Bedbug Chemical Treatment Camden

Why the Course Matters More Than the First Visit

The insecticide goes into the seams, frames and skirtings, and it keeps working for a while after it dries. It does not reliably kill eggs, so the second visit, about ten to fourteen days later, is there for the bugs that hatch in between. Miss it, and the first visit has done half a job. The London chemical treatment page gives the full explanation of the method.

So when you book, book the course in your head, not just the first date. Look at the next month: deadlines, exams, a weekend away, a run of late shifts. Tell us about them on the phone and we will place the visits where you can actually be ready for them.

Fitting Visits Around Lectures and Shifts

Each visit takes one to two hours, and someone has to let the technician in. That person does not have to be you; it can be a flatmate, a landlord or an agent, as long as they know which rooms are being treated and the prep has been done.

1. When you ring, give us two or three windows in the next week that work for everyone in the flat.
2. Agree who will be in to open the door, and give us their number as well as yours.
3. The night before, do the prep for your own room (below). Do not leave it for the morning of a 9am lecture or an early shift.
4. After the visit, stay out of the treated rooms until the surfaces are dry. The technician tells you when, and you follow the instructions given on the day.
5. Put the second visit in your calendar before the first technician leaves.

When There Are Flatmates

In a shared flat, the bites usually start with one person, and the temptation is to treat that one room. Often that is right. But if the sofa has been used as a bed, if people swap rooms, or if a partner stays over and sleeps in more than one room, tell us. It changes which rooms go into the course.

Everyone whose room is being treated has the same jobs before each visit:

• Strip the bed and hot-wash the bedding, carrying it to the machine in a bag.
• Clear the floor, including under the bed. Bag shoes, bags and laundry and leave them in that room.
• Leave the bed and furniture where they are so the technician can reach round and under them.
• Keep your laptop, chargers and anything else on the floor by the bed in a bag too; can bedbugs live in laptops and electronics? explains why.

If one flatmate does not do the prep, their room is harder to treat properly and the course takes longer for everyone. It is worth a flat meeting before the first visit.

Between the Visits

The fortnight between visits is where student flats tend to go wrong, mostly with good intentions.

• Sleep in your own bed. Crashing on a friend’s floor or going back to your parents’ for a fortnight tends to take the bedbugs with you.
• Do not take laundry home. Wash it in the flat or at a launderette, bagged from the room to the machine.
• No shop sprays. They push bugs into the next room and can interfere with what was applied.
• Do not hoover along the skirtings. That is where the residual sits.
• Expect the odd bug. Seeing one in the first fortnight is normal. Note where, and tell the technician at the next visit.

Your Landlord, and Who Pays

If you rent privately, report the bedbugs to your landlord or letting agent in writing, with the date you first noticed them. Who arranges and pays for treatment depends on your tenancy and on how the bedbugs got in, and we are not legal advisers. If you are in university halls rather than a private flat, the Bloomsbury page explains reporting it to the hall. If you have just come back from travelling, bedbugs in hostels and backpacker travel covers the rucksack.

What It Costs, and When Heat Makes More Sense

Treatments start from £220, and chemical is the lower-cost of the two routes. The price depends on how many rooms are in the course, and you get it on the phone on 0800 955 1018 before anything is booked. If the flat cannot manage two or three visits, or it has spread to several rooms, heat treatment in Camden is usually one visit instead.

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