Five Ways To Kill Bedbugs

6 min readSep 13, 2019

Bedbugs. If there’s a less liked creature on earth, it’s hard to imagine what it would be.

Bedbugs have a way of sparking visceral fear in people. Those of us who have been in the pest control field for a while remember what it was like back when bedbugs were almost unheard of. As recently as a couple of decades ago, bedbugs were extremely rare. So rare that people began to forget that they had ever existed.

Unfortunately, that happy state of affairs was doomed to come to an end. Starting in the tail end of the 90s, this once-rare species began reappearing, initially in port cities like Miami, San Francisco, and New York. From these areas, they quickly spread across the US. Now, there isn’t a city in the country — maybe not the entire world — that doesn’t have a thriving population of this bloodsucking pest.

So if the combined efforts of humanity were unable to wipe out this species, what hope do you have of getting them out of your home? Well, it’s not going to be easy. But it’s not impossible. Here are the steps you should take to rid your home of bedbugs.

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Identify the Bed bugs

First you should identify the bed bugs. Adult bedbugs are 3/16 of an inch or 4 to 5 mm long & generally oval-shaped. Their color varies from red to orange to brown.

Bed bug closeup — Closeup of a bed bug on human skin

1. Wash and Dry All Fabrics

Part of what makes bedbugs so tricky to eliminate is that they can hide almost anywhere inside the house. However, they do have preferences. Female bedbugs like to stick their eggs down, and this is much easier on a textured surface such as fabric. Metal, plastic, and glass aren’t great places for bedbugs to live. But wood and textiles are.

Unsurprisingly, a bedbug’s favorite place to live is the bed. Not only does this provide them with lots of harborage areas in which to hide and lay their eggs, but it also keeps them close to their food source. Unfortunately, that means you.

Bedbugs feed on blood, and only blood. Specifically, human blood. Bedbugs will bite other mammals such as dogs and cats if they’re hungry enough. But they display a preference for us. And beds are the ideal place for them to bite us since that’s where we spend most of the night.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking staying out of bed will stop you from getting bitten. Bedbugs will come and find you wherever you are. Sleeping on the couch just means you’re going to end up with a couch full of bedbugs instead of having them in your bed.

The first step in getting rid of these horrible pests is to wash and dry your bedclothes and all the fabric in your home. Heat kills bedbugs. The heat of a regular dryer, especially if you only half-fill the drum, is enough to kill bedbugs and their eggs.

Once you’ve washed your clothes, it’s a good idea to keep them in bedbug-proof containers. Plastic totes work great for this purpose, but in a pinch, garbage bags will do. Just make sure you don’t tear a hole in the bag and let the bedbugs inside.

2. Use Diatomaceous Earth

Unless you’re in the pest control industry, you’re unlikely to have access to some of the pesticides that work to kill bedbugs. But that doesn’t mean you’re helpless. One effective treatment method is to use diatomaceous earth, or DE.

This naturally occurring substance acts as a physical barrier to bedbugs. Any bugs that try to cross this fine powder will dry out and die, due to multiple lacerations to the exoskeleton that keeps water inside their bodies. Diatomaceous earth is safe to use around the home, so you don’t need to worry about it affecting your health. But don’t go too crazy with it. You want to use a light dusting, instead of piling it up in large mounds that the bugs will simply avoid.

Sprinkle this dust on your bed frame and your mattress, around heat pipes, along baseboards, and anywhere else bedbugs could be hiding. Which is a lot of places. Your home may look like some avant-garde bakery/art installation for a while, but it’s better than having bedbugs.

3. Vacuum Regularly

The simple solutions are often the best. Bedbugs struggle to survive inside a vacuum. Whether you have carpet or not, it’s a good idea to vacuum regularly and suck up any bugs you find. This isn’t going to solve the problem by itself, but it will help to keep the population in check.

Make sure to empty your vacuum immediately after using. If possible, empty it into a bin outside the building, so that any bedbugs that survived the vacuuming process won’t be able to find their way back into your home.

4. Use heat

Remember earlier, when I said heat kills bedbugs? Well, it’s true. Temperatures over 122°F will destroy not only adult bugs but also the eggs, which are impervious to many pesticides. This is important, since the bedbug’s high reproductive rate means that killing adults is only a partial solution. You need to kill every bug and egg in your home if you want a chance of success.

Cranking your thermostat isn’t going to help, however. What you need is a way of applying extreme heat in a targeted manner without burning your house down. One of the best ways to do this is to use a steamer. Commercial steamers generate vapor well above the temperature needed to kill bedbugs, and they do it without the use of a naked flame or any other dangerous heating element. The hotter the steam, the quicker the kill, and the deeper the heat will penetrate into your mattress, box spring, sofa, and other furniture where bedbugs may be hiding. As a rule, if it can be steamed, you should steam it. Just because you don’t see evidence of bedbug infestation doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

5. Hire A Professional

Every pest control professional knows that bedbugs are one of the toughest pests to get rid of. There’s no shame in having to call for outside help. Trust me — it takes years of experience to get good at killing these pests. And even then, they can still surprise you.

Professional bedbug extermination isn’t cheap. But if you’ve tried everything else and are still being bitten, it may be the only way to regain your sanity.

But before you reach for the phone, give some of the methods listed above a try. You have nothing to lose but your bedbugs.