Where Do Bed Bugs Come From? How They Get In and Spread

Quick answer: Bed bugs don't come from dirt, and they don't appear on their own. They're carried in on luggage, clothing, used furniture and other belongings, or they crawl over from a neighboring apartment. A single fertilized female can start an infestation, and a spotless home is just as likely to get them as a messy one.^1,2,3,4

Finding bed bugs usually raises the same questions: How did they get here? Did I do something wrong? Will they spread? This guide answers them, from the everyday ways bed bugs travel to where the species came from in the first place. If you're not sure you have bed bugs yet, start with the signs of bed bugs.

How Do Bed Bugs Get Into Your Home?

Bed bugs can't fly or jump. They travel by hiding in the seams and folds of things people carry.^11,2 The most common routes are:

• Travel: hotels, motels, shelters, dorms and other places where many people sleep. Bed bugs turn up even in five-star hotels.^5,2
• Secondhand furniture and mattresses, especially beds and couches left on the curb.^3,5,12
• Visitors and caregivers, through their bags, coats and belongings. Bed bugs don't live on people, so a short daytime visit to an infested home is unlikely to transfer them.³
• Kids' backpacks and coats from school or daycare.¹³
• Moving vans, moving blankets and storage warehouses, which can pass bugs from one customer's belongings to another's.^14,15
• Laundromats and shared laundry rooms.¹⁶
• Neighbors, when bugs crawl between apartments through cracks and openings in walls, floors and ceilings.^3,12

Pest professionals find bed bugs almost everywhere people spend time. In a 2018 national survey, 91% had found bed bugs in single-family homes, 89% apartments and condos, 68% hotels and motels, 59% nursing homes, 47% schools and daycares, 46% offices and 19% public transportation.¹⁷

Can You Get Bed Bugs From a Person, a Pet or Outdoors?

If you've had bats or nesting swallows, bites may come from bat bugs or swallow bugs instead, and they need different treatment: the roost or nest has to be removed and the animals kept out.^19,3 See bugs that look like bed bugs.

How Do Bed Bugs Spread in Apartment Buildings?

Bed bugs spread from unit to unit by crawling through cracks and openings in walls, floors and ceilings, and on people's belongings.^3,12 Purdue University researchers tracked an outbreak in a 223-unit, 15-story building:⁷

• 101 units (45%) became infested within 41 months of the first known case.
• 53% of units next door to an infested apartment were also infested.
• At least half of residents with bed bugs didn't know they had them.
• Infested furniture, resident turnover, visits between units and a shared wheelchair all helped spread them.

If you live in an apartment, tell your landlord right away. Units on both sides, above, below and across the hall should be inspected.³ Check your lease and local laws on who pays for treatment; see bed bug laws.

How Fast Does a Bed Bug Infestation Grow?

• Eggs: a female lays about 1 to 5 eggs a day and roughly 150 to 500 in her lifetime.^20,8,5,11
• Hatching: about 1 to 2 weeks at room temperature.^3,8
• Growing up: young bed bugs pass through 5 nymph stages, each needing a blood meal, and can reach adulthood in about 5 weeks in a warm home.^21,8,3
• Doubling: under ideal conditions, a population can double about every two weeks.^8,9 In practice, growth is often slower.⁹
• Surviving without food: adults and nymphs can live for months without a meal.^2,3

Bed bugs usually stay within about 8 feet of where people sleep, though they can crawl more than 100 feet in a night.² That's why infestations start in the bed and spread to nearby furniture, baseboards and other rooms as numbers grow.³ See where bed bugs hide and bed bug pictures of each life stage.

How Bad Is My Bed Bug Infestation?

Sources:^22,1,3,23

Don't judge by bites. About 30% of people don't react to bed bug bites, and the share is higher among older adults.^3,11 To confirm, look for the bugs themselves or use interceptor traps under the bed legs; in a Rutgers study, interceptors left for 1 to 2 weeks found 93% of infestations.²⁴ Trained dogs can help, but their accuracy in real apartments varied widely, so any alert should be confirmed by finding a bug.^24,5

You can also have a bug identified by mail. Cornell University's Insect Diagnostic Lab accepts samples and photos for a fee.²⁵

Where Did Bed Bugs Originally Come From?

Bed bugs are older than bats. A 2019 study traced the bed bug family back about 115 million years, to the age of dinosaurs, and found that bed bug lineages later moved onto bats and birds many times.^26,27 The common bed bug most likely moved to people from bats, possibly when early humans shared caves with them; bat-feeding and human-feeding populations still exist today.^28,29

Bed bugs have bothered people for a very long time. Remains found in Egypt show they were living with people at least 3,550 years ago.³⁰ A 2025 genetic study found bed bug numbers shifted sharply about 13,000 years ago and later followed people into the first cities. The authors suggest they may be the first urban pest insect.³¹

Why are bed bugs back?

Bed bugs became rare in wealthy countries after World War II, partly because of DDT, then returned in the late 1990s.^3,11 The main reasons are:

• Insecticide resistance: 88% of 110 U.S. bed bug populations carried genes for resistance to common pyrethroid insecticides.^32,33
• More travel and trade, which move bugs between cities and countries.^5,34
• Changes in pest control and less awareness of bed bugs after decades without them.^3,34

Do Bed Bugs Carry Disease?

Bed bugs aren't known to spread disease to people.^2,34 Scientists have found more than 40 germs in bed bugs, but there's no evidence they pass any of them to people.¹¹ In a lab study, bed bugs passed the parasite that causes Chagas disease between mice, but there's no evidence this happens in people; the CDC names only kissing bugs as carriers.^35,36

Bed bugs can still affect your health:

• Itching and skin infections from scratching, and rarely severe allergic reactions.²
• Anxiety and trouble sleeping. In a small Montreal study, tenants with bed bugs had about five times the odds of anxiety and sleep problems.¹⁰
• Rarely, anemia from heavy, long-lasting infestations.³⁷

See bed bug bites and bed bug symptoms for treatment.

How to Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs Home

• When you travel, check the mattress, headboard and luggage rack; keep bags off the bed and floor; and unpack straight into the washer, then dry on high heat.³⁸ See our bed bug travel tips.
• Inspect used furniture before bringing it home, and never take mattresses or couches off the curb.^39,3
• At the laundromat, carry laundry in plastic bags, check baskets and folding tables, and fold clothes at home.¹⁶
• When moving or storing belongings, inspect rental trucks, ask movers and storage companies how they check for bed bugs, use new boxes, and store items in sealed plastic.^15,14
• In apartments, use door sweeps and seal gaps around baseboards and outlets.³⁹
• At home, encase the mattress and box spring, cut clutter, and vacuum often.^39,3

Already have bed bugs? See how to get rid of bed bugs, natural remedies rated by the evidence and how to choose an exterminator. For free quotes from local bed bug exterminators, call 1-877-673-2704 (we may be paid when you call), or ask an exterminator online (we may be paid when you use this link).