Yes, a household clothes dryer set to high heat kills bed bugs at every life stage, including eggs. Thirty minutes on the hottest setting is enough to eliminate adults, nymphs, and eggs from clothing, bedding, and other fabric items. The dryer is one of the most accessible and reliable tools available during a bed bug infestation, but the details matter: load size, temperature setting, and how you transport your laundry all affect whether you get a complete kill.
Temperature and Time That Kill Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are sensitive to sustained heat, but the exact temperature determines how long exposure needs to last. Adult bed bugs die after 90 minutes of constant exposure to 113°F. Raise the temperature to 118°F and they die within 20 minutes. A residential dryer on its highest setting typically reaches 120°F to 135°F in the drum, well above both thresholds.
Eggs are tougher. They need 118°F sustained for a full 90 minutes to reach complete mortality. Research from the University of Minnesota found that the lethal temperature for eggs is about 131°F, compared to roughly 119°F for adults. At 113°F, eggs can survive for seven hours. This is why a hot dryer cycle, rather than a warm one, is essential. The high setting pushes temperatures well past the egg survival threshold, and a 30-minute cycle provides enough margin to kill everything in the load.
How to Run the Dryer Correctly
The key variable most people overlook is load size. A loosely filled dryer allows hot air to circulate through the fabric and reach bugs hiding in seams and folds. About 7 pounds of dry laundry per load is a good benchmark. Overstuffing the dryer creates cool pockets where bugs and eggs can survive.
Run the dryer for 30 minutes on the highest heat setting. This applies to items that are already dry. If you’ve washed the clothes first and they’re going in wet, the dryer spends the first portion of the cycle evaporating moisture rather than heating the fabric, so you may need a longer cycle. Starting with dry items and skipping the wash entirely is actually a valid approach if your only goal is killing bed bugs rather than cleaning the clothes.
Any fabric that can tolerate high heat is fair game: clothes, sheets, pillowcases, towels, curtains, small rugs, and even shoes and children’s stuffed animals. Bags and pillows work too, as long as they fit loosely in the drum.
Washing Alone Is Not Enough
A common misconception is that running clothes through the washing machine handles the problem. Hot water can kill bed bugs, but most home water heaters are set to 120°F, and the water cools as it fills the machine and contacts the fabric. Unless you can guarantee sustained contact at 118°F or above throughout the cycle, washing alone leaves a margin of error, especially for eggs.
The dryer is the more reliable kill step. If you want to both clean and treat your laundry, wash on hot and then dry on high for at least 20 to 30 minutes. But if you’re only treating items to kill bugs, you can skip the wash and go straight to the dryer.
Transporting Infested Laundry Safely
How you move infested items to the laundry matters as much as the dryer cycle itself. Bed bugs can drop off clothing during transport, spreading the infestation to hallways, cars, or shared laundry rooms. The standard protocol is straightforward: seal everything in plastic bags before moving it.
Use clear plastic bags so you can see any bugs inside. Sort infested items separately from anything you know is clean, and keep those bags apart. When you reach the dryer, empty the bag directly into the drum. Don’t set infested items on folding tables or counters. After emptying a bag, tie it shut and throw it away immediately.
Once clothes come out of the dryer, place them in a fresh, clean bag or bin. Do not put treated items back into the same bag you used to transport them. If you’re dealing with an active infestation at home, keep your clean laundry sealed until the infestation is resolved. Cardboard boxes are a poor choice for storage because bed bugs hide in the corrugated folds and lay eggs there. Plastic bags or sealed plastic bins are safer.
What About Delicate Fabrics?
Some items can’t handle high heat: silk, wool, certain synthetics, leather, or anything with glued components. For these, freezing is the main alternative. Place the items in a sealed plastic bag and put them in a freezer at 0°F for at least three days. If your freezer runs warmer (most home freezers sit between 0°F and 5°F), extend the time to two weeks to be safe.
Flash-freezing at minus 15°F kills eggs instantly, but few household freezers reach that temperature. The important thing is sustained cold. A brief stint in the freezer won’t work because eggs can tolerate moderate cold for extended periods.
For items like suitcases that can’t go in a dryer or freezer, hand-washing with hot soapy water (100°F to 120°F) and scrubbing along seams and folds with a brush can help. This is less reliable than heat treatment but better than nothing for hard-to-treat items.
Why Heat Works So Well
Bed bugs are cold-blooded and cannot regulate their internal temperature. When the surrounding air climbs past their survival threshold, their internal proteins break down and their cells lose the ability to function. Unlike chemical treatments, heat penetrates fabric and reaches bugs hiding deep in seams, hems, and folds where sprays can’t reach. There’s also no resistance issue. Bed bug populations in many cities have developed resistance to common pesticides, but no bug can adapt to temperatures that destroy its basic cellular machinery.
This is why professional whole-room heat treatments use the same principle as your dryer, just scaled up. The dryer is simply the most practical version for anything that fits inside it.