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Answer:
Your idea should work. However, it may take longer than a few hours to kill the pre-adult fleas. At 95°F (35°C) and less than 33% relative humidity (RH), the fleas will die within 24 hours. They’ll take longer to die at a higher RH (2 days between 50% to 75% RH). See chart. They’ll die sooner in hotter temperatures.
Similarly, flea larvae spinning cocoons won’t survive their metamorphosis into adults at 95°F (35°C). This temperature is the upper limit for all life stages (eggs and larvae can survive in slightly warmer conditions, but they won’t reach maturity).
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to give you a specific answer on how long it will take to kill the fleas. Most studies done on temperature don’t go beyond 95°F (35°C), and the time to death is recorded in days, not hours. There’s one study that showed 100% of flea larvae will die at 109.4°F (43°C) when exposed for 4 hours. Only the larval stage was studied.
Another problem is that temperatures are kept constant in a lab, so there’s no cooling off at night. Outdoors, when temperatures exceed 95°F (35°C) for more than 40 hours a month, there’s complete mortality in developing fleas. This study didn’t say how long it took the fleas to die off, just that they die.
I’m not sure how much you’ll be able to increase the temperature within the black plastic. It seems like it shouldn’t be too difficult to reach 95°F (35°C) and beyond. Though I’m not certain, especially since autumn is upon us.
If you’re making it air-tight, it’s going to trap the humidity within the bag. If you vacuum out the air, it may affect the ability to increase the temperature. This part I’m not certain on: I think maybe the air itself is the medium which heats up to reach extreme temperatures (such as in a car during summer).
I think the best solution would be to wrap it in black plastic, as air-tight as possible, and inside the plastic place a container (or bowl) of Damp-Rid. This will bring the humidity to extremely low levels.
Hope this helps!
Adam
