How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

May 5, 2025

Expert Tips for Preventing and Dealing with Bed Bug Infestations

Worried you have a bed bug problem and want to find out how to handle it? Interested in learning some basic prevention and detection strategies to keep your home clean and clear? We’ve got you covered!

The term “bed bugs” refers to several species of blood-sucking insects from the genus Cimex. Active mostly at night, these insects feed on the blood of sleeping or sedentary humans, though they can also feed on other mammal species commonly found near homes, like mice, rabbits, dogs, and cats.

Around World War II, bed bugs were nearly eradicated from developed countries thanks to the widespread use of potent—and dangerous—pesticides that are no longer in use. But in more recent times, a variety of factors, from increased global travel and commerce to growing insecticide resistance and diminished pesticide use, have led to a bed-bug resurgence.

That means that bed bugs today can show up almost anywhere, including the fanciest hotels and the finest homes. So if you find yourself struggling against bed bugs, don’t take it too hard—we’ve got the tips you’ll need to understand and tackle the problem effectively. Here’s a quick overview of the basic steps involved in the process:

• Positively identify the bed bugs
• Eliminate clutter
• Turn your bed into an island
• Use interceptors and encasements on your bed
• Get rid of hiding spots
• Clean everything you can in the infested area
• Vacuum regularly
• Hire a pest management professional, who will likely employ both chemical and non-chemical extermination methods
• Monitor your results long-term
• Implement prevention strategies

As a side note, Oxi Fresh is ready and willing to get your carpets and upholstery clean and fresh, but we can’t take on your bed bug infestation. Thankfully, the rest of this article will show what you need to do to clear up the issue!

Signs You Might Have Bed Bugs

If you’re worried about bed bugs, keep your eye out for some of the following signs. Since bed bugs feed on human blood during the nighttime hours, they’re normally found where people sleep or rest at night, and they tend to group together in out-of-the-way spaces, like cracks and crevices.

If you think you might have bed bugs, see if you can actually find them with your eyes, using a flashlight and a small mirror to help. Start your search in your home’s bedrooms, although they can also show up in bathrooms, living rooms, and beyond. In particular, be sure to check for the insects:

• All around your bed, including the mattress, box spring, bed frame, headboard, and any nearby folds, tufts, seams, or crevices (you might even need to disassemble the bed)—85% of bed bugs are found in or near a bed
• On furniture—the remaining 15% of bed bugs are typically found on upholstered furniture
• Behind clocks, picture frames, wallpaper, and other items that might conceal them
• In cracks in wood floors, under the edge of carpets, behind electrical outlets, and in any other small openings

Bed bugs are small and nearly flat, enabling them to squeeze into very tight spaces that can make them hard to find. Beyond searching for the bugs themselves, look for spots or smears that might reveal their presence. Bed bugs deposit fecal spots of digested blood while they’re feeding, leaving spots and smears (typically dark red, dark brown, or black) on bed sheets, pillows, mattresses, and more. If you find dark blood spots in your bedroom, you might have bed bugs even if you can’t see them.

Likewise, bed bugs molt several times in their lifecycle, casting off their old shell each time. Finding empty insect skins is another potential tell. Beyond that, you may notice a pungent, rotting smell coming off heavily infested areas.

Naturally, since bed bugs feed on human blood (they can consume up to six times their weight in blood during a single feeding lasting 3 to 10 minutes), they also leave behind raised wheals, blisters, rashes, swelling, itchiness, and other blemishes visible on your skin. However, many other insects can also cause this sort of irritation, so finding bite marks and swelling alone cannot be used to positively identify bed bugs.

If you think you have bed bugs but can’t find or identify them yourself, call a pest control service for help. Pest management professionals have an array of tools at their disposal that can help detect even small bed bug infestations, which can be tough to notice with the naked eye. If you do find some yourself, make sure you’ve correctly identified them and immediately take steps to control the infestation (more on these points below).

How to Correctly Identify Bed Bugs

Many times, people think they have a bed bug infestation when they’re really dealing with another problem entirely, so it’s crucial to correctly identify bed bugs if you think you’ve found them. In fact, 76% of samples submitted for identification at the University of Minnesota were not actually bed bugs at all.

So, generally, that means you should reach out to a professional expert to determine what you’re really dealing with. Thankfully, if you can collect a sample of the pest, you can probably get it ID’d by an extension agent in your area for free. Just check out this site to find an extension office near you.

If the expert you contact identifies the insect as a bed bug, inspect all areas in your home that might have bed bugs to determine how extensive the infestation has become. If you’re renting, notify your landlord immediately and check the housing codes and laws in your area; your landlord may be responsible for resolving the issue.

Beyond that, here are a few important facts that can help you try and narrow down the insect species on your own before you reach out to an extension agent:

• Adult bed bugs are oval-shaped, wingless, about ⅕ inch long, and rusty red, mahogany, or brown in color
• Adults have flattened bodies and well-developed antennae
• Adults look similar to wood ticks
• Nymphs, or immature bed bugs, are identical to the adults except for their smaller size (roughly 1/20 to ⅕ of an inch long), thinner outer skeleton, and lighter color, often appearing yellowish-white
• After a meal, bed bugs become more purplish-red in color, larger, and more cigar-shaped

Beyond these pointers, the finer details of identification are best left to the experts, who will likely need to use microscopes or other magnification to identify the specific insect in question.

Next Step: Contain the Infestation and Stop the Spread

So you’ve found some bed bugs—now what? Before you start trying to exterminate them, it’s crucial to try and contain the infestation and stop them from spreading further throughout your house in the meantime. It’s also a good idea to contact a pest management professional as soon as possible, but we’ll share more information about finding the right provider down below.

Here are some key steps to take as soon as you’ve found the bugs.

Eliminate Clutter

Throw away excess magazines, newspapers, cardboard boxes, and other unneeded items in the area, as bed bugs are happy to hide in all of these items. If you need the boxes for storage, switch to plastic if you can.

You should also keep all clothing off the floor and toss or donate any clothing (or other items) you no longer use or need. You may need to heat-treat these items before moving them anywhere else, which we’ll talk about shortly.

While clearing the clutter, make sure you’re not transporting, throwing away, or donating anything that’s contaminated with bed bugs, which could easily cause them to spread further. Don’t move any items from an infested area to a non-infested area without sealing them in plastic bags first.

If you find something that is indeed infested with bed bugs, place them directly into plastic trash bags and move them immediately to an outdoor trash bin, or keep them sealed in plastic until they can be treated effectively.

If you have anything around that can’t or shouldn’t be treated, seal it in a plastic bag or storage container and leave it there for at least a year. Any bed bugs inside should eventually starve and die—though it can evidently take as long as 400 days for an adult bed bug to starve to death.

Turn Your Bed into an Island

Turning your bed into an “island” is a crucial step in the containment process as well. Make sure your bed is at least six inches from the walls in all directions.

From there, install bed-bug-proof covers or liners, called encasements, that seal over your mattress and boxspring. You can readily find these and other bed-bug containment tools online or in home stores. Just make sure they have zippers that close completely and that they’re sturdy enough to last at least a year. Over that time, the trapped bed bugs will eventually starve, while other bed bugs won’t be able to hide in the bed or box spring.

You’ll also want to place bed bug interceptors under each leg of the bed and leave them on, once again, for at least a year (if not much longer). These devices trap any bed bugs that try to climb the leg of the bed and should be inspected regularly. They can also be helpful for detecting new bed bug infestations over the long haul.

Beyond that, make sure all your bedding doesn’t touch the floor—it should stay tucked under the sealed mattress whenever possible. Also remove anything that’s under the bed and store these items elsewhere in the same bedroom until they can be treated.

Eliminate Hiding Spots

With your bed protected, you should get rid of any other bed bug hiding spots in the area. Start with these basic actions:

• Caulk cracks and crevices around baseboards
• Repair any wallboard damage
• Make sure wallpaper isn’t loose
• Tape or caulk the rims of electrical outlets and wall switches
• Seal any other small hiding areas or cracks in the space

By eliminating hiding spots, you’ll help force the bugs out into the open where they can be exterminated more easily.

Clean Everything in the Infested Area

You’ll also need to clean up the infested area to the best of your ability. Start by heat-treating any clothing, bedding, drapes, or other potentially contaminated items that can withstand a hot dryer (be careful about damaging sensitive fabrics or other more delicate items).

To do this, start by sealing the items in plastic bags so you don’t spread the bugs while you’re traveling from the infested area through other parts of your house. Then throw the items in your home’s dryer and run it at maximum heat for 30 minutes, which should kill any bed bugs. Washing the items is often insufficient—you’ll need to use the heat of a dryer to kill bed bugs effectively. After the heat treatment, you may want to store the items in sealed plastic bags for a while to ensure they remain bug-free.

Beyond the heat treatment, you should physically inspect, clean, and remove any visible bed bugs you can find on your furniture, baseboards, outlet and switch covers, drapery hardware, and more. You’ll also want to clean up shed skins, hatched eggs, and other bed bug remnants you may find. For much of this cleaning, you should be able to use a high-powered vacuum—just make sure that, once you’re done, you seal the vacuum bag in plastic and place the sealed bag in the outdoor trash immediately. After this initial cleaning, anytime you notice more bed bugs, go ahead and vacuum them up and dispose of them properly.

If you have furniture or other items that are very badly infested, you may consider discarding or destroying them. As always, make sure you aren’t spreading them throughout your house in the process. And if it’s something someone else might be tempted to use after you’ve thrown it out, make sure it’s abundantly clear they should not. Rip covers and remove stuffing from furniture, or spray paint the items with the words “Bed Bugs.”

Next Step: Exterminate the Bed Bugs

While the DIY methods outlined above can certainly help with controlling a bed bug problem, serious infestations should be handled by a pest management professional with the right tools, products, skills, and equipment—and you should get them involved as soon as possible. In particular, you should find a qualified expert who uses an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach, so be sure to ask about IPM before hiring anyone.

What exactly is IPM? It’s an effective, environmentally responsible system for pest management that fully considers the life cycle and biology of specific pests and takes a more comprehensive approach to eliminating them. IPM aims to manage these pests in the most economical fashion and with the least possible risk to people, property, and the planet. Most often, it utilizes a combination of several strategies and techniques to effectively tackle the problem, including both chemical and non-chemical means and ongoing monitoring of the issue. In the case of bed bugs, you’ll likely have to play an active role, alongside your pest management professional, in the IPM process. And you can expect multiple visits from the professional in the great majority of cases.

If you contacted an extension agent to identify your bed bug species, it’s a great idea to ask them for advice on picking a local pest management company you can trust. You can also ask friends and family, or use resources like PestWorld.org to find an exterminator in your area. However you find your professional exterminator, be sure to call multiple providers before making your selection, and ask about their use of IPM methods. You should also make sure they’re willing and able to come back for repeated treatments/inspections as necessary, which is a key tenet of IPM.

It may be important to note that providers who don’t use IPM are often cheaper, but don’t be tempted by small cost savings that could lead to ineffective treatment.

Non-Chemical Methods Used by Bed Bug Exterminators

In addition to the containment practices outlined above, you can expect your pest management professional to employ other non-chemical techniques to eradicate your bed bug infestation.

For starters, they’ll likely use a strong vacuum to target the seams of your mattress and box springs, as well as edges of carpet, baseboards, and other areas where bed bugs are often found. This process will probably need to be repeated over and over, and you might be asked to help with the ongoing vacuuming.

Various steam delivery devices are also used to kill bed bugs with heat, and your professional exterminator will need to take great care to ensure the steam adequately penetrates into all the cracks and crevices where bed bugs and their eggs could be hiding.

In some cases, pest management professionals use commercial heating machines to heat-treat entire rooms. These powerful devices will raise the temperature of the room to 140℉ for at least two hours or 130℉ for at least three hours, killing the bed bugs and their eggs.

Alternatively, chilling the room or freezing an item to about 0℉ for at least three days in a row can also kill the insects. Side note: your home freezer is likely not cold enough to reliably kill bed bugs.

Using Insecticides to Eradicate Bed Bugs

These non-chemical means can go a long way towards getting rid of a bed bug infestation. But in many cases, a professional exterminator might also need to employ insecticides as part of their IPM approach. In truth, neither insecticides nor non-chemical means are likely to be fully effective on their own, so a combination of these approaches is often necessary.

While there are numerous over-the-counter pesticides available, few have been shown to be effective against bed bugs, and their use in your home by an untrained person could be dangerous. In that light, it’s best to leave the use of insecticides to the professionals. Plus, the most effective bed bug killers are only available to commercial applicators anyways, and they have the training and equipment needed to precisely apply these insecticides exactly where they’re needed.

Typically, these insecticides will be applied as liquid or powder directly into cracks, crevices, bed frames, and any other spots where the bed bugs might be hiding. They aren’t typically applied to mattresses, bedding, or other items that come into direct contact with humans, due to their potential toxicity.

Today, your pest management professional might rely on one or more of these well-known chemicals:

• Pyrethrin, which quickly kills bed bugs but offers little efficacy for long-term control
• Synthetic pyrethroids, including bifenthrin, cyhalothrin, permethrin, and deltamethrin
• Mixed pyrethroids and neonicotinoids
• Several botanical oils
• Newer products, including pyrrole insecticide chlorfenapyr and the insect growth regulator hydroprene
• Fumigation-based sulfuryl fluoride
• Borates
• Diatomaceous earth
• Silica gel

DIY Methods to Avoid

Because of the cost of professional bed bug management, it can be tempting to try and tackle the whole issue yourself. But please beware that the internet is full of bad information about DIY extermination techniques, and certain practices promoted online, especially surrounding the use of insecticides, can pose a real threat to the health of you and your family. Plus, you’re unlikely to achieve the same results as a skilled pest management professional using IPM techniques.

If you’re still hoping to tackle bed bug extermination on your own, you should at least avoid these especially risky methods:

• Using aerosol foggers or “bug bombs,” which are both ineffective for bed bugs and likely harmful to humans
• Using diatomaceous earth that’s not registered as a pesticide, such as pool- or food-grade diatomaceous earth—this is not only dangerous when inhaled, it’s also illegal
• Using kerosene, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol that’s not registered as a pesticide, which significantly raises your risk of house fires and is, again, illegal
• Using carbon dioxide, propane, helium, or other unregistered gases to fumigate bed bugs, which is illegal and can deplete oxygen levels to dangerous lows or cause explosions
• Using registered pesticides but not following the label (using an outdoor pesticide indoors, applying pesticides to your body, mattress, or other inappropriate surfaces, using too much, etc.)
• Buying pesticides from street vendors, flea markets, or other untrustworthy sources
• Repeatedly applying the same pesticide, which can enable the bed bug population to become resistant to the product—a serious problem (it’s generally better to use multiple pesticides than the same one over and over)
• Trying DIY heating treatments using fire, space heaters, your home’s heating system, or other risky sources of heat

Monitor Your Results Long-Term

Whether you think there are still a few pesky pests hiding out somewhere or you’re hopeful they’re all long gone, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on your home for a long time after any bed bug infestation to make sure they don’t reemerge. Initially, you’ll want to do inspections at least once a day, but over the long term, try to conduct a careful inspection about once every seven days. Interceptors at the feet of your bed can also play a key role in helping you notice any remaining or newly emerging infestation.

If you do notice bed bugs reestablishing themselves after the initial IPM treatments, get in touch with your pest management professional for their continued support. Since ongoing evaluation, monitoring and detection is an essential part of IPM practices, they should be happy to provide a follow-up appointment and repeat treatments as needed.

Long-Term Prevention Strategies

When it comes to preventing bed bug infestations in the first place (or after you’ve already dealt with one), most of the tips we covered earlier, such as eliminating clutter, making your bed an island, using interceptors and encasements, vacuuming regularly, and blocking or sealing hiding spots, are still extremely useful.

Beyond those strategies, here are some additional tips and best practices for keeping your home clean and free of bed bugs:

• If you travel frequently, check your rental room thoroughly for signs of bed bugs, especially if you think you’ve been bitten. If you suspect they’re present, change rooms or hotels/properties as soon as possible, and inspect your luggage and clothing carefully. Once home, heat-treat any items that can handle your dryer’s highest setting, and store any other items in sealed plastic bags until they can be treated. It can also be useful to store luggage outside of your bedroom by default.
• If you purchase second-hand furniture, especially beds or mattresses, carefully inspect them before bringing them inside.
• Use monitors that attract or intercept bed bugs near your bed, which can help you identify the presence of bed bugs before the infestation gets out of control.
• Be vigilant when using shared laundry facilities.
• If you live in multi-unit housing, install door sweeps on the bottom of your doors to reduce movement in and out of your space.
• If you suspect there might be bed bugs on anything you own, seal the items in plastic bags until they can be adequately treated (or until enough time has passed that you’re confident the bed bugs, and their eggs/offspring, are dead—which, remember, could take as long as 400 days).

Don’t Fret—You’ve Got This!

If you’re dealing with bed bugs in your home or think you might be, don’t panic. Following the steps outlined in this blog post should get you the relief you need, and today’s cutting-edge IPM techniques should be able to effectively eradicate the infestation from your home.

If you’re interested in learning other tips and best practices for homeowners, check out the Oxi Fresh blog for more great information.

*While conducting research for this article, we relied on expert information from the Environmental Protection Agency, University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and University of Minnesota Extension.