Bedbug Control Bromley

Bedbugs in a Larger House

A bigger house does not mean a bigger problem. Bedbugs live where people sleep and sit still for long stretches, so in a four-bedroom house they are usually in one or two rooms, not all of them. The job is finding out which, before anything is treated, and not paying to treat rooms that are clear.

What a larger house does change is how easily they get carried. A family moves between bedrooms, a child climbs into a parent’s bed, a visitor sleeps in the spare room, someone dozes on the sofa. Each of those is a route from the first room to the next one, and it is why we ask who sleeps where when you ring.

Whole House or Room by Room?

Room by room is the normal answer. We treat the rooms where there is evidence — live bugs, eggs, spotting on the seams, cast skins — and check the rooms next to them, the rooms people move between and anywhere someone has been sleeping while they avoided the bedroom.

Treating the whole house makes sense in a smaller number of cases: when evidence turns up in most of the bedrooms, when people have been moving round the house to get away from the bites, or when the living room sofa is involved as well as the beds. Treating rooms that are clear adds cost and nothing else.

If you are unsure how far it has gone, an inspection settles it. It costs from £120 and tells you which rooms need treatment and which do not, so the quote is for the house you actually have. The Orpington page goes through the whole-house decision in a big family home in more detail.

Heat or Chemical in a House This Size

Both routes work in a house. Chemical treatment puts a residual insecticide into seams, frames and skirtings. It does not reliably kill eggs, so it is usually two visits, sometimes three, about 10–14 days apart, at one to two hours each. It costs less, and it suits one or two rooms that are clearly contained.

Heat treatment raises the whole room to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive and holds it there, with a thermal camera used to find cold spots. It kills the eggs as well, so it is usually one visit, taking most of a day. It costs more. It is often the better fit when several rooms are involved, or when the person living there would find a run of return visits hard.

Heat leaves nothing behind once the room cools. In a house converted into flats, where the neighbours share walls and floors, a light residual may be put along the edges afterwards. Our heat versus chemical guide sets the two side by side.

Second-Hand Furniture

A second-hand bed frame, headboard, sofa or chest of drawers is one of the ways bedbugs get into a house that has never had them. Nothing is wrong with buying second-hand. The point is to look before it comes indoors, because checking a frame on the drive is easy and treating three bedrooms is not.

Our guide to checking second-hand furniture covers where to look on each type of piece, and what to do if you find something after it is already inside.

Arranging Treatment for an Older Relative

The call does not have to come from the person whose home it is; a son, daughter or neighbour can make it. You can ring, arrange the inspection and book the treatment, as long as the person living there knows and agrees to it.

The preparation is where help matters. For chemical treatment the bedding is stripped and hot-washed and the floor cleared. For heat, aerosols, candles, medication, vinyl, some electronics and plants come out of the room first. Someone who cannot bend, lift or carry needs another person to do that, and we can talk through on the phone what has to be done and when.

Medication is the item that needs most thought before a heat treatment, because it has to leave the room and still be to hand for the day. Our guide to bedbugs in an elderly relative’s home covers spotting it for someone else and planning the day around them. A care home is a different job, covered on the commercial page.

What It Costs

Bedbug treatments start at £220 and inspections from £120. The final figure depends on how many rooms need treating and whether you choose heat or chemical, with heat costing more. You get that figure on the phone before anything is booked.

Before You Ring

• Do not throw out the mattress or bed unless we advise it. Carrying it down the stairs spreads them through the house.
• Do not move into another bedroom to get away from the bites. That usually carries them into a second room.
• Leave any shop spray alone. It tends to scatter them into new hiding places, as the Petts Wood page explains.
• If you have found a single bug and nothing else, read the Hayes page on a single bedbug first.

Other Questions We Get From Bromley Homes

Some questions come up less often but still matter. Whether bedbugs can live in a car is one. What to do about selling or letting a house after bedbugs is another. And many people hope an empty room will sort itself out — our guide on how long bedbugs live without feeding explains why it does not.

← Bedbug Control London