A locally owned Madison company is leading the way and turning to a new, green technology to eliminate bed bugs. And as NBC 15's Michelle Riell reports, it's less harsh and guaranteed to be more effective than using pesticides.

Rick Freye says, "That's bed bug droppings, here." Freye is the owner of Professional Pest Control.

He and his team are on the job at a local apartment infested with bed bugs, a parasitic insect thought to be picked up because of poor hygiene, but is most commonly transported from hotels or motels or through worldwide travel.

Freye says, "When people throw out their mattresses and their box springs and that, that's a good start, but that's not even getting close to the ones that are behind the baseboard, behind the door moldings, behind picture frames."

To get at the heart of the infestation, Professional Pest Control is using a new, green technology called thermal remediation, instead of the more common approach of harsh pesticides.

Freye says, "What we do here is we heat the environment, the entire apartment, up to 120 degrees." They keep that temperature or higher for three hours using four, 460 volt heaters and fans to move the hot air around the rooms.

Freye says, "Heat kills all stages of all life cycles of the insect, from egg to adult."

John Bloyer who also works for Professional Pest Control says, "We've also got laser temperature sensors so we can get in and make sure the clothes are getting that warm as well."

The difference with this treatment is the heat actually draws the bed bugs out of hiding, whereas the pesticides would cause them to scramble, sometimes into other units.

Freye says, "They'll move around and try ot get away from the heat, he doesn't know which way to go, he keeps going in circles, back and forth, up and down."

After that it only takes a few minutes for the bed bugs to dehydrate and die. Freye says, "There's no damage, it kills the bed bugs that are in TV sets, that are in night stands, alarm clocks, computers, monitors, keyboards anything, anywhere they're out, it will flush them out."

After treatment, residents are able to come back into their home immediately.

Professional Pest Control says they have been booked solid since purchasing the thermal remediation system in mid- November.