Bedbug Control Coulsdon

Why It Is Worth Checking

Older people do not always react to bites, and someone living alone may not notice spotting on a mattress or mention it. A home can have bedbugs for some time without anyone knowing. The move is often the first time the furniture is lifted and the bedding stripped in years, which makes it a good moment to look.

The home your relative is going to will have its own procedures for what residents bring. Ask them what they need from you; some want to know about anything that has been checked or treated.

What to Look At

• The bed and mattress, even if it is not going with them: spotting along the piping and corners tells you whether the rest needs a close look
• The armchair they sit in most, especially the seams, the gap between cushion and arms, and underneath
• The bedside cabinet or chest of drawers, inside the drawers and along the runners
• Suitcases and bags that have been stored under the bed or on top of the wardrobe
• Framed photos and small items kept on the bedside table

For drawers in particular, our guide on bedbugs in drawers and chests of drawers shows where to look.

Preparing What Goes With Them

1. Wash everything that can be washed on the hottest setting the fabric allows, tumble-dry it, and pack it into clean bags straight away.
2. Pack the clean things in a room with no signs, not on the bed you have just stripped.
3. Check each piece of furniture before it goes in the van, not once it has arrived.
4. Leave behind anything you are unsure about until it has been looked at.

If You Find Signs

Tell the care home before the move rather than after. It is better handled openly than discovered. Then decide what is going: it is often simpler to leave a mattress or a well-worn chair behind than to move it. Do not throw out the bed yourself before we have looked, because carrying it out through the house can scatter them.

An inspection from £120 confirms whether it is bedbugs and which items are affected. If treatment is needed, heat treatment can usually deal with a bedroom and its furniture in one day, and chemical treatment is done over two or three visits. Heat costs more; treatments start from £220.

Timing Around the Move

If the move date is fixed, ring as early as you can so the check or treatment happens before the packing. When you call about a house in Coulsdon, tell us the move date, which items are going, and whether anyone has been bitten. The Croydon borough page has more on doing a treatment properly the first time.

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