Bedbug Control Crayford

Treat Before You Pack, Not After

If you know you have bedbugs, the best time to deal with them is before the boxes come out. Packing disturbs every hiding place in the room, and a van load of beds, drawers and bags gives them a free ride to an address that was clean.

That means booking treatment far enough ahead to finish it. Chemical treatment is usually two or three visits about 10–14 days apart, so it needs several weeks. Heat treatment is usually one visit, which is why people short of time before a move often choose it, even though it costs more.

If the Move Is Too Close to Treat First

Sometimes the date is fixed and there is no room for a course of treatment. In that case, pack in a way that keeps them contained:

1. Wash and dry everything washable from the affected room on a hot cycle and seal it straight into new bags.
2. Use new boxes for that room rather than ones that have been stored in it.
3. Label the affected room's belongings so they go into one room at the new place and are not unpacked around the house.
4. Do not use the old bed frame or mattress as padding in the van for other furniture.
5. Book an inspection at the new address soon after you move, and treat the room the labelled items went into if there are signs.

Moving Into a House That Had Them

The other side of a move is arriving somewhere the previous occupier left bedbugs behind. Before your own furniture goes in, check the skirtings, carpet edges and any fitted wardrobes in the bedrooms. Bedbugs can wait a long time without a host, so an empty property is not proof of anything. An inspection starts at £120.

If you are renting and find signs, tell the landlord or agent in writing straight away, before your belongings are unpacked. Who arranges and pays for treatment depends on the tenancy and the cause, and we are not legal advisers.

The Mattress Question

A move feels like a good moment to leave the old bed behind, and sometimes that is right. But carrying an untreated mattress down the stairs and out of a Crayford house scatters bedbugs through the hall on the way, and a new bed in an untreated room simply becomes the next one they live in. Ask us before you decide.

If a mattress does have to go, it should be treated or sealed in a mattress bag first and taken out on the day the room is cleared, not left in the hall for the removal van. Tell us your moving date for the house in Crayford and we will fit the advice around it. For bringing things home from a trip rather than a move, see unpacking after a holiday; the Bexley page covers the rest of the borough.

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