Inflammasomes are multiprotein signaling complexes that are assembled by cytosolic sensors upon the detection of infectious or noxious stimuli. These complexes activate inflammatory caspases to induce host cell death and cytokine secretion and are an essential part of antimicrobial host defense. In this review, I discuss how intracellular bacteria are detected by inflammasomes, how the specific sensing mechanism of each inflammasome receptor restricts the ability of bacteria to evade immune recognition, and how host cell death is used to control bacterial replication in vivo.