The Nashua DPHCS Environmental Health Team offers Nashua residents guidance on how to deal with bedbugs. If you have a concern about bedbugs, please take the time to educate yourself before you make any decision about furniture disposal or pesticide usage.

Bed Bug Basics

• Bed bugs are small wingless insects that do not fly
• They depend upon blood from animal hosts as their sole source of food (Feed ~every 5 to 10 days) 
• They are flat, oval shaped, and a mahogany color as an adult 
• They can wedge themselves into any crack or crevice 
• They are most often nocturnal, but will come out in the day if an area is dark and they sense food is near 
• Most people are not awakened by bed bugs while being bitten
• Not everyone will show signs of being bitten
• Adults have been shown to live over a year with no blood meal 
• They can survive sustained heat and cold if given time to adjust 
• Not considered a filth pest
• No “grooming behavior” meaning ingestible insecticides do not work 
• Females typically lay about 5 to 7 eggs a week/500 eggs in lifetime 
• While some pathogens have been found in the gut of bed bugs, they have not been shown to transmit diseases to humans