Why Building Work Makes It Worse
When a loft is being converted or a back wall is coming out, the furniture from those rooms goes somewhere else. A bed that was the only one affected ends up against the wall of a room that was clean, and boxes of clothes sit in the hall for weeks. Every move is a chance for bedbugs to go with it.
Opening walls, lifting floorboards and pulling off skirting also disturbs them. They do not come from building work, but they will move away from it into the nearest bedroom where someone sleeps.
What to Do Straight Away
- Stop moving furniture between rooms. Ask the builders to leave the beds and wardrobes where they are for now, and tell them why.
- Find out which rooms are affected. Check the seams, frames and headboards in every room people are sleeping in, including the temporary ones.
- Bag what is in the hall. Clothes and bedding waiting to go back upstairs should be washed hot and sealed, not left in open boxes.
- Keep everyone in their current beds. Doubling up so one room can be cleared usually spreads them further.
Treat Before the New Room Is Furnished
The worst outcome is a brand new loft bedroom furnished with the bed that brought the problem. In Kenton, as anywhere, get the existing rooms treated first, then move furniture in. If you are not sure whether anything is affected, an inspection from £120 tells you before you carry a single bed up the new stairs.
Talk to your builder about timing. Treatment needs the rooms reasonably clear and quiet for the day, and a chemical course means two or three visits about a fortnight apart. Plaster dust and trades walking in and out do not help either. A week or two when the site is quiet, such as while you wait for a delivery or an inspection by building control, is often a good window.
Heat or Chemical Mid-Build
Heat treatment is usually one visit, which is easier to fit into a building schedule and deals with eggs too. We check each room with a thermal camera for cold spots, and a half-built room with open walls may not hold heat the way a finished one does, so we may treat the finished rooms and leave the building site for later. It costs more than chemical.
Chemical treatment costs less and suits a contained problem, but builders have to keep off freshly treated skirtings and frames, and the residue should not be scrubbed off in the clean-up. Treatments start from £220 and the figure for your house in Kenton is given on the phone. The Harrow borough page covers homes that are changing shape more generally.
Bedbug Control Kenton — Questions
Could the builders have brought bedbugs in?
It is possible, as it is with any visitor, luggage or furniture, but it is rarely possible to say for certain. Treating the rooms matters more than working out the route.
Should we stop the building work?
Usually not. What matters is stopping furniture and belongings moving between rooms until the treatment is done.
Is it damp from the building work that attracted them?
No. Bedbugs feed on blood and have nothing to do with damp. Our guide to whether damp causes bedbugs explains the myth.
Can you treat the loft before it is finished?
We can look at it, but there is often nothing there to treat yet. We focus on the rooms where people sleep in Kenton and check the new space before it is furnished.
Do the builders need to be out on the day?
For heat, the rooms being treated need to be empty of people. For chemical, they should stay out until the surfaces are dry.
Elsewhere in Harrow
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Kenton
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Kenton.
Inspection First, or Straight to Treatment?
When the £120 saves you money, and when it is £120 you did not need to spend.
Read more →
The Places That Get Missed
Beyond the bed and the two-metre radius: the harbourages that survive a mediocre inspection.
Read more →Are Bedbugs Caused by Damp?
The damp myth, the insects that really do like it, and why a spotless house is not protected.
Read more →
Heat or Chemical: How to Choose
Five questions to ask yourself. Answer them honestly and the right treatment picks itself.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Harrow
Every service has its own page for Harrow: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Kenton
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us which rooms are in use, which are being built, and when the work is due to finish.