Check It Where It Stands
The best place to look at a bed is in the room it has always been in, before anybody takes it apart. Once it is dismantled and loaded into a car or van, anything living in the joints can drop out on the stairs, in the vehicle and in your hallway.
Take a torch and look at these, in this order:
- The mattress piping, label and corners, top and bottom
- The top edge and underside of a divan base, and the fabric where the legs or castors fix
- The slats and the joints where they sit in the side rails
- Where the headboard bolts to the frame, and the back of the headboard itself
- Screw holes and brackets, especially on flat-pack frames
You are looking for dark spotting, pale shed skins, tiny cream eggs and the insects themselves. A bed with a lift-up base or drawers needs more time; see bedbugs in ottoman and storage beds for what to check inside.
If It Looks Clear
Wrap the mattress and base in plastic sheeting or a mattress bag for the move, keep the screws and fittings in a sealed bag, and put the bed together in the room it is going to, not in the hallway. Wash any bedding that came with it on a hot cycle before anyone sleeps in it.
If You Find Signs
Leave it where it is. Do not take it apart and do not carry it out to the bins. That is exactly how bedbugs reach the stairwell or the house next door. Tell your relative gently, because if the bed has them, their room probably does too, and the problem will not leave with the bed. Their home needs looking at in its own right.
If you cannot tell whether a mark is bedbug spotting, an inspection starts from £120 and answers it before anyone spends money on treatment.
If It Is Already in Your Home
If the bed has already been moved in and you are now finding bites, keep sleeping in it rather than moving to the sofa, and do not get rid of it before we have seen it. A single affected bedroom is often treated with chemical treatment over two or three visits; if the bed has been in the house a while and signs have turned up in other rooms, heat treatment in a day may suit better. Heat costs more, and treatments start from £220.
When you ring about a home in New Addington, tell us where the bed came from, how long you have had it, and where you have seen signs. The Croydon borough page explains what makes a treatment work first time.
Bedbug Control New Addington — Questions
Is a hand-me-down bed riskier than buying second-hand?
The risk comes from the home it has been in, not how you got it. The difference with family is that you can usually check it in place before it moves.
Should I just buy a new mattress and keep the frame?
A new mattress on an affected frame will not help, because frames and headboards hide them too. Check the whole bed.
My relative says they have never been bitten. Can the bed still have bedbugs?
Yes. Some people do not react to bites at all, so the signs on the bed are a better guide than whether anyone has noticed marks.
Can we treat the bed before it moves?
The bed is treated as part of the room it is in. If your relative's room is affected, ring us and we will explain what that involves.
What do I do with the bedding that came with it?
Bag it before it leaves the house, then wash it hot and tumble-dry it before it goes on any bed.
Elsewhere in Croydon
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for New Addington
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for New Addington.
Ottoman and Storage Beds
Lift-up bases, fabric linings, drawers and what is stored inside, checked and treated.
Read more →
The Places That Get Missed
Beyond the bed and the two-metre radius: the harbourages that survive a mediocre inspection.
Read more →Where Pest Controllers Actually Treat
Why bedbugs choose the places they do, and the places we deliberately leave alone.
Read more →
Bedbugs After Moving In
Why signs can take weeks, what an empty flat hides, and whose problem it is.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Croydon
Every service has its own page for Croydon: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering New Addington
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us where the bed is now and what you have found, and we will tell you the next step.