Bed Bugs are horrible.  The damn things just don’t seem to die!  There are so many in an average infestation that the odds seem to be stacked against us.  So the question is – what kills bed bugs – and how can we get rid of them?

Where Do Bed Bugs Come From 

Before you learn what kills bed bugs you need to understand how they get into our homes in the first place.

Bed Bugs are nothing new.  They have been around for hundreds of years.  And they aren’t going anywhere anytime in the near future. Except possibly into your home.

If you or a family member have stayed at a motel/hotel that is infested .  Or at a friends house that has an infestation.  One of these bugs could easily come home with you.

Bed Bugs can travel on furniture, clothing, or even inside boxes.  There have been reported cases where a warehouse has become infested.  This means they inadvertently sent out bugs in deliveries.

There have even been reported cases where the bugs have been found in taxis, restaurants, theaters, hospitals, and in books from libraries.

Why Urban Living Makes It Easier For Bed Bugs To Infest Your Home

There is one thing that makes the spread of bed bugs easier.  This is the fact that most of us now live in urban environments.  Many of us live in condos’ or apartments.  An unchecked infestation at a neighbors unit can easily travel throughout a building.

Bed bugs aren’t just great hitch hikers.  They can also crawl as much as 40 feet in a night to travel from one unit to another.  They’ll travel if there are too many bugs for the available food source.  Bugs will travel if their food source moves.

They’ll move if the area that they are in is treated to kill an infestation.

I once lived in a building that had 120 rental units in it.  Unfortunately it also had bed bugs.  The owners worked hard to get rid of the bugs but never quite managed to kill all of them.

Problems With Neighbors

Part of the problem was that they never could treat the full building.  There were always a certain number of people that didn’t want anyone entering their apartment or didn’t want their apartment treated.

For someone that has allergies to the chemicals that are used this might be understandable.  But there are also people that don’t want anyone in their home for psychological reasons.

This causes problems for everyone else.  Just one unit left untreated can eventually re-infest a whole building.

Plus, in apartments, there are always a certain number of people that are moving in and out of a building.   These people could be taking or bringing in new infestations with them.

Cost Of Treatment

There is also the cost.  Treating an entire building could be costly.   In the case of the building where I lived they tried to mitigate this cost.  They would treat two floors at a time.

This plus treating anyone who complained of having bed bugs was all they would treat.  So the bugs would just crawl up or down pipes and through other openings to escape the treatment.  

Sure a certain number were killed each time.  But the new bed bugs hatching far surpassed the efforts of the owners.

Why Are Bed Bugs So Hard To Kill

There is a reason that makes these bugs so hard to kill.  It’s that they have become so resistant to the current chemicals that are used.  And commonly used pesticides that are used to kill other pests won’t work on them.

Many exterminators are getting better at knowing what kills bed bugs.  But there are still many that don’t have that knowledge.  So its important if you choose to use an exterminator that you choose the right one!

Even when an exterminator does know what pesticides will work best.  All to often they are simply contact killers that the bugs just avoid.

Then there are the eggs that the bugs lay.  These are extremely difficult to kill.  And you must kill the eggs.  Because even if you have killed every live bug, you are still going to have another infestation as soon as the eggs hatch.

What Kills Bed Bugs

Don’t despair though.  There are a lot of things that you can do to kill bed bugs.  You can use a professional exterminator or go it alone.  

There are even natural products that you can use.   These are safer than some of the harsher chemicals.

There are also specific steps that you can take to get instant relief from an infestation.  These include protecting your bed from these bugs and then treating for the bugs.

How To Make Sure They Don’t Come Back

Bottom line is that one way to kill bed bugs we need to deprive them of their food source.  In other words us.  By depriving them of their food they will either die out or move someplace else.

You can use different chemicals and products that will give you the edge.  They can help you get rid of these nasty bugs.  Here are some ideas for products that you can use to find what kills bed bugs.

The best idea that you should take from this article is that the ONLY way to get rid of these bugs.  You need to get rid of the bugs and their eggs.

This also means that you should plan on at least two treatments.  The second treatment should be about 2 weeks after the first one.  You might even need to do a third treatment for a larger infestation.