The most common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is the species, which prefers a human host. Other varieties look for wild animals such as bats and birds. These bugs are usually about one quarter of an inch long with an oval shaped body, brown or dark red in color. How to kill bed bugs didn't become a priority until just a few short years ago when they began making a come back.

There are some relatively easy ways known about how to kill bed bugs, such as washing all clothing in hot water and drying them on the hottest drying cycle. With items, which cannot take the heat, they can be put in the freezer. For larger, bulkier items, such as mattresses, they can be sealed in black plastic and placed in the sun. The gathering heat inside the plastic will kill them. However, his could take up to two weeks and the condition of the materials may dictate they are discarded.

Killing Bed Bugs At The Source

Many questions remain about how to kill bed bugs at the source. Especially since the source may be hard to pin point, it's helpful to call in an expert. Bed bugs hide in the smallest areas during the day, such as in the tufts of mattresses or behind floor molding. They creep out in the middle of the night, feed on their human hosts, rarely waking them up, and then scuttle back to their nest.

When you wake up covered with bites and left over blood is when you start asking how to kill bed bugs. Low odor chemical treatment is probably the best method, and it's best left to a professional not just because of the hazardous properties of the chemicals, but for their experience in locating all the places bed bugs hide.

Another method of how to kill bed bugs involves chemicals which render the males sterile, unable to fertilize the females who lay anywhere from 200 to 500 eggs at a time. While this method can be effective, it does take a considerable amount of time. In addition, if the female eggs produce more males, it may not last long enough to get them all.