Can Bedbugs Live in a Car in Bromley?

Bedbugs settle where a person stays still for hours, usually at night. That is a bed, a sofa or an armchair. A car seat gets someone for a journey and then sits empty. Temperatures in a parked car also swing widely, which does not suit them. So a car is rarely where an infestation starts or where it lives.

How Bedbugs End Up in a Car

Almost always, someone brings them. The usual routes are:

• moving a mattress, bed frame or sofa, especially second-hand, in the car or van;
• suitcases and bags after a stay somewhere affected;
• clearing or moving the contents of an affected home;
• giving lifts to someone who has bedbugs at home, particularly on a regular run;
• coats, blankets or bags that live in the car and also go into a bedroom.

The last two matter most. A single journey rarely leaves anything behind. Things kept in the car and brought in and out are more likely to.

What to Check

If you have moved affected furniture or given regular lifts to someone with bedbugs, a check is sensible. Use a torch in daylight.

1. Take everything loose out of the car: bags, coats, blankets, child seats, floor mats.
2. Look along the seams of every seat and into the gap where the back meets the base.
3. Check under the seats and along the runners, and the stitching on seat belts where they feed into the seat.
4. Look into the boot lining, especially if furniture or bags were carried there.
5. Check the child seat on its own, including under the cover.

You are looking for the same signs as in a bedroom: small dark spots, pale empty skins, eggs, and the bugs themselves. Our guide to early signs shows what they look like.

Why Cars Are Not Treated Like Rooms

Our treatments are designed for rooms. Heat treatment brings a closed room up to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive and holds it there, and that equipment is not built for a vehicle full of plastics, wiring and glass. A residual insecticide suits skirtings and bed frames, not the seats you sit on every day. So we do not normally treat cars the way we treat a bedroom.

For a car, the practical steps are these. Vacuum thoroughly along every seam, under the seats and in the boot, then empty the vacuum outside into a sealed bag and put it in an outside bin. Wash anything washable that lives in the car on the hottest setting its label allows. Keep the car clear of loose items for a few weeks and check again. If you keep finding them, speak to a vehicle valeting company that deals with this; we are happy to tell you what we would look for.

Deal With the Home First

Cleaning the car achieves little if it keeps being refilled from an affected bedroom. If you are finding signs at home, book an inspection from £120 or a treatment from £220. Once the home is treated, the car stops being a route.

If the car was used to carry second-hand furniture, our guide to checking second-hand furniture covers what to look at before the next piece comes home.

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