Among the way in which dwellings can become infested with bedbugs:
from bugs and eggs that “hitchhiked in”, on clothing and luggage;
from infested items (e.g., furniture, clothes) brought in;
from a nearby dwelling or infested item, if there are easy routes via wild animals (e.g. bats, birds) and pets can bring them in Bedbugs can infest nursing homes, furniture rental stores, hospitals, jails, homeless shelters, movie theaters, cruise ships, public housing, moving vehicles, and public transportation.

Nesting locations
An engorged female bedbug (Cimex lectularius) with eggs, discovered in the screw hole of a wooden bed frame
Bedbugs can be found on their own but often congregate once established. They usually remain close to hosts, commonly in or near beds or couches. Nesting locations can vary greatly, however, including luggage, vehicles, and bedside clutter. Bedbugs may also nest near animals that have nested within a dwelling, such as bats, rodents, or birds.

Detection
Bedbugs are elusive and usually nocturnal, which can make them hard to spot. Bedbugs often lodge unnoticed in dark crevices, and eggs can be nestled in fabric seams. Aside from bite symptoms, signs include: fecal spots, blood smears on sheets, and moults.

Attractant devices for detection use heat and/or CO2.

Bed bug detection dogs are trained to pinpoint infestations, with an accuracy rate of 90%, and often in minutes where a pest control practitioner might need an hour. In the United States, about 100 dogs are used to find bed bugs as of mid-2009.

Traditional control methods
Plants traditionally used as bedbug repellents include black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), Pseudarthna hookeri, and Laggera alata (Chinese yángmáo cǎo | 羊毛草), though information about their effectiveness is lacking. Eucalyptus saligna oil was reported by some Zairean researchers to kill bedbugs, among other insects.

In the 18th century, turpentine was used in combination with henna (Lawsonia inermis, aka camphire) flowers and alcohol, as an insecticide that also reputedly killed bedbug eggs.

Other items that were believed to kill bedbugs in the early 19th century include “infused oil of Melolontha vulgaris” (presumably a kind of cockchafer), fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), Actaea spp. (e.g. black cohosh), tobacco, “heated oil of Terebinthina” (i.e. turpentine), wild mint (Mentha arvensis), narrow-leaved pepperwort (Lepidium ruderale), Myrica spp. (e.g. bayberry), Robert Geranium (Geranium robertianum), bugbane (Cimicifuga spp.), “herb and seeds of Cannabis”, “Opulus” berries (possibly a kind of maple, or European cranberrybush), masked hunter bugs (Reduvius personatus), “and many others.” In the mid-19th century, smoke from peat fires was recommended.

The use of black pepper is attested in George Orwell’s 1933 non-fiction book Down and Out in Paris and London.
Dusts have been used to ward off insects from grain storage for centuries, including “plant ash, lime, dolomite, certain types of soil, and diatomaceous earth (DE) or Kieselguhr”[54] Of these, Diatomaceous earth in particular has seen a revival as a non-toxic residual pesticide for bedbug abatement. When it attaches to a bedbug, it abrades the waxy cuticle that covers its exosekeleton, causing it to die of dehydration[citation needed]. Insects exposed to diatomaceous earth may, however, take several days to die.

Basket-work panels were put around beds and shaken out in the morning, in the UK and in France in the 19th century. Scattering leaves of plants with microscopic hooked hairs around a bed at night, then sweeping them up in the morning and burning them, was a technique reportedly used in Southern Rhodesia and in the Balkans.

Modern control methods
Current control methods include chemical treatment; IPM strategies which involve extensive washing and treatment of possible nesting areas, localized steam treatment, disposal of goods; and the use of entire household thermal treatment.

Costs associated with control methods are usually extensive; in the case of thermal treatment in one large upfront fee, and in the case of chemical treatment in repeated screenings and applications.

Research is currently ongoing towards a more comprehensive bedbug pesticide that would be as strong in averting the issue as DDT was, however, there are no significant results as of yet.