The bedbug boom has brought many people pain, but it does have at least one upside: Exterminators are profiting.

The president of PestAway, Jeffrey Eisenberg, who has a loyal following on the Upper West Side, said he receives between 600 and 700 bedbug calls each week, up from about a dozen calls each month five years ago.

The former accountant, who launched his business from his Upper West Side apartment in 1991, now has 30 employees and while he refused to discuss profit margins, he said revenues are “in the millions.”

About a year and a half ago, Mr. Eisenberg, who lives on Long Island, founded a charitable foundation, the Tikkun Olam Foundation, which serves as a clearinghouse for philanthropic donations. Mr. Eisenberg said the foundation has distributed funds in the “six-figure” range over the past year, supporting a program to help widowed Jewish women and an orphanage in Israel. “I was always motivated by charity,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “That’s why I wanted to become successful.”

Part of his success stems from the service he provides, and he said his cell phone is always on. “We’re not coming out at 2 a.m.,” he said. “Sometimes, you know, its just calming people down.”

In part, the bedbug business is driven by fear. “Fifty percent of what I do is therapy,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “People feel hopeless and in complete despair.”

While it is nearly impossible to prevent the spread of bedbugs, some pesticides and disinfectants — such as Sterifab, Bedlam, and Pronto — are advertised as bedbug treatments. The owner of H. Brickman & Sons hardware store in the East Village, Paul Brickman, said he started carrying Bedlam last year, and while he regularly sells out of the stuff, he joked that he never gets too close to customers looking to buy a can. “People come in and ask for this and we take a step back,” he said.

Earlier this year, a bedding company, London Luxury, came out with “soft and luxurious” mattress and pillow protectors designed to help in bedbug infestations. The line can be found in Bed Bath & Beyond stores, with prices ranging between $19.99 and $119.99.

Similar products can cost big bucks. For one New Jersey-based company, Cooper Pest Solutions, virtually no business came from bedbugs in 2004. Now, bedbugs account for a quarter of revenue, according to its technical director, Rick Cooper, whose father founded the company in 1955. “It’s doing well and it’s growing,” he said.

Last year, the company launched a Web site, bedbugcentral.com, featuring an online store that carries disinfectants and anti-bedbug products, including a plastic mattress cover. Mr. Cooper said he earns $20,000 in sales each month from the site, and he projected $1 million in sales within the year.

In general, exterminators recommend a variety of techniques for eradicating bedbugs, including steaming the bugs out of mattresses and furniture, washing and drying clothing that may have bugs on it, and using pesticide. Few exterminators said the process is quick.

“When it comes to bedbugs, we’re going to be in your house, for the first treatment, anywhere between two and six hours,” the owner of Freedom Pest, Cesar Soto DeLeon, said. Mr. DeLeon, who has been in business for several years, also uses a bedbug-sniffing dog, Tre, to root out insects. The 2-year-old beagle was certified by the National Entomology Scent Detecting Canine Association, he said.

Mr. DeLeon said for bedbug cases, he charges about $450 for a studio apartment and $900 for a two-bedroom, compared to charges of $75 to $150 for a “basic roach job.”

He also charges $250 an hour for Tre’s services. “The moment we walk into the location and I give a command, it’s like a transformer. He’ll go to work,” Mr. DeLeon said.

A client of Mr. Eisenberg’s, Elizabeth Podniesinski, said eradicating the bedbugs from her three-bedroom apartment cost $10,000. Ultimately, she said she threw out her bed, a leather armchair, her son’s crib, and some clothing.

While her home is now free of bugs, she has exterminators visit her apartment every three months to put limestone powder in the cracks of her floors to keep bedbugs at bay.

“I still live in minor amounts of fear,” she said. “You think, ‘Oh my God, I can’t wait to get rid of them.’ But no, then you’re afraid to get them back.”