# High heat, and paintings.



## Defenestrator (Sep 1, 2014)

Hello, all. I'm not an artist myself, but my father was...and it's because of him that I'm here. Because of him, and because of bed bugs.

My late father left us about 2 dozen of his paintings. None less than a decade old, most substantially older. A handful of watercolors, and a lot of acrylic/oil -- most of those on canvas, with a few on wood. Only one of the acrylics, and all of the watercolors, are behind glass, but all have been nicely framed.

Wednesday, we're having the house heat treated for a bedbug infestation. Yes, it's been hell. And I've found that at least one of the paintings was harboring bugs, and almost certainly their eggs.

And I'm trying to figure out what to do. The house is going to be raised to temperatures of about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, for a period of about eight to ten hours. I don't want to damage the paintings, but I also don't want to re-infest the house -- my kids are really suffering. Isopropyl alcogol will kill the little monsters, but I don't want to damage the paint...and it's damned hard, if not impossible, to be sure that I've gotten all of them. They may be between the canvas and the stretcher, and there's no easy way to tell.

Anyone have any kind of idea? I am at my wits end here, and have no idea what I can do.


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