What a Report in an Office Usually Means
People do not sleep at their desks, so an office is not where a bedbug population normally settles. What a report usually means is that bedbugs have been carried in, on a bag or a coat, and have found somewhere soft to sit. The office is where they were seen, not where they started.
That is set out, with the reasoning, on the London commercial bedbug treatment page for the full explanation. What changes in a tower full of different occupiers is who needs to know and who acts.
A Single-Tenant Floor or a Shared Workspace
Your own office
If your company leases the floor and owns the furniture, you arrange the inspection and any treatment. Tell the building’s managing agent in writing, because shared lifts, stairwells and any furniture left by the landlord are theirs, and they may want to know which floors are involved.
A shared workspace
In a coworking floor, the operator usually owns the sofas, phone booths and chairs, while the members come and go with their own bags. The operator arranges the work, but it helps to know which part of the floor the report came from: a fixed desk, a hot desk, a breakout sofa or a meeting room. That narrows the search from the whole floor to a few pieces of furniture.
If your office sits in a building with other companies on other floors, you do not need to tell them yourself. Leave that to the managing agent, who can decide whether shared areas need a look. Spreading word floor to floor before anything has been confirmed does more harm than good, and a single insect on one chair is not yet a building problem.
Who pays in either case depends on the lease or the membership terms. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, so check the agreement.
What to Do When Someone Finds One
- Keep the insect if you can. Tape or a sealed pot is enough, and it tells us straight away whether it is a bedbug.
- Note the chair, sofa or desk it was on, and leave that item where it is. Moving it to a store room or the lift lobby spreads the search area.
- Do not spray it with anything from a cupboard. It scatters what is there and gives us less to go on.
- Tell the person whose desk it was privately and calmly. They may be carrying bedbugs from home, and they will need to deal with that at home.
- Ring us on 0800 955 1018 with the floor, the item and the number of people who use it.
Where We Look in Office Furniture
An inspection of an office concentrates on anything upholstered and anything people put bags or coats on or near:
- Fabric task chairs, especially the seams under the seat and where the back joins it.
- Breakout sofas, beanbags and floor cushions in chill-out areas. Can bedbugs live in bean bags? covers why the zips and filling matter.
- Phone booths and pods with padded walls or benches.
- Coat stands, lockers and the floor under desks where bags are left all day.
- Staff rest rooms with a sofa, if there is one.
Inspections start from £120, and for a larger floor they are quoted on the area we need to cover.
Treating the Workspace and Finding the Source
If bedbugs are found, the useful work is treating the seating and soft furnishings where they were found, not the whole floor. Chemical treatment suits most office furniture; ask when you ring about timing the visits around the working week. The chemical treatment page for Croydon explains the course of visits.
The harder part is the home the bedbugs came from. Treating the office alone does not stop someone bringing more in. The person concerned will need their own home looked at, and the Croydon bedbug control page is a sensible place to send them.
Prices for Offices and Workspaces
Commercial work is quoted on the rooms, furniture or units involved. Treatments start from £220, and inspections from £120. We give you the figure on the phone before anything is booked. For hotels rather than offices, see hotel bedbug treatment in Croydon.
← Bedbug Control Croydon · Commercial Bedbug Treatment London, in full
Commercial Bedbug Treatment Croydon — Questions
Should we close the office floor?
Rarely. Leave the item where the bedbug was found, keep people off it, and ring us. Most office reports come down to a few pieces of furniture.
Who arranges treatment in a shared workspace?
Usually the operator, because they own the furniture. Check the membership terms for who pays; we are not legal advisers.
Do we need to tell the managing agent of the tower?
It is sensible to tell them in writing, particularly if shared areas or landlord furniture could be involved.
One member keeps finding bites at their desk. What does that suggest?
Often that the bedbugs are coming from their home. The office seating still needs checking, but they will need their own home looked at too.
Can you treat office chairs rather than the whole floor?
Yes. Treatment goes where bedbugs are found, which in an office usually means seating and soft furnishings.
What does commercial treatment cost?
It is quoted on what is involved. Treatments start from £220 and inspections from £120, with the exact figure on the phone.
Bedbug Treatments in Croydon
Every service has its own page for Croydon: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Commercial Advice
The guides that go into commercial bedbug treatment in more depth.
Bedbugs in the Workplace
The source is almost always somebody's home. Handling that without humiliating anyone is the real job.
Read more →
HMOs and Serviced Apartments
Getting into every unit at once is the hard half of block work. How it is actually scheduled.
Read more →
Student Accommodation and Halls
The academic calendar is a pest calendar. Build the inspection programme around it.
Read more →
Bedbug Treatment for Care Homes
Treating around a resident who cannot easily move, and why heat is often the wrong answer.
Read more →
Can Bedbugs Spread Through an Office?
What an office 'infestation' turns out to be when somebody actually investigates it.
Read more →Bedbug Control Across Croydon
Each area page is written around one situation we deal with.
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us the floor, the kind of space and where the insect was found, and we will ring you back.