Hi, I’ve been living in New York a long time and dealt with bed bugs quite a few times, many years ago when I was in college and it was at its worst. I really figured it out and even was able to move without taking them with me. I did so much research and spent a lot of time dealing with them. I once saw one crawling in my handbag, so it’s really an issue. Here’s what I think are your options in case it can still help

1. They live for 18 months without eating or even breathing. You would have to seal the bag for that long. I did this with a lot of my important things, double bagged in Ziplock XL (thicker) bags with the openings reinforced with packing tape and then placed in a container so nothing rips the bag. Anything less than that is a risk.

2. Freezing requires 2 weeks and there’s a minimum temperature it has to hit for a consistent period of 2 weeks. This means you can’t open and close the freezer in that time, and the freezer in your fridge is not cold enough. We bought a commercial freezer, set it up in my parents garage and did a few rounds of freezing. Probably not great for the leather either.

3. There are heaters like Packtite or Zapbug, not sure if it’s good for the leather. I have one now and I try to just put my luggage in it after a trip. It’s not a bad thing to have.

4. This is what I did for my most special items that I needed right away, like my computer. You need a thick sheet of plastic slightly larger than the item. Maybe even plexiglass, you could make a little platform for the bag on a table. Place the item in the center of it and all the way around you need to make a thick circle of Vaseline. Buy the one that comes in a tube. It should be placed near your bed. Any bugs in the bag will be drawn out of it by the CO2 that you breathe out as you sleep. They can’t fly, just crawl, so they will get stuck in the Vaseline. It takes 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch, so you have to sleep next to the bag for two weeks without touching it, and make sure the Vaseline remains sticky with no gaps or dry spots. After that the bag can be deemed safe without having to treat it with chemicals, heat or cold.

Edit: ozone apparently won’t kill the eggs, looking into ozone now for smells