Why These Beds Are Harder to Treat
Bedbugs like dark, tight, undisturbed places close to where someone sleeps. A divan base is a fabric box with a stapled dust cover underneath, and the inside is exactly that. A storage bed adds a full cavity packed with bedding, clothes and toys. A bunk bed has twice the joints, a ladder, and slats bolted in at height.
None of these beds is a reason to give up on treatment or to throw the bed out. They just need more thought beforehand, and a little more access on the day.
Divans and Lift-Up Storage Beds
- Empty the storage. Everything in drawers or under a lift-up base comes out. Washable items get hot-washed and bagged; other things are bagged and kept aside for us to look at.
- Do not drag it. Leave the base where it stands. Moving it across the room or down the stairs scatters bugs along the way.
- Leave the dust cover. We may need to open the stapled cover on the underside to treat inside. Do not rip it off yourself beforehand.
- Separate the halves. If a divan comes in two pieces, you can part them slightly so the join is reachable, without moving either far.
For heat, the inside of a divan is one of the slowest places to warm through, which is why we check it on a thermal camera rather than trusting the air reading. For chemical, the base’s seams, corners and fixings are treated directly.
Bunk Beds and Cabin Beds
Bunk beds have more hiding places per sleeper than almost any other bed: every bolt hole, the ladder fixings, the underside of the top slats, and the gap where the frame meets the wall. Strip both mattresses and wash all the bedding. Clear the floor underneath and around, including toys and books piled against the frame.
Do not take the bunk bed apart unless we ask you to. It seems helpful but it usually spreads them around the room, and loose parts get leaned against other furniture. Children should keep sleeping in their own beds until treatment; moving them in with you tends to carry the bugs across.
Choosing the Route for an Awkward Bed
Heat suits these beds well because it reaches the inside of a base or a hollow frame without anyone having to get into it, and it kills eggs, so it is usually one visit. It takes most of a day, and heat-sensitive items — aerosols, candles, medication, vinyl, some electronics, plants — come out first. The heat preparation guide covers the rest.
Chemical works too, with more attention to opening up the bed on the day. It is one to two hours a visit and usually two or three visits about 10–14 days apart, because it does not reliably kill eggs. Treatments start at £220, heat costs more, and the figure is given on the phone. The guide to places bedbugs hide that get missed shows why bed bases need proper attention.
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Bedbug Control Marks Gate — Questions
Do I need to throw away a divan with bedbugs in it?
Usually not. Divans can be treated where they stand. If one is beyond saving we will tell you, and our guide on getting rid of furniture explains how to do it without spreading them.
What do I do with everything in the storage drawers?
Take it out before the visit. Hot-wash what you can and bag it; bag the rest and keep it aside so it can be checked or treated.
Should I dismantle the bunk bed before you come?
No, not unless we ask. Taking it apart tends to spread the bugs and scatter parts around the room.
Is heat or chemical better for a storage bed?
Heat often suits it because it reaches inside the base in one visit. Chemical also works with the base opened up on the day. We will recommend one on the phone.
Elsewhere in Barking and Dagenham
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Marks Gate
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Marks Gate.
Where Pest Controllers Actually Treat
Why bedbugs choose the places they do, and the places we deliberately leave alone.
Read more →
The Places That Get Missed
Beyond the bed and the two-metre radius: the harbourages that survive a mediocre inspection.
Read more →Getting Rid of Infested Furniture
Why most furniture can stay, and how to move out what cannot without scattering bedbugs.
Read more →
Preparing Your Home for Heat Treatment
What to do the week before, the night before and the morning of. A plan, not a list.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Barking and Dagenham
Every service has its own page for Barking and Dagenham: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Marks Gate
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us what kind of beds are in the affected rooms so we can plan the access before we come out to you in Barking and Dagenham.