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Bed bug eggs

Bed bug eggs are about 1/20 inch, hatch in 10-15 days, and survive heat and cold far longer than adults. Sourced figures on why eggs are the real target.

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Bed bug eggs
What do bed bug eggs look like, and how many are there?

About 1/20 inch, white, usually tucked into seams and cracks near where bed bugs feed. A female lays 200 to 500 eggs over her lifetime, typically 2 to 5 per day, which is why an infestation left alone compounds quickly rather than staying at a fixed size.

Bed Bugs Answers connects you with licensed local pest control companies. We are not a pest control contractor.

How long until an egg hatches?

About 10 to 15 days at room temperature, per UC IPM. That interval is also why professional treatment schedules a follow-up: insecticides typically don't kill the egg itself, so a first treatment is timed roughly two to three weeks before a second visit — long enough for surviving eggs to hatch into nymphs the follow-up can still reach, before they mature and lay their own.

Why are eggs harder to kill than adults?

At the same 113 °F lethal temperature, an adult reaches 99% mortality in under an hour and a half; an egg needs about seven hours. Raising the temperature to 118.4 °F cuts that egg exposure time to about 71.5 minutes — which is why whole-room heat treatments are run considerably hotter than the bare minimum lethal figure, and why the target temperature has to be reached at the egg's actual location, not just in the room's air.

  • 94.8 minAdults, 99% mortality at 113 °F
  • 428.5 minEggs, 99% mortality at 113 °F — about 7 hours
  • 71.5 minEggs, 99% mortality at 118.4 °F
  • 10–15 daysTypical hatch time at room temperature
Why are eggs harder to kill than adults?

Does cold kill eggs any faster?

Eggs are the most cold-sensitive stage, not the most resistant — the opposite of the heat picture. Mean supercooling points across life stages ranged from -21.3 °C to -30.3 °C in peer-reviewed cold-tolerance research, with eggs at the low end. The practical recommendation from that research is holding infested items at 0 °F for a minimum of 3.5 days, reducible to 48 hours below -20 °C — figures that assume a freezer that actually holds that temperature, which many home freezers do not.

Does cold kill eggs any faster?

Sources

4 cited
  1. Egg count, size and hatch time: UC IPM Pest Notes Publication 7454, Bed Bugs, May 2013 (checked 2026-08-18).
  2. Egg lethal-time and lethal-temperature figures: Kells & Goblirsch 2011, Insects 2(3):412–422, doi:10.3390/insects2030412 (checked 2026-08-18).
  3. Cold tolerance and supercooling points: Olson, Eaton, Kells, Morin & Wang 2013, J. Econ. Entomol. 106(6):2433–2441 (checked 2026-08-18).
  4. Why treatment schedules a follow-up around egg hatch: Cornell / NYS IPM, Managing Bed Bugs and Bed Bug FAQs (checked 2026-08-18).
How this works

From “what is that?” to “someone is handling it”

Four steps, nothing booked until you say so, and no obligation at any of them.

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  1. 1

    Work out what you have

    Bites with nothing visible, marks on the sheets, and specks along a mattress seam are different findings that point in different directions.

  2. 2

    Tell us what you found

    Where you found it, how many rooms are involved, and whether this is a house you own, a rental, or a unit in a shared building.

  3. 3

    See what each method involves

    Heat, steam and chemical work are different jobs with different preparation. Knowing which one is being quoted matters before you agree to the number.

  4. 4

    Matched with a local company

    A licensed local company, their own quote, their own schedule. We do not carry out treatment, so nothing here is a sales call.

How we work

What this site will and will not do

Identify before you treat

Bites with no insect found, specks on a seam, and marks on the sheets are different findings. Which one you have changes what the treatment should be.

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No countdown, no talk of the problem racing through your home while you read. It is a real problem and it is a solvable one.

We are not the contractor

We do not treat anything, so we have nothing to gain from steering you toward the bigger job. Licensed local companies do the work and quote it themselves.

Nothing we cannot source

If a figure is not in our research, it does not go on the page. That is why you will find questions here that other sites answer with a confident number.

Questions

Frequently asked

The questions people actually type at two in the morning.

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Can bug spray kill bed bug eggs?

The sourced position is that insecticides often don't kill the egg — which is exactly why a follow-up visit is scheduled two to three weeks later, timed to catch the nymphs that hatch from any eggs the first treatment missed, before they can mature and lay more.

How many eggs does one female bed bug lay?

200 to 500 over her lifetime, typically at a rate of 2 to 5 per day, per UC IPM Pest Notes. That rate is why an untreated infestation grows rather than staying static.

Will freezing my mattress kill the eggs?

Only if the freezer genuinely holds 0 °F or below for the sourced duration — peer-reviewed research specifies at least 3.5 days at -17.8 °C, reducible to 48 hours below -20 °C. Most home freezers run warmer than that, so this is a narrower option than it sounds.

Do eggs hatch faster in a heated house?

The sourced hatch time is 10 to 15 days at room temperature; the brief doesn't have a faster figure tied to a specific higher temperature, so that's the number to use.

Get matched with a local bed bug company

Tell us what you found and where you found it, and we will put you in front of a licensed local company. No obligation either way.

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