Heated home: active all winter. Above freezing: inactive below about 9.5 °C and no breeding below 13 °C, but they can wait months (Johnson 1941). 0 °C: most survive 3 weeks; −7 to −10 °C: all dead after 3 weeks (Rukke et al. 2017). −16 °C: 80 hours; below −20 °C: 48 hours (Olson et al. 2013).
Do bed bugs die in winter?
Not indoors. Do bed bugs die in winter? In a heated home, no — a bedroom at 18–22 °C is perfect bed bug weather all year, and they keep feeding and breeding through the coldest months. Outdoors or in unheated buildings, cold slows them down and can kill them, but only if it stays well below freezing for long enough: three weeks at −7 to −10 °C killed all of them in one study (Rukke, Hage & Aak 2017), while most survived three weeks at 0 °C.
So will bed bugs die in winter? Only where winter actually reaches them. Bed bugs live where people sleep — within about 8 feet of the bed for most of them (CDC) — so winter weather outside barely touches an indoor infestation. Will bed bugs die in the winter in a cold climate's unheated cabin? Possibly, over weeks of hard frost, and that's exactly what the calculator above checks.
Are bed bugs active in winter?
Are bed bugs active in winter? Indoors, yes. Johnson (1941) found the key thresholds: bed bugs stop moving about on their own below about 9.5–11 °C, eggs stop hatching and females stop laying below about 13 °C, and in old unheated London bedrooms feeding stopped after October and restarted in May at about 16 °C. A modern centrally heated home never gets that cold, so bed bugs in winter indoors behave exactly as they do in summer.
Do bed bugs go away in winter?
Do bed bugs go away in winter? No. Unlike fruit flies or mosquitoes, bed bugs don't have an outdoor season to end: they live indoors, with us. Three reasons infestations don't stop in winter:
- Heating keeps them warm. At room temperature eggs hatch in one to two weeks and egg to adult takes about 38–53 days at 23 °C (Johnson 1941).
- Their food source stays home. People spend more time indoors and in bed in winter, so a host is always near.
- Cool spells only slow them. Even in a cold house, adults can wait months with nothing to bite: about 179–360 days on average at 13 °C (Johnson 1941).
In Johnson's study of unheated London homes, populations came through winter as starved adults and older nymphs, then fed and bred again as rooms warmed in spring. Kemper (1936, quoted by Johnson) found that bed bugs in unheated, empty houses "are not usually killed" even when there is a severe and lasting frost outside.
Do bed bugs come back in spring?
Where they were truly dormant through a cold winter — an unheated holiday cottage, a cabin or a shed — do bed bugs come back in spring? Yes: survivors start feeding once temperatures rise and people return, and eggs start hatching again above 13 °C. In heated homes they never went away.
How long can bed bugs live in the cold?
How long can bed bugs live in the cold depends on how cold. Above freezing, cold mainly makes them inactive and stretches how long they can wait for a meal. Below about −7 °C, cold itself starts killing them, faster the colder it gets. This table shows what the calculator predicts for bed bugs in an unheated place with nobody to bite:
| Temperature | What the studies found | After 30 days | After 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 °C (69.8 °F) | Active: feeding every 3–7 days when a host is there (Virginia Tech) | Active | Active |
| 13 °C (55.4 °F) | Eggs barely hatch; females stop laying below this (Johnson 1941) | Active | Active |
| 10 °C (50 °F) | Still move and feed, but no breeding (Johnson 1941) | Slowed / inactive | Slowed / inactive |
| 7 °C (44.6 °F) | Stop moving about on their own below about 9.5 °C (Johnson 1941) | Slowed / inactive | Slowed / inactive |
| 0 °C (32 °F) | Most survived 3 weeks (Rukke et al. 2017) | Slowed / inactive | Slowed / inactive |
| -5 °C (23 °F) | 9–79% of adults and 1–54% of nymphs died over 2–3 weeks (Rukke et al. 2017) | Likely dying | Likely dying |
| -10 °C (14 °F) | All dead after 3 weeks (Rukke et al. 2017) | Likely dead | Likely dead |
| -16 °C (3.2 °F) | All dead after 80 hours (Olson et al. 2013) | Likely dead | Likely dead |
| -20 °C (-4 °F) | All dead after 48 hours (Olson et al. 2013) | Likely dead | Likely dead |
Notice that mild cold makes them last longer: with nobody to bite at 13 °C, most of the hardiest stage are dead only after about 463 days, and a single adult lived 562–572 days (Johnson 1941). Even at 7 °C it's about 367 days. So how long can bed bugs survive in the cold above freezing is measured in months.
Below freezing, the times shrink to weeks and then days: 3 weeks at −10 °C (Rukke et al. 2017), 48 hours below −20 °C (Olson et al. 2013). Bed bugs can supercool — their body fluids don't freeze until about −21 to −30 °C (Olson et al. 2013) — which is why a few frosty nights don't do it. How long do bed bugs live in the cold of a typical home freezer at 0 °F? All stages should be dead within 3.5 days (Olson et al. 2013). For every kill time, see what temperature kills bed bugs.
Do bed bugs die in cold weather?
Do bed bugs die in cold weather outside? Sometimes, given enough time. Will bed bugs die in cold weather that lasts only a few days around freezing? Probably not: most survived three weeks at 0 °C, and at −5 °C only some died over two to three weeks (Rukke, Hage & Aak 2017). Can bed bugs die in cold weather? Yes, when it stays at −7 °C or colder for about three weeks, or below −16 °C for three to four days.
Real outdoor conditions are harder to rely on than lab freezers. Temperatures swing between day and night, and in the 2017 study bugs survived better under fluctuating temperatures than at a constant one at some settings. Items also stay warmer inside than the air around them: insulated items took 1–3 extra hours to cool even in a freezer (Olson et al. 2013), and a 2.5 kg load of laundry took about 8 hours to reach −17 °C (Naylor & Boase 2010) — a mattress or sofa takes far longer.
Can bed bugs survive in an unheated garage or shed?
Usually, yes. Can bed bugs survive in an unheated garage or shed through winter? A garage or shed sits between indoor and outdoor temperatures, often a few degrees above freezing. That's the range where bed bugs are inactive but not dying — and where, with nobody to bite, they can last for months. Only long spells at −7 °C or colder inside the stored items would reliably kill them. Don't store infested items next to clean ones, and bag them before moving them.
For bed bugs outdoors at any time of year — yards, curbside furniture and hot weather — see can bed bugs live outside.
Leaving furniture in the cold in winter: does it work?
Leaving furniture outside in winter to kill bed bugs works only under strict conditions:
- It must be cold enough: at least −7 °C (19 °F) inside the furniture, not just in the air.
- For long enough: about three weeks at −7 to −10 °C (Rukke et al. 2017), or three to four days below −16 °C (Olson et al. 2013).
- Without warm spells: a thaw lets inactive bugs recover; cold that isn't sustained mostly just pauses them.
Most winters in most places don't meet all three. The 2017 researchers suggested that in truly cold areas, simple cabins, holiday cottages or caravans might use low outdoor temperatures in winter — but that's a long, uncertain process. There's also a wider risk: furniture left outside can be picked up by someone else. The EPA advises slashing or otherwise destroying infested furniture you throw out "so that no one else takes it and gets bed bugs".
Smaller items are easier: bag them and use a freezer at 0 °F for at least 3.5 days, or a hot dryer for 30 minutes (University of Minnesota). For a home infestation, a licensed pest professional is the reliable answer at any time of year.
How this winter calculator works
The calculator uses the shared bed bug data model on this site, so its numbers match the heat-and-cold and no-host pages:
- 13 °C and warmer — active: eggs hatch and females lay from about 13 °C (Johnson 1941).
- Below 13 °C down to −7 °C — slowed or inactive: no breeding; below about 9.5 °C no movement (Johnson 1941). In an unheated place or outdoors with nobody to bite (7–13 °C), it compares your days with the same starvation figures as the no-host calculator: "likely dying" after most of the hardiest stage would be dead, "likely dead" after the longest survival recorded. From −5 °C, two weeks or more counts as "likely dying" (Rukke et al. 2017).
- −7 °C and colder — likely dying, then dead: the cold kill time from the same function as the temperature calculator — 3 weeks from −7 °C, 3.5 days from −15 °C, 80 hours from −16 °C, 48 hours from −20 °C (Rukke et al. 2017; Olson et al. 2013).
- Heated home: people are there to feed on, so starvation is never applied.
Choosing a place fills in an example temperature only; enter your own. The temperature that matters is the one inside the item or hiding place.
Frequently asked questions
Do bed bugs die in winter?
Not in a heated home — they stay active all year. Outdoors or in unheated buildings they die only if it stays at −7 °C or colder for weeks, or below −16 °C for days (Rukke et al. 2017; Olson et al. 2013).
Do bed bugs go away in winter?
No. They live indoors near people, and heating keeps them feeding and breeding. In unheated homes they survive as inactive adults and nymphs and resume in spring (Johnson 1941).
Are bed bugs active in winter?
Indoors, yes. They only stop moving below about 9.5–11 °C and stop breeding below about 13 °C (Johnson 1941).
How long can bed bugs live in the cold?
Above freezing, for months — about 463 days for most of the hardiest stage at 13 °C with no host. Below −7 °C, about 3 weeks; below −20 °C, about 48 hours.
Do bed bugs die in cold weather?
Only sustained cold kills them: most survived 3 weeks at 0 °C, while 3 weeks at −7 to −10 °C killed all (Rukke et al. 2017).
Can bed bugs survive in an unheated garage?
Usually. Garages often stay above freezing, where bed bugs are inactive but not dying, and with no host they can last months.
Does leaving a mattress outside in winter kill bed bugs?
Only if the inside stays at −7 °C or colder for about 3 weeks, or below −16 °C for 3–4 days, with no thaw. Most winters don't manage that.
Do bed bugs come back in spring?
In unheated places, survivors become active again as it warms and people return; eggs hatch again above 13 °C.
Can bed bugs freeze to death?
Yes, given time. Their body fluids don't freeze until about −21 to −30 °C, but long exposure below −7 °C kills them (Olson et al. 2013; Rukke et al. 2017).
Will a cold snap kill bed bugs in my house?
No. Indoor temperatures in a heated home never get near the −7 °C needed, and even unheated rooms rarely stay that cold for weeks.
Are bed bugs worse in winter?
Not because of the cold — but people travel for holidays and stay indoors more, which gives bed bugs chances to spread and feed.
These calculators give estimates from laboratory studies, for education. Real bed bugs vary with strain, insecticide resistance, humidity and how easily they reach a host. Bed bugs are not known to spread disease (CDC), but if bites trouble you, talk to a doctor or pharmacist. For an infestation, contact a licensed pest professional or your local extension service. We give no pesticide advice.