Technical Abstract: Developing heat treatment methods to control insect pests in harvest commodities has traditionally relied on empirical trial-and-error approaches. There is a need for an effective means to systematically develop and assess heat treatments to save time and expenses. In this study, we developed a cumulated lethal time model based on the efficacy of different hot water treatments for killing codling moth in cherries. In experiments to validate the model, mortality in codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), larvae was evaluated in infested cherries subjected to various periods of temperatures in warm water baths. Minimum temperature-time combinations to achieve complete kill of codling moth larvae in cherries were determined and compared with the prediction of the cumulated lethal time model. This model calculates the accumulative lethal effect of the complete process by using measured temperature-time data in the core of cherries based on established intrinsic thermal death kinetics of the target insects. This model accurately predicted the specific temperature-time boundary for complete kill of infested insects, regardless of how the insects were exposed, and can be used to predict the thermal mortality of the insects for a heat treatment, provided that the temperature-time history is measured. This procedure should allow for rapid efficacy comparisons in a range of thermal treatments against codling moth larvae in different commodities. Keywords: Cumulated lethal time model, Thermal death kinetics, Codling moth, Cherries, Quarantine treatments, Methyl bromide.