I have read some bad information in this thread. I've been fighting a bed bug infestation in my house for 3 years now. They are almost impossible to get rid of permanently. In this time Ive tried many different techniques and services, and have become an expert in bed bugs.
This is the real problem. Their life cycle is variable mattering on the conditions. A single active bed bug can live for 9 months. The eggs can sit dormant for up to 14 months. On average they only feed every 7 days. If there is no food available an adult bedbug can enter a hibernation state for up to 6 months, waking occasionally to search for food. In laboratory tests with a large sample of bedbugs exposed to 14F 2-3% survived after a week, it takes -26F for half an hour to ensure death of the entire colony. When exposed to temperatures in excess of 120F they had a 1% survival rate after 90 minutes. A single bedbug can lay 4 eggs a day for 9 months, so if a single bedbug survives within a year you have a full infestation back.
There are NO effective pesticides for bedbugs that are approved by the CDC.
What worked for me.
Use abut 3/4 rubbing alcohol in little sprayer, go all over your matters with sprayer killing them then vacuum. Wash and dry sheets hot.
Make sure mattress and sheets don't touch floor or wall.
Put some sort of lube, Petroleum Jelly on legs to bed, Bugs can not go through it.
I used a similar method. Alcohol kills them on contact, so I soaked all my bedding in alcohol, and any sheets that didn't survive it got thown away, the rest got laundered in hot water, hot dryer. I then used spray bottles of alcohol to spray every surface in my house. Then I steam cleaned the carpets. Once everything was dry I spread 20 lbs of Diatomaceous earth everywhere. In all the baseboards, in the drawers of my dresser, in every nook and crany I could dust it in. I dusted under my matress and made a circle around all the legs of my bed.
I did all of this every 3 months for a year. It was a major pain. I have not seen a single bed bug for one year now. I'll be moving in 2 weeks, and that that time I'll be inspecting everything very carfully for them.