How Long Do Bed Bugs Live?

People usually ask this for a practical reason: can I leave the room empty, put things in storage, or go away for a while and come back to find them dead? The honest answer is that it is not a reliable plan. Here is why.

The Short Answer

• Adults typically live for several months, and in cooler conditions can live for around a year.
• Eggs usually hatch within one to two weeks in a warm room, and take longer when it is cold.
• Nymphs take a matter of weeks to reach adulthood in a warm home, needing a blood meal before each of their five moults.
• Without food, they can survive for weeks to months, and longer when it is cool.

Temperature is the thing that changes everything. Warmth speeds up their whole life: they grow faster, breed faster and need to feed more often. Cold slows them down and lets them sit it out for longer.

Why Temperature Matters So Much

A heated bedroom is close to ideal for bed bugs. They feed regularly, develop quickly and a small number can grow into a noticeable infestation within a couple of months.

In a cold room, a spare bedroom with the heating off, or a garage or storage unit, they become sluggish. They feed less, grow more slowly and use up less energy, so they last longer without a meal. That is exactly the opposite of what people hope for when they shut a room up.

Can You Wait Them Out?

In theory, yes, if nobody went near the room for a very long time. In practice, no.

• They find other food. In a house that is still lived in, they move towards anyone sleeping in another room.
• They spread while you wait. Hungry bed bugs wander further, which can push them into neighbouring rooms or, in flats, next door.
• Eggs keep hatching. Young bed bugs appear for some time after the adults were last fed.
• You cannot tell when it has worked. Without an inspection, there is no point at which you know the room is clear.

Leaving a room empty does not end a bed bug problem. It just pauses it until someone comes back.

What Lifespan Means for Your Belongings

Storage and moving house

Boxing items up and putting them in a loft or storage unit does not kill bed bugs in any reasonable time, especially somewhere cold. If things come from an infested room, deal with them before they are stored or moved, not after.

Washing and drying

Heat is what kills them. Bedding and clothes from an affected room should be washed hot and tumble-dried on a hot setting, then kept sealed until treatment is finished. Items that cannot be washed can often go through a hot dryer cycle on their own.

Second-hand furniture

A bed frame or sofa that has sat unused for a while can still carry live bed bugs. Check any second-hand item carefully before it comes indoors. Our post on the main cause of bed bugs covers how they usually get into a home.

What It Means for Treatment

Two things follow from their life cycle. Treatment has to reach every life stage, which means getting into the cracks where adults, nymphs and eggs sit together. And because eggs hatch after a first visit, a follow-up is often part of the job. We tell you before you book whether we expect one.

For more on how the insects grow and behave, see the biology and behaviour of bed bugs. If you have just found them, what to do if you have a bed bug infestation sets out the first steps.

Getting Them Treated

Our bed bug control service is £220 for the first room, plus £80 for each additional room, with no call-out fee and the total confirmed before we book. The bed bug treatment cost guide explains what decides the number of rooms.