Bedbug Control Abbey Wood

What Two Rooms Tells You

Bedbugs rarely wander between rooms for no reason. When they turn up in the living room, it is usually because someone sleeps or naps on the sofa, because the numbers in the bedroom have grown, or because a bag, coat or piece of furniture carried them through. Knowing which of those it was helps us decide how far to look.

It also means we check the rooms in between: the hallway, the bathroom if it sits between the two, and any spare room. Our guide to what happens during an inspection sets out how that search works.

Treating Both Rooms Together

Whatever route you choose, both rooms need treating at the same time. Treating the bedroom and leaving the sofa for later just gives them somewhere to wait.

• Heat takes both rooms, and usually the hall between them, up to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive in one visit, eggs included. It is most of a day, and you have the flat back once it has cooled.
• Chemical treats the bed, the sofa, the skirtings and the furniture joints in both rooms, then comes back about 10–14 days later, and sometimes a third time, for what has hatched since.

For two rooms at once, heat is often the better call. A chemical course across two rooms means living with the gap between visits in both of them, and it is easier for a few to be missed. Heat costs more, and the figure depends on the number of rooms.

The Sofa and the Living Room

A sofa is harder to treat than a bed. There are more seams, a fabric base underneath, a wooden or metal frame inside and cushions that unzip. With heat, the sofa is opened up so the air can get into it and the thermal camera is used to check inside the base. With chemical, the seams, frame and underside are treated and the covers washed where they can be.

The rest of the living room matters as well: the skirting behind the sofa, the carpet edge, the TV unit and any rug. Electronics are one of the things we go through with you before heat, since some should come out of the room. Our page on preparing for heat treatment has the full list.

Getting Ready for a Two-Room Job

Strip and wash the bedding and any throws from the sofa, bag them and keep them sealed. Clear the floors in both rooms. Do not move furniture between rooms or put the sofa out for collection. Abbey Wood's Elizabeth line station means a lot of people commute from here, so if you are out at work on the day, tell us where the keys will be and we will plan around it. The Greenwich borough page covers the rest of the area.

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