There are just a few basic options to kill bed bugs.  If you want to kill these bugs the best bed bug killers include insecticides, heat, cold, or natural products.

Insecticides:

These vary in how poisonous they can be to both you and the bugs.  But generally speaking a professional exterminator can get the best bed bug killers.  Someone going to their local Wal-Mart is limited.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t get effective chemicals to use though.

First, a word of caution.  A lot of people think that the best bed bug killers are those used for exterior bugs.  To a certain extent this might be true.

The problem however is that outside insecticides are not designed  to be used inside.  If they are there is a good chance that you or your family could become ill.  NEVER use outside sprays in your home.

In general there are several different kinds of insecticides.  The ones that are the best bed bug killers are foggers, contact killers, and residual sprays.  All three can be in one combination or another.

Foggers

Are just that, and are the best bed bug killer for fogging a room.  It fills a room with a mist that can get into cracks and crevices.  I like to use these whenever I have bed bugs because they treat the whole room.  Just remember to follow directions carefully.  Wash all areas where you or your pets can get contact with the mist when it dries.

Contact Killers

These are the best bed bug killers to kill on contact.  I have used these when I have a larger infestation.  Usually I’ll spray the bed frame and around the edges of any carpets.

Residual Sprays

These leave a fine powder behind when they dry.  They are the best bed bug killers to kill the bugs for a larger amount of time.

In my experience the bugs will mostly avoid the areas that have been sprayed though.  This makes the residual a good tactic when you have bugs coming from other units.

Heat

One idea that is getting a lot of play right now is using heat to kill the bugs and it does work.  The problem is that it takes sustained heat over a period of several hours or even days.  The heat must get into all the nooks and crannies that a bug hides.

Inside mattresses or sofas that are a larger mass can be extremely hard to do without expensive, specialized equipment.  It is also something that you can’t do at home and can be expensive. The amount of heat that is required to kill bed bugs and their eggs can also damage some furniture.

Where it does work is smaller items like suitcases, pillow, cushions, or coats.  You can put suitcases in a black plastic bag in the sun for a while and kill all the bugs and eggs inside when you return from traveling.  Putting the black bag inside a car in the sun will increase the heat.

You can also use hot water and high heat drying to remove the bugs from bed sheets.

Cold:

Using cold is another option.  But it faces the same problems as using heat.  To be effective it needs to get into every nook and cranny and must be a sustained low temperature for several days.  This is not an easy task either.

I guess you could leave furniture outside for a while if there was an extended cold period but it’s still not a very reliable method.  I have seen though that there are cold sprays used along mattress seams, bed boards and frames, and other exposed areas that seem to work.

Natural Products:

There are some natural products that are less dangerous than regular chemicals but in general they are also less effective even though they can work well over time.

One of my favorite natural products is diatomaceous earth.  This product is made of finely ground shells.  You use it by puffing a fine mist in areas you want to treat.

When the Bed Bugs walk across the powder the micro fine sharp edges of the ground shells will poke holes in their legs and abdomen, causing them to dry out and die.  Check out the link above to see how to use this product.

Other product are also effective and you can read more about them here.

Conclusion:

I have always found that the best alternative is using a combination of several different methods.

Using bed bug enclosures, blocking methods, natural products and insecticides together is the way that I have had my best results.