How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

To get rid of bed bugs, you have to kill every life stage — including eggs — in every place they hide, then keep checking until weeks pass with no new bugs. In practice that means heat (dryer, steam or professional heat), mattress encasements, interceptor cups and desiccant dust, with a second round about two weeks after the first.

Most failed attempts follow the same script: buy a spray, treat the mattress, sleep on the couch, set off a fogger. A month later the infestation is bigger and has spread to a second room. This page is the plan that avoids that.

Step 0: confirm it's bed bugs

Before spending money, find a bug, a shed skin, eggs or fecal spots. Bites alone aren't proof — fleas, mosquitoes, chiggers and skin conditions cause similar marks. Use our inspection guide. Keep a specimen on clear tape; a pro or your county extension office can confirm it.

What doesn't work (and why)

• Bug bombs / total-release foggers. The mist settles on open surfaces; bed bugs are in cracks. Studies have found foggers barely affect hidden bed bugs, and they can scatter them. They also cause fires and poisonings every year.
• Store-bought pyrethroid sprays alone. Many US bed bug populations are highly resistant to pyrethroids (permethrin, deltamethrin, bifenthrin). Sprays also don't kill most eggs.
• Rubbing alcohol, bleach, essential oils, vinegar. Kill only what they drench, if that. Alcohol is a fire hazard on bedding.
• Ultrasonic repellers. No effect.
• Leaving for a week or turning off the heat. Adults can live for months without feeding.
• Sleeping in another room. The bugs follow you and you've doubled the treatment area.
• Throwing out the mattress without treating the frame, nightstand and baseboards — and dragging it through the house uncovered.

The DIY plan, step by step

This works best when bugs are confined to one bed or couch and you caught it early.

1. Bag and heat textiles. Bedding, clothes near the bed, curtains, pillows, stuffed toys: into sealed plastic bags in the room, carried straight to the dryer. Dry on high for at least 30 minutes (washing alone isn't reliable; the dryer heat does the killing). Store clean items in new sealed bags until the problem is over.
2. Declutter the bedroom. Every pile of clothes, boxes and papers is a hiding place. Bag it, heat what can be heated, and keep it out of the bedroom.
3. Vacuum. Use a crevice tool along mattress seams, box spring, bed frame, baseboards and carpet edges. Empty the vacuum into a sealed bag and put it in the outdoor trash immediately.
4. Steam. A garment or carpet steamer that delivers at least 160–180 °F at the tip. Move slowly — about an inch every few seconds — along every seam, tuft, joint and crack of the mattress, box spring, bed frame and upholstered furniture. Use a cloth over the nozzle to spread airflow so you don't blow bugs away. Steam kills eggs too, but only where it actually reaches.
5. Encase the mattress and box spring in zippered covers rated for bed bugs. Leave them on for at least a year; any bugs trapped inside will die.
6. Isolate the bed. Pull it 6+ inches from the wall, tuck in bedding so nothing touches the floor, and put interceptor cups under every leg. Now the only way to you is up the legs — and into the traps.
7. Apply a desiccant dust in cracks: behind baseboards, under outlet and switch plates (power off), inside the bed frame and box spring frame, under the couch's dust cover. Silica gel dust or diatomaceous earth labeled for bed bugs; a light, barely visible film, applied with a bulb duster. Wear a dust mask.
8. Repeat vacuuming and steaming every 7 days for at least 3–4 weeks, and check the interceptors weekly.
9. Monitor. You're done when interceptors and inspections stay empty for 6–8 weeks.

More on dusts: diatomaceous earth for bed bugs. Cheap remedies people ask about are reviewed honestly on bed bug home remedies.

Insecticides: if you use them

Only use products whose EPA label lists bed bugs and the specific site (mattress, cracks and crevices). EPA has a searchable bed bug product tool. Products that combine a pyrethroid with a different class (for example a neonicotinoid), or that contain chlorfenapyr, tend to work better against resistant bugs than pyrethroids alone. Never use outdoor or agricultural products indoors, and never treat the sleeping surface of a mattress unless the label allows it. Read the whole label; the label is the law.

When to call a professional

Call a pro if any of these apply:

• Bugs are in more than one room, or in walls and outlets.
• You've had bites for over a month and DIY isn't reducing them.
• You live in an apartment or attached home (neighbors need coordination).
• Someone in the home can't do the heavy prep, or there's a lot of clutter.

What a good service looks like:

• A real inspection before a quote, sometimes with a trained dog (good dogs help; ask for visual confirmation of any alert).
• Written prep instructions — and you actually doing them.
• Either heat (raising the room to about 120–140 °F for several hours; kills all stages in one day, no residue, but no lasting protection) or chemical treatment with 2–3 visits about two weeks apart. Many companies combine heat with residual dust.
• At least one follow-up inspection included.

Be wary of companies that guarantee results in a single chemical visit without follow-up, or that offer fumigation of an occupied home.

Typical costs (approximate, US): $300–$1,500 per room for conventional treatment, $1,500–$5,000+ for whole-home heat, more for larger homes. See pest control cost.

How to sleep in the meantime

Keep sleeping in your own bed. If the bed is isolated — encased, pulled from the wall, legs in interceptors, bedding not touching the floor — you'll be bitten less, and bugs that can't feed can't lay eggs. Moving to the couch spreads them.

How long it takes

• Professional heat: one day, then a follow-up check after 2–3 weeks.
• Professional chemical: usually 2–3 visits over 4–6 weeks.
• DIY: realistically 6–12 weeks of weekly work, then monitoring.

Eggs take up to about 10 days to hatch, so anything that doesn't kill eggs must be repeated to catch the new nymphs before they mature.

How to prevent bed bugs from coming back

• Keep encasements on and interceptors under the bed for months.
• After trips, unpack outside the bedroom and run clothes through the dryer.
• Inspect used furniture with a flashlight before it comes inside.
• In apartments, caulk gaps around baseboards, pipes and outlets on shared walls, and tell management right away about any new bites.