Can Bedbugs Live in Books, Bags and Backpacks in Greenwich?

A bedbug does not feed on paper or leather. It uses a book or a bag the way it uses any other object near a bed: a dark, narrow place to rest between feeds. That makes the answer depend almost entirely on where the thing is kept.

Books

A book on a bedside table, or a shelf right beside the bed, can hold a few insects in the gap behind the spine or where the cover meets the pages. They rarely get deep between the pages of a closed book. A bookcase on the far side of a large room is much less likely to be involved than the pile on the nightstand.

Books cannot be washed or sprayed. With heat treatment they usually stay in the room, stood upright and a little apart so the heat gets round them, and they are treated along with everything else. With chemical treatment, the books by the bed are checked, shaken out and bagged until the follow-up visit is done.

Handbags, Work Bags and Laptop Bags

Bags are the bigger worry because they travel. A bag dropped on the bed every evening and carried out every morning is the easiest way for bedbugs to reach an office, a friend's flat or a car. Seams, zip channels, inner pockets and the stitching under handles are where they sit.

Fabric bags that can go in the machine get a hot wash and a full hot tumble dry. Leather and structured bags cannot, so empty them, check the seams and pockets with a torch, vacuum the inside and keep them sealed in a clear bag until the treatment is finished. For how this plays out at work, see bedbugs in the workplace.

School Bags and Backpacks

A child's school bag has the same risk with more seams, and it goes to a building full of other bags. Most backpacks are nylon or polyester and can go through a tumble dryer; check the care label, then wash and dry it with the pockets open. Pencil cases, lunch bags and PE kit get the same treatment.

It is worth telling the school if bedbugs have been confirmed at home. You do not need to go into detail, only enough that they can keep an eye out.

During Treatment

What happens to these things depends on the method.

• Heat: most books and bags stay in the room and are treated with it. Laptops, tablets and some other electronics may need to come out, and we go through them with you. The rest of the removal list is on the preparing for heat treatment guide.
• Chemical: the residual goes into the room, not onto your belongings. Bags are washed and dried where possible, checked and sealed where not, and books near the bed are bagged until the follow-up visit.

Either way, the bags that go out every day need to be dealt with before the day of treatment and kept clean afterwards, or they bring the problem straight back.

A Daily Routine That Helps

1. Give bags a place away from the bed such as a hook on the back of the door, a hard chair or the hall.
2. Do not store bags or books under the bed while there is any doubt.
3. Check a bag after a night away before it comes into the bedroom.
4. Empty and vacuum the bag you use most every week or so until treatment is finished.

If you are not sure yet whether you have them, the guide to early signs of bedbugs is the place to start. Students packing up a room should also read taking bedbugs home from university halls.

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