You just found a bed bug crawling across your mattress. You shrugged off the initial feeling of revulsion and managed to capture the tiny bug. But what you probably don’t realize is that a single female bed bug lays hundreds of eggs in its first month of mating. If you find one, there’s a chance you may be dealing with an infestation.
In my experience, bleach will kill bed bugs, but it’s not always the perfect solution for a full-on bed bug infestation.
If you have found a single bed bug, chances are your house is crawling with them. I want to help you learn how bleach kills bed bugs and what you can do to end this problem once and for all.
Does Bleach Kill Bed Bugs?
Technically speaking, yes — bleach can kill a single bed bug. Bleach is an extremely caustic chemical that can eat away at the insect’s shell and cause them to essentially suffocate. If you put a single bed bug in a small container and pour some bleach on it, it will certainly die. But, for bleach to be an effective bed bug remedy, you would have to catch bed bugs individually and dip them into your bleach solution.
Theoretically, you could also soak all of your furniture, carpet, and linens in bleach… This is not recommended.
Bleach will discolor everything it touches, and it will emit a harsh chemical odor as it evaporates. Plus, if you miss even a single area, the bed bugs can retreat to that area until the bleach has evaporated.
Bleach vapors can harm your lungs and respiratory tract, so it is definitely not advised to use bleach as an effective bed bug remedy.
The only effective use of bleach on bed bugs is to use it regularly on white clothes and sheets while washing them in a very hot wash cycle. Hot water or steam alone will kill bed bugs without the need for additional chemicals.
Does Bleach Repel Bed Bugs?
There are no scientific studies on this topic, only some anecdotal evidence that it may work. However, these individual stories should be taken with a grain of salt because without a rigorous testing framework, many different things could be responsible for the disappearance of bed bugs.
Bed bugs have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, as they can locate your sleeping quarters based on the smells they encounter. Bleach may mask this smell slightly, but the effect will be short-lived and the bugs will be back in no time.
Bed bugs can live for weeks and months between feeding, so some temporary repellency isn’t very helpful.
How to Use Bleach to Kill Bed Bugs
It’s clear that bleach can help, but let’s talk about some of the actionable steps you can take to get rid of these bed bugs for good.
Prep Your Home
The first step is to get your home ready for the bleach. You might want to panic and just start dumping chemicals all over your house, but I don’t recommend it.
Remove all your bedding, sheets, pillowcases, and pretty much anything you can that’s made of fabric material. Clear out any clutter around your bed, where the bugs can hide. I suggest throwing everything out in heavy-duty garbage bags and removing them from your home. It’s easier to do this than to try and wash all the materials and risk a reinfestation.
Gather The Right Equipment
Next, you’ll want to gather everything, which includes a large supply of bleach, spray bottles, gloves, and a facemask. I like to put the bleach in a spray bottle at about a ratio of 75/25 bleach to make it concentrated but not so much that I’m going to choke myself out of the room.
Open any windows you can and even consider wearing something to shield your eyes to prevent anything from splashing back up at you. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to soak your bed and furniture in bleach to kill the bugs.
Perform a Deep Clean
In addition to using bleach to kill the bugs, you’ll want to do a complete clean of your bedroom. Vacuum everything before and after and pay extra close attention to the corners of the room. Any place where fabric is folded over will need to be checked because bed bugs will hide in all the small crevices.
Don’t overlook other areas either, like baseboards, box springs, bed frames, and headboards. These are prime hiding spots and essential for total bed bug control.
What Brand of Bleach is Best For Killing Bed Bugs?
Honestly, it doesn’t matter too much what brand you choose. You can Clorox or Lysol because they have a reputation of producing high-quality cleaning products. What’s important is that the bleach contains at least 5.25% sodium hypochlorite because it’s the minimum strength needed to kill bed bugs.
It’s important to note that while bleach can be effective at killing bed bugs on contact, it’s not a long-term solution. Bed bugs can hide in many places where bleach can’t reach, such as inside electrical outlets or in the seams of your mattress.
Additionally, bleach can damage some surfaces and fabrics, so it’s important to test it on a small, inconspicuous area first.
Reasons to Not Use Bleach
Though bleach can technically kill bed bugs, there are many reasons NOT to use bleach as a solution to bed bugs:
- Bleach is caustic — it can cause damage to your lungs if you breathe in large amounts of it (which you would need to kill an entire infestation).
- Bleach discolors most dyed fabrics, essentially ruining everything from your favorite couch to your bedsheets.
- Mattresses, couches, and other spongy furniture will essentially be destroyed if you soak them in bleach.
There are safer and smarter alternatives to using bleach to kill bed bugs that I can get into now.
Alternatives to Bleach for Killing Bed Bugs
Killing a single bed bug is not rocket science. In fact, there are many common do-it-yourself solutions for getting rid of bed bugs in your house.
Stuff You Already Have
First, let’s check out some low-tech options for irradicating bed bugs. You likely have these tools in your house already, and they will definitely work.
- Plastic Bags — if you find an individual bed bug, simply throw it in a plastic bag. You can put this bag in the freezer for ~2-3 days to kill them, or simply zip it shut and throw it away. The bugs cannot eat through the plastic, so they will die of dehydration on their way to the dump.
- Boil them — bed bugs are essentially tiny, land-dwelling crabs. Though they are far too small to eat, they can easily be boiled to death. Carpet steamers work well on the carpet, and can be retrofitted to treat your mattress. In fact, one of the best ways to treat an infested mattress is to wrap it in plastic and steam it to a temperature of over 118° F for about an hour.
- Vacuum – bed bugs are very light and not that strong, meaning you can suck them up with a regular vacuum quite easily. Be sure to seal the contents you vacuum up into a plastic bag before disposal. The vacuum likely won’t kill bed bugs, only trap them. So, make sure they are sealed in plastic and disposed of in the trash. A vacuum with an HEPA filter is best for bed bugs as it won’t throw allergens into the air and should safely catch all the bed bugs and eggs into a disposable bag.
- Wash Your Fabrics – bed bugs cannot stand up to soap and hot water. Wash everything you can fit into your wash machine. Hit it with hot water, a long cycle, and plenty of soap. Surprisingly, this is one of the most important steps in eliminating an infestation.
Insecticide Options
Though vacuums and steamers work in many cases, when you’re dealing with a major infestation you’re going to need to use some pesticides to fully eradicate it. In that case, it is time to bring in the heavy artillery!
- Insecticide Dust Options — Insecticide dust products like Diatomaceous Earth (DE) are made from tiny silica particles. These particles are rough and very sharp, piercing right through the exoskeleton of most insects. Over the course of a few days, this will dry the insects out and they will die. Simply buy some dust and a “duster” tool and spread the dust around your carpet and under the sheets on your mattress according to the directions. Vacuum before to capture most of the bed bugs, then vacuum again in a week or so to suck up all the dead bed bugs. Problem solved.
- Pesticide Sprays — If all of the above methods have failed you, pesticide sprays for bed bugs are your next step. We’re not talking about using Lysol to get rid of bed bugs. Pesticide sprays contain chemicals like permethrin, bifenthrin, or indoxacarb, all of which are powerful synthetic insecticides. These chemicals work by attacking the nervous systems of insects and causing death in a matter of hours. Most of them are so potent that a single spray application will kill any insect that comes into contact with the area for weeks. The only problem you may have is that some bed bug populations are resistant to specific insecticides. If the first product you tried did not work, simply pick one with a different active ingredient and give it another go.
Do Not Use These DIY Methods to Kill Bed Bugs
If you follow the above guidelines, clean, thoroughly, wash all of your bedding and clothes, and are diligent in your application of dust or insecticides, that should be more than enough to defeat an infestation. However, you should definitely NOT use any of the following methods:
- Flushing Bed Bugs – water does not kill bed bugs. You may think you have washed a bed bug away down a drain, but the bugs can hold their breath for hours and climb back out of a toilet or sink.
- Placing Bugs Outdoors — while I appreciate your desire to live in harmony with nature, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. In other words, bed bugs will most certainly find their way back indoors because they have spent millions of years learning how to track you down. Their natural environment is your bedroom. So, this is a case where you either live with them biting you constantly or ignore them completely — it’s your choice.
- Vacuum Bag Only — the vacuum only works if you dispose of the waste properly. If you leave your vacuum sit after you are done, they are just going to crawl right back out of the machine and find their way back to your mattress. Be sure to seal your vacuumed waste into a plastic bag to make sure the bed bugs are trapped.
- Wear a Hazmat Suit for the Rest of Your Life — while this is technically possible, if you reach this point, you are essentially letting the bed bugs win. Take a break, then come up with a methodological and strict regimen for treating your house from top to bottom. Remember – they’re just insects and they are just irritating, not deadly.
How Long Does it Take Bleach to Kill Bed Bugs?
When you use bleach to kill bed bugs, you might be wondering how long it takes for the chemical to effectively remove these pests. The good news is that bleach can kill bed bugs on contact, which means that it will destroy any bugs that it touches immediately.
However, keep in mind that bleach only kills the bed bugs that it comes into direct contact with, so it may not eliminate all the bugs in your home. To ensure complete eradication, you’ll need to use bleach in combination with other methods and repeat the process several times over the course of a few weeks.
If you can’t physically see the bed bugs as you’re spraying bleach on them, chances are you’re not killing all of them. This is what makes it so difficult.
Will Bleach Kill Bed Bug Eggs?
Yes, bleach will kill the eggs because it’ll oxidize the shell and dry out the nymph. Just remember that it needs to come in direct contact with the eggs and it can be challenging to find them. Bend up all edges of furniture, cracks, and crevices because this is where the mother will lay her eggs.
Final Thoughts
While we know that bleach does kill bed bugs on contact, it’s not the only solution for dealing with an infestation. Bleach is harmful to your health and can damage your belongings if you don’t handle it carefully.
To successfully eliminate bed bugs, I recommend using specialized insecticides, thoroughly cleaning and vacuuming your living space, and considering professional pest control services for severe infestations.
Remember, preventing bed bugs starts with proper cleaning and maintenance of your space but a bed bug problem doesn’t always mean you have a “dirty” home. As homeowners, we never like to think this and even a professional exterminator will tell you that things happen sometimes. It’s not always your fault.
