Do Bedbugs Smell in City of London?

What the Smell Is Like

When it is noticeable at all, the smell is usually described as sweet and musty, a little like damp washing or overripe fruit. It comes from chemicals the insects give off, which they use to signal to each other, along with the spotting and shed skins that build up where they gather.

It is strongest close to the harbourage itself: along a mattress seam, behind a headboard or inside a divan base. Across a room it is faint, and in a room that is aired or cleaned it can be lost altogether.

Why Most People Never Notice It

Early on there are simply too few insects to produce anything a person could pick up. Even a well-established problem may not smell, and people get used to the smell of their own bedroom quickly. It is also easily hidden by laundry, cooking or air freshener.

So a smell is a late sign, and a poor one. Its absence certainly does not mean a flat is clear. The London guide to the early signs of bedbugs puts it in order alongside the signs that come first.

What to Look For Instead

• Small dark spots, like marker-pen dots, along mattress seams and bed frame joints.
• Pale, empty skins in several sizes, left behind as the young ones grow.
• Tiny pale eggs stuck in seams and corners.
• The insects themselves, flat and brown, often in a group in one crevice.
• Bites, although some people do not react at all.

If you find something and are not sure what it is, keep it in a sealed jar or on tape. Plenty of things are mistaken for bedbugs, and the London guide on bedbugs or something else covers the usual lookalikes.

If a Room Does Smell

A room that smells musty might have bedbugs, or it might have damp, mould or a problem with drains. Look before you assume. If you find the signs above near the smell, it points to a problem that has had time to grow, and it is worth ringing sooner rather than later.

In a hotel room or serviced apartment, a guest who mentions an odd smell is worth taking seriously without jumping to conclusions. Strip the bed, look along the seams and the back of the headboard with a torch, and keep the room empty until you know. A clean result there is far more reassuring than the smell fading, and our hotel page for the area covers what to do if you find something.

Do not try to deal with it with sprays or by moving furniture out. That tends to spread an established infestation into other rooms, or through a shared building. Keep things where they are and call 0800 955 1018; the City of London page explains the treatment routes.

Scent Detection

The same chemicals that make the smell can be picked up by a trained detection dog long before a person would notice anything. Some firms use dogs, mostly for checking many rooms quickly, such as in hotels and large buildings. A dog's indication still needs confirming by eye, because what matters is finding the insects and evidence and knowing where to treat.

Our inspections, from £120, are done by a technician looking for that physical evidence in the places it collects; the London guide on what happens during a bedbug inspection describes the visit.

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