Texas is one of the more heavily affected states for bed bug infestations, with two major metro areas ranking among the worst in the country. Dallas placed 24th and Houston 45th on Orkin’s 2025 list of cities with the most bed bug treatments, based on data from May 2024 through May 2025. If you’re dealing with bed bugs in Texas or trying to prevent them, here’s what you need to know about identification, treatment, your legal rights as a renter, and the health risks involved.
Where Bed Bugs Are Worst in Texas
Dallas consistently ranks higher than Houston for bed bug activity, landing at number 24 nationally in the most recent industry rankings. Houston came in at 45, dropping seven spots from the previous year. These rankings reflect the volume of professional treatments performed in each metro area, covering both residential homes and commercial properties like hotels and offices.
Other Texas cities like San Antonio and Austin also see significant bed bug activity, though they don’t crack the national top 50 as consistently. Population density, travel volume, and the sheer number of multi-unit housing complexes in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Greater Houston areas contribute to their higher rankings. Bed bugs hitchhike on luggage, furniture, and clothing, so any city with heavy tourism and a large rental market will see more infestations.
How to Identify an Infestation
Adult bed bugs are roughly the size and shape of an apple seed, reddish-brown, and flat until they’ve fed. After a blood meal they swell and darken. The signs you’re more likely to notice first are small rust-colored stains on your sheets (crushed bugs or their droppings), tiny pale eggs or shed skins tucked into mattress seams, and a musty, slightly sweet odor in severe cases.
Bites alone aren’t reliable for identification. Bed bug bites often appear as small red welts in clusters or lines, typically on skin exposed during sleep like your arms, shoulders, and neck. But roughly 30% of people show no visible reaction to bites at all, and the welts that do appear look similar to mosquito or flea bites. If you suspect bed bugs, check the seams and piping of your mattress, the joints of your bed frame, and any cracks in nearby furniture or baseboards. They stay close to where you sleep.
Heat Treatment and How It Works
Professional heat treatment is one of the most effective methods for eliminating bed bugs in Texas, and it works in a single session when done correctly. The target temperature is 113°F sustained throughout the infested space. Bed bugs die after 90 minutes of constant exposure at that temperature, but they die within just 20 minutes at 118°F.
Eggs are harder to kill. They require exposure to 118°F for a full 90 minutes to reach complete mortality. Professional treatments use industrial heaters and powerful fans to create convection currents that raise temperatures rapidly and evenly throughout a room. Once sensors throughout the space confirm the thermal death point has been reached, operators typically continue heating for at least another 60 minutes to ensure every bug and egg is destroyed, including those hidden deep in furniture, wall voids, and carpet edges.
For smaller-scale treatment at home, a clothes dryer set on high will kill all life stages of bed bugs, including eggs, in about 30 minutes. This works well for clothing, bedding, and soft items, but the dryer shouldn’t be packed tightly. Loose filling allows heat to circulate. This won’t solve an infestation on its own, but it’s an important part of managing one while professional treatment is arranged.
Chemical Treatments and Professional Licensing
Chemical treatments remain common in Texas, often using a combination of residual sprays and dusts applied to cracks, crevices, and harborage areas. Some infestations require multiple treatment visits spaced about two weeks apart to catch newly hatched nymphs that survived the first round.
In Texas, pest control operators must be licensed through the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Structural Pest Control Service, which regulates anyone applying pesticides in or around structures. Licensed professionals hold either a Certified Applicator license or work as registered apprentices under direct supervision. Before hiring an exterminator, you can verify their license status through TDA. Unlicensed operators are a real problem in the pest control industry, and bed bug treatment done incorrectly can scatter bugs to new areas of your home or expose you to improperly applied chemicals.
Your Rights as a Texas Renter
Texas doesn’t have a single, clear-cut statute assigning bed bug responsibility entirely to landlords or tenants. Who pays for extermination depends on the circumstances, particularly who can be shown to have introduced the bugs.
If you find bed bugs in a rental, the most important step is documentation. Write a signed, dated letter to your landlord describing the problem and send it by certified mail with return receipt requested. This creates a paper trail proving your landlord was notified. Once notified, your landlord generally has about a week to address the issue.
Many Texas leases now include a bed bug addendum. By signing it, you’re confirming that the unit was free of bed bugs when you moved in. This is why completing a detailed move-in inventory is critical. If bed bugs show up later, that inventory form can help demonstrate the complex already had a problem before your tenancy, shifting responsibility back to the landlord. If you signed an addendum confirming a bug-free unit and the infestation clearly originated from a neighboring apartment or common area, the landlord still bears responsibility for treatment. But if the landlord can show you likely introduced the bugs (through secondhand furniture, for example), you may be on the hook for the cost.
Do Bed Bugs Spread Disease?
Despite carrying over 40 potential pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites, bed bugs have never been shown to transmit any of them to humans in real-world settings. This makes them fundamentally different from mosquitoes or ticks.
One concern specific to Texas and the southern U.S. is Chagas disease, caused by a parasite spread by kissing bugs. Researchers have tested whether bed bugs could also transmit this parasite, since the two insects share a similar feeding behavior. In lab experiments, bed bugs did pick up the parasite when fed on infected blood, and the parasite survived in their gut and feces for days. However, the parasite never reached the bed bugs’ salivary glands, which means it can’t be injected through a bite. And unlike kissing bugs, bed bugs don’t defecate while feeding. In an observational study, bed bugs consistently deposited feces away from their bite site after finishing a meal, making the fecal transmission route that kissing bugs rely on essentially impossible for bed bugs.
The real health impacts of bed bugs are indirect: allergic reactions to bites (ranging from mild itching to rare anaphylaxis), secondary skin infections from scratching, sleep deprivation, and significant psychological distress. Chronic infestations are strongly associated with anxiety and insomnia, and these effects shouldn’t be minimized just because the bugs don’t transmit infectious disease.
Preventing Bed Bugs in Texas
Prevention comes down to vigilance, especially if you live in a multi-unit building, travel frequently, or buy secondhand furniture. Encase your mattress and box spring in bed bug-proof covers, which eliminate the most common hiding spot and make early detection much easier. Inspect hotel rooms before unpacking by checking mattress seams, headboards, and luggage racks. When you return home, run travel clothes through a hot dryer cycle before putting them away.
If you’re moving into a new apartment, inspect the unit thoroughly before signing anything. Look at baseboards, electrical outlets, closet corners, and any furniture left by previous tenants. Complete the move-in inventory carefully and note the condition of every room. In a state where bed bug responsibility is circumstance-dependent, that paperwork is your best protection.