What Kills Bed Bugs (and What Doesn’t)

You are probably standing in the cleaning aisle, or staring at something under your sink, wondering if it will kill bed bugs. Here is the honest version: almost anything wet will kill a bed bug you can see and hit directly. Almost nothing from that aisle reaches the ones hiding in cracks, and none of it reliably kills the eggs. That gap is the difference between killing a bug and ending an infestation.

The answers below come from product labels, university extension guidance, and readers who tested this stuff on live bugs. One of them, Marie, sprayed different products on captured adults during her own infestation and counted what died. Her story is further down the page. For the full room-by-room plan, use our guide on how to get rid of bed bugs.

Product by Product: What Works on Bed Bugs

Does Pine-Sol kill bed bugs?

Only the ones you soak directly, and it comes with a catch. Pine oil repels bed bugs more than it kills them, so heavy spraying tends to drive the survivors deeper into walls and furniture instead of finishing them. It is not labeled for bed bugs. If you have already fogged a room with pine cleaner and the bites moved to another room, that is likely why.

Does malathion kill bed bugs?

Skip this one, seriously. Malathion is an organophosphate meant for outdoor and garden use, and it is not labeled for indoor bed bug treatment in the United States. Bed bug resistance to it was documented decades ago. Spraying it inside a bedroom, around outlets and vents where kids and pets live, trades a bug problem for a chemical one. Marie used it along her perimeter and got away with it, but it is the one part of her playbook we will not recommend.

Does Dawn dish soap kill bed bugs?

On direct contact, yes. Marie mixed roughly 1 part Dawn to 4 parts water and got an immediate, complete kill on the adults she sprayed. Soapy water wrecks the waxy coating that keeps a bed bug from drying out. The limits matter though. Once the soap dries it does nothing, so it cannot protect a room, and it never touches eggs tucked into seams. Treat it as a spot-kill tool you keep loaded while the real plan does the heavy lifting.

Does OdoBan kill bed bugs?

OdoBan is a disinfectant and deodorizer. Like most cleaners, it can kill a bug you drench, and that is where it ends. No residual control, no effect on hidden bugs or eggs, and bed bugs are not on the label. Clean with it if you like the smell, but do not call it treatment.

Does ammonia kill bed bugs?

Mostly no. You might kill one you drown in it, and in exchange you get fumes in your bedroom. One hard safety rule: never mix ammonia with bleach, because the combination releases a gas that can put you in the hospital. There is no version of an ammonia plan that beats soapy water.

Does borax kill bed bugs?

No, and the reason is worth understanding. Borax kills ants and roaches because they walk through it, groom themselves, and swallow it. Bed bugs drink blood and nothing else, so the poison has no way in. Marie put it plainly: the 20 Mule Team Borax that handled her fleas for thirty years “did not make a dent” in her bed bugs. In the laundry it is fine as a booster, but the hot dryer is what does the killing there.

Does bleach kill bed bugs?

Marie tested this one for you. She sprayed bleach on her infested mattresses and watched the bugs walk away. At best it is another contact killer, and it ruins fabric and lungs while it fails. No.

Does rubbing alcohol kill bed bugs?

Sometimes, and only on direct hits. Research on alcohol sprays found they kill only around half the bugs even when sprayed straight onto them, and the alcohol is gone in seconds. It has also started house fires during home treatments, more than once, because people soak a room and something ignites the vapor. Not worth it.

Does vinegar kill bed bugs?

Basically no. Strong vinegar might kill a bug drenched at point-blank range. It has no reach, no residual effect, and no effect on eggs. It does make the room smell like a salad.

Do Raid and bug bombs kill bed bugs?

Foggers and general bug sprays make infestations worse. The mist settles on open surfaces and never enters the cracks where bed bugs actually live, while the repellent chemicals scatter survivors into walls and neighboring rooms. Marie watched this happen in real time: a helper hit her first infestation with cockroach spray, and the bugs promptly spread to a second bed. University testing backs her experience.

What kills bed bugs instantly?

Direct contact does: steam, soapy water, alcohol, the bottom of a shoe. Instant is not your problem. The bugs you can hit are the minority, and the eggs are glued into seams you will never spray. What kills bed bugs and their eggs is sustained heat or a plan that keeps killing between hatches, which is the next section.

What Actually Works

Heat kills every stage, eggs included, once things stay above roughly 120 degrees. A dryer on high for 30 minutes handles clothes and bedding. A bed bug steamer brings that heat to mattress seams, box springs, and frames. Marie’s Florida version: luggage goes into a closed car in the summer sun for an afternoon.

Food grade bed bug dust, meaning diatomaceous earth, is the slow weapon that never quits. It scratches through that same waxy coating and dries bugs out as they cross it, and it keeps working for months. Marie watched an adult try to cross her DE layer in daylight and fail. A bed bug mattress cover seals whatever lives in the mattress away from you, and bed bug traps under the legs catch and count what is still moving. Caulk and paint finish the job by taking away the hiding places; Marie sealed and painted her guest room after round one, and rounds two and three never got a foothold in the structure.

None of these is the whole answer alone. The sequence that strings them together, including the repeat passes that catch new hatches every few days, is our how to get rid of bed bugs plan.

Once the house is clear, the cheaper job is keeping it that way. Our guide on how to prevent bed bugs covers hotel checks, secondhand furniture, and the routine for coming home from a trip.

Marie’s Story: Three Infestations, One Playbook

Much of this page traces back to Marie, who fought bed bugs three separate times, first after hosting exchange students, then a roommate’s overnight guests, then a friend living out of his van. She tested products on live bugs as she went. Her account is trimmed here to the useful core, in her own words.

“After the students left, a young American man here told me about my bedbugs. I didn’t know what he was talking about. So he showed me. He wanted to treat immediately and picked up cockroach spray. That served to spread them to another bed in the same room. What I found in the local hardware stores, sprays and bombs, did not work either, even though they were advertised as bedbug killers. They were costly and, even with direct contact, did not kill all the adults. The local fumigators wanted $700 to $900 to bag and fumigate my home, three times, ten days apart, with me in a hotel through all of it.”

“The 20 Mule Team Borax I have found helpful in treating fleas over the past thirty years did not make a dent in the bed bugs. I sprayed bleach on the mattresses, and the bugs did not die. I put three adults on a paper plate and sprayed different things on them, and 1 out of 3 would die, and the other 2 would get up, wave at me, and attempt to walk away. Then I mixed Dawn for Dishes, 1 part soap and 4 parts water. I got an immediate 100% kill rate on the adults.”

“I spread food-grade diatomaceous earth all over the floor. I caulked every floorboard, window frame, and bed and furniture frame, then painted to complete the seal. I vacuumed daily for six weeks. The war lasted 6 weeks, eighteen hour days. After six weeks, I was bug free.”

“Two months later a young colleague stayed with me. Pulling the sheets from his bed after he left, I discovered three adult bed bugs. I treated the perimeter, stayed out of the room for ten days, and the Dawn mix once again killed every adult it touched. After that, no further problems in that room.”

“The third time, a visiting friend said something about the ticks in his bed. His things were piled two feet deep around the bed. The first thing I saw were the black speckles of dried blood on the pillow. Not good. I pulled back the covers and immediately saw two run. Because the room was already caulked and painted, the bugs had no cracks to hide in. They had congregated in the clothing and the suitcase clutter. I put DE down along the perimeter and under the bed, and started twenty loads of washing. Today I watched one try to run through the DE layer and fail to reach the edge. He was horrified and wanted to throw all the furniture away. I told him no. Dragging an infested piece of furniture through the house drops eggs as it goes. Cleaning people from expensive local hotels have told me to never put luggage on the carpet in a hotel room. Put it on a hard surface, on the dresser, or in the bath area. Good luck to all of you in battle with the bugs. You can win this war!”

Marie’s results line up with everything above. The products failed in the order the labels predict, the Dawn mix worked exactly as far as contact killers work, and the DE, caulk, heat, and repeat passes are what actually ended all three rounds. Her malathion perimeter trick is the one move to leave out; the safer version of that step is dust in the wall voids and caulk behind the plates.

A note on all of this: product experiences on this page are reader reports plus label and extension guidance, not medical advice. If anyone in the house is reacting badly to bites, that part belongs to a doctor. For the treatment sequence itself, start with the step-by-step plan linked above.