corner, so if you live in a cold climate and acquire a used piece of furniture and you are able, leave it outside (porch, unheated garage, covered in plastic on the patio) long enough to be freezing cold all the way through (overnight?) before bringing it in.

Hi everyone! I found a video that highlights how this heat treatment works, and I've updated the post with a few more resources.

I revise: According to the University of MN
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/M1196.html

Items that cannot be washed may be heated or frozen. Currently, research is being conducted to determine the most effective thermal conditions for killing bed bugs, while not damaging materials. However, based on related research, a two-hour core exposure at 120°F (45°C) should be considered a minimum target temperature for heat treatments. For freezing, a minimum of 23°F (-5°C) must be maintained for at least 5 days. As the temperature is decreased, the time of exposure is shortened. For instance, the articles could be “flash frozen,” resulting in a very short time of exposure, but the target temperature should be -15°F (-26°C), the conditions required to instantly freeze the eggs. Keep in mind that most household freezers will have varying temperatures between 30°F and 20°F, and a 2-week freeze time is recommended if you are uncertain of the freezer temperatures.

UGH - They sure are resistant little buggers!!

When we had bedbugs, the toxic stuff the council used brought us all out in rashes - it was much worse than any of the bedbug bites in the first place so I'd definitely be tempted to at least try heating.
(They never got into my bedroom, as soon as we spotted them elsewhere I started quarantining the room - had house pyjamas to wear around the house but wouldn't sleep in my bed in them, didn't wear my work clothes around the house and then wear them in my room - i kept a plastic bag on the door handle with the potentially buggy clothes in and changed on the threshold.)