Getting Rid of Furniture With Bedbugs Without Spreading Them: Barking and Dagenham

Why Most Furniture Can Stay

Beds, mattresses, sofas, wardrobes and chests of drawers can almost all be treated where they stand. Chemical treatment goes into the seams, joints and screw holes, and heat treatment brings the whole room, furniture included, up to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive. The places we treat are listed in their own guide.

Getting rid of a piece of furniture does not get rid of the bedbugs. Plenty of them will be in the skirting, the carpet edge and the next piece of furniture along. A new bed put into an untreated room tends to be infested within weeks.

When It Makes Sense to Let Something Go

• It is broken, torn or falling apart and you were going to replace it anyway.
• It is so heavily infested that treating it would cost more than it is worth to you.
• It is built in a way that leaves hiding places we cannot reach, and we have told you so.

Please talk to us before deciding. If we think it can be treated, we will say so, and if we think it should go, we will tell you why.

Treat It Before It Leaves

If you can, have the item treated first and move it afterwards. Bedbugs that are dead do not drop off on the stairs. If that is not possible, the wrapping below matters even more.

Wrapping, Labelling and Moving It

1. Wrap it completely in heavy plastic sheeting, or a mattress bag for a mattress, and tape every seam. A bedbug can get out through a gap you would not notice.
2. Wrap it in the room it is in. Do not carry it to the hall first and wrap it there.
3. Label it clearly with a marker: “Bedbugs — do not take”. It tells the collection crew what they are handling and puts off anyone passing.
4. Take it straight out in one go, by the shortest route, without stopping on the stairs or leaning it against walls on the way. In a block of flats, go straight from the door to the lift or stairs and out.
5. Vacuum the route afterwards, including the stairs and the carpet where it stood, and empty the vacuum into a sealed bag and outside bin.

Bulky Waste Collection, Not the Pavement

Book the council’s bulky waste collection, or use a licensed waste carrier, and arrange it so the item goes out as close to collection time as you can. Tell whoever is collecting that it has bedbugs. Check your council’s website for how their service works, as each one is run differently.

Do not leave it on the street, in a front garden or next to the communal bins for someone to deal with. A good-looking sofa on a pavement gets taken home, and the bedbugs go with it. For the same reason, do not sell it, give it away or pass it to a charity shop, however clean it looks.

Buying the Replacement

Hold off until treatment is finished. A new mattress or sofa brought in before then is simply a new place for them to move into. If you buy second-hand, look over the seams, joints and underside with a torch before it comes through the door. The sofa guide shows where to look on upholstery, and the borough page explains how treatment is arranged, with prices starting at £220.

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