What temperature high and low do viruses and bacteria die?

Question

Do they die outside in the winter? Do they all die if they receive sun?

Answer 1

It all depends on the organism itself. However, if you heat them both hot enough, it is possible to kill off most of the viruses and bacteria. Obviously there are some exceptions to the rule, like the thermophiles (bacteria) that live off the sulphur vents beneath the ocean (they can withstand up to 130 C). And it also depends on how fast you heat them. If you allow bacteria some time, they could form spores which would protect them from the heat, and even radiation. These would "hatch" and become active and alive bacteria once you remove the heat treatment. Thankfully viruses can't do that.

If you freeze both of them, you don't really do anything much to the viruses since they are already in a dormant protein crystal form when not infecting cells; but if you freeze bacteria slowly, they can survive due to the spores again. If you deep froze them quickly, you might cause damage to them by forming dangerous ice crystals within them, but most bacteria would just hibernate and reactivate once the temperature is right again.

So in general, heat treatment is to kill, while freezing is to slow down or prevent bacteria from multiplying like jackrabbits.

Answer 2

It really depends on the organism. Some bacteria and viruses live within a very small temperature range and die if they get too hot or cold, where others can live at some pretty extreme temperatures. In general they die if at 100 C for an extended period of time or are frozen for a period of time but this is only a general rule, some are able to "hibernate and live through temperature extremes and "wake up" when the temperature is more moderate.

Answer 3

Low Temperature Virus

Answer 4

bacteria and fungi are preserved in microbiology labs in liquid nitrogen or dehydrated into pellets. to kill bacteria, heat or radiation must be applied. the exact temperature is specie specific, but generally, if it burns you, it burns and kills the bacteria. I couldn't imagine any bacteria common to the atmosphere living through temps of about 120 F.

Answer 5

To add to what signius said, bacteria have been found in ice sheets in Antarctica that have been frozen for 100s of thousnads of years. Scientists have been able to thaw them and they come back to life (so they never actually died).

Answer 6

generally, viruses die if you freeze them and bacteria die if you boil them over 118 degrees celcius....

its ironic really...you can't kill them both at the same time

Answer 7

some of them will die but some of them not, because some can resist to cold, but most of them die when expose to uv light (sun light consist uv)