How long distance can a bed bug walk?

Bed bugs have a tremendous ability to spread in buildings and hotels indicating a good walking ability.

Typically they will stay as close to the food source as possible, but if few or no suitable harbourages are available or if a bed bug lose track of other bed bugs it may start a random search which may take it quite far.

In an experiment lasting 30 minutes, bed bugs moved on average 12,7 meters (median = 12,6 m) ranging from 0 to 22 m. When moving, they moved with an average speed of 0.9 cm per second and the top speed of one bed bug was recorded to almost 3 cm/second.