The Environmental Health Department 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 5-10 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 5-7 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
