Can Bedbugs Arrive in Parcels and Deliveries in Hackney?

Why Most Parcels Are Low Risk

Bedbugs live close to sleeping people, because that is where they feed. A new item packed in a warehouse, sealed and sent straight to you has spent its life nowhere near a bed. There is nothing in that chain for a bedbug to hide in on the way.

So a sealed box of new shoes or a book in a cardboard sleeve is not something to lose sleep over. The picture changes when the item, or the box, has spent time in somebody’s home.

The Deliveries Worth a Second Look

• Second-hand goods sent by a private seller, especially bedding, soft furnishings, bags and anything wooden or upholstered.
• Returned items resold as new or open-box, which may have been in another home for a while.
• Furniture carried in a van that also carries other people’s used furniture, such as a removal or a house-clearance load.
• Boxes reused from someone else’s move. Corrugated cardboard has plenty of narrow channels and edges.
• Anything that arrives unwrapped, or wrapped in old blankets.

For second-hand furniture in particular, our guide to wicker, rattan and vintage pieces covers what to look for before you buy.

What to Do When It Arrives

1. Open higher-risk deliveries in a hallway or kitchen with a hard floor, not on the bed.
2. Look along the flaps, folds and taped seams of the box before you throw it away.
3. Flatten cardboard and get it out of the flat promptly. Do not store empty boxes under beds or in bedroom cupboards.
4. Put fabric items through a hot wash or tumble dryer before using them.
5. Check furniture joints, undersides and upholstery with a torch before it goes into a bedroom.

That is enough. There is no need to quarantine every parcel or spray it with anything, and shop sprays tend to scatter bugs rather than deal with them.

In a flat share, agree a simple habit: whoever orders something second-hand opens it in the kitchen or hallway and gets the packaging out of the flat that evening. It costs nothing, and it means nobody’s bedroom becomes the sorting area for other people’s deliveries.

If You Find Something in a Box

Close the box, put it in a bin bag and tie it. Keep whatever you caught in a jar or on clear tape so it can be identified, and photograph it. A lot of small insects turn up in cardboard, and many of them are harmless: our London guide to bedbugs or something else helps you tell them apart.

If it is a bedbug, a single one in a box does not mean your home is affected. Keep the item out of the bedroom, check your bed over the next week or two, and if you see signs, an inspection from £120 will confirm it before you pay for treatment.

Returns, Resellers and Who to Tell

If a second-hand item or a return clearly had bedbugs in it, tell the seller or retailer in writing, with photos. What they do about it depends on their own terms. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers, but a written record is always worth having.

Most bedbug problems start with luggage, furniture and people rather than the post. The Hackney bedbug page goes through the routes in more detail.

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