The City of Nashua Environmental Health Department offers 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.