Bedbug Chemical Treatment Hammersmith and Fulham

Why a Course Suits a Flat

A flat has fewer rooms and they are all on one level, so the affected area is usually easier to define than in a house. If the evidence is on one bed, or the bed and the sofa next to it, a residual insecticide applied to the seams, frame and skirting can deal with it without clearing the flat for a day. It also costs less than heat.

What the insecticide does, and why it is not reliable on eggs, is covered on the London chemical treatment page for the full explanation. The practical consequence is a return visit, usually around ten to fourteen days later, and sometimes a third.

Fitting the Visits Into Your Diary

Each visit takes one to two hours. For someone who commutes, that is a late start or an early finish rather than a lost day. Many people in hybrid jobs book both visits for their home working days and work from the kitchen or living room while we are in the bedroom.

1. Book both dates at once. Fix the first visit and the return in the same phone call, so the second one is in your calendar before the first is done.
2. Choose mornings if you can. The treated surfaces need to dry before the room is used, and a morning visit gives the whole day for that.
3. Hold a date for a third visit. Pencil in a morning two weeks after the second, and cancel it if we tell you it is not needed.
4. Tell us about travel. If a work trip falls in the middle of the course, say so; the gap between visits matters and we would rather plan around it than have it drift.

Getting In: Concierges, Porters and Keys

Newer blocks along the river often have a concierge desk and a booking system for contractors. Older mansion buildings may have a porter, a shared entry phone or nothing at all. Whichever it is, tell the building we are coming, give our name to whoever keeps the list, and check whether there are rules on which lift or entrance tradespeople use.

If you cannot be there, leaving a key with the concierge is common, but make sure the room is ready the night before, because nobody can prepare it for you. If the building has had bedbugs before and you are wondering what that means for your flat, the Hammersmith page deals with a block’s history.

Preparing the Room in a Flat

• Strip the bed and hot-wash the bedding. In a flat without a garden that means doing it in batches the evening before; bag it in the bedroom and carry it straight to the machine.
• Clear the floor completely, including the space under the bed where suitcases and storage boxes tend to live in a small flat.
• Leave the furniture against the walls as it is. We move it as we need to.
• Tell us if the flat has original timber floors with gaps between the boards, which older mansion flats often do. Those gaps are treated as part of the room.

The guide to skirting and floor gaps explains why the edges of the room matter as much as the bed.

The Weeks Between Visits

The room can be used once the treatment has dried, and you should keep sleeping in your own bed. That is the hardest instruction for some people to follow, but a bed that is slept in draws out the bedbugs that hatch after the first visit so that they cross the treated surfaces. Moving onto the sofa or to a partner’s place usually just takes them with you.

Do not vacuum along the skirting or wipe the treated edges in that time, and do not use a shop spray on top of what we applied. If you see live bugs a week in, that is expected; tell us at the second visit where they were.

When Heat Would Be Better

If more than one bedroom is affected, if a flatmate cannot keep to the routine, or if you know you cannot reliably be in for three visits, the heat treatment page for Hammersmith and Fulham is worth reading. Treatments start from £220 either way, heat costs more, and the exact figure is given on 0800 955 1018 once we know the number of rooms. The borough page compares both for working households.

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