Bedbug Control Hayes

What the Laundry Is Actually For

Bedding and clothes from an affected room can carry bedbugs and eggs. Washing hot and then drying hot deals with them. Of the two, the dryer on a hot setting does most of the work, which matters when you are working out where to take things.

What you are trying to avoid is carrying loose items out of the bedroom, through the flat and down to a car or bus. Every trip with an open bag is a chance to drop something on the way.

Doing It Without Your Own Machine

1. Bag it in the bedroom. Strip the bed straight into strong bags and tie them before they leave the room. Double-bag anything going on public transport.
2. Take it to a launderette. Use a hot wash and then the hottest dryer setting the fabric will take, run for a full cycle. If time or money is short, a hot tumble dry on its own still does most of the work.
3. Throw away the outer bag. Tip the contents straight into the machine and put the empty bag in an outside bin, not back in the car.
4. Bring it home clean and sealed. Fold the dry laundry into fresh bags at the launderette and keep them tied until the room is treated.
5. Ask a friend or relative only if they understand. A machine at someone else's house is fine, provided the bags go straight in and nothing sits in their hallway overnight.

Which Treatment Asks Less of You

With chemical treatment, the bedding is stripped and washed hot before each visit, and there are usually two or three visits about ten to fourteen days apart. That can mean several launderette runs over a month, so plan them into the dates before you book.

Heat treatment changes the maths. Clothing and bedding left in the room are heated along with it, so you mostly wash what you took out beforehand rather than everything. It costs more than chemical, and it is usually one visit that takes most of a day. In a Hayes household with no machine, fewer laundry trips can be the deciding factor, and it is worth saying so when you ring.

Keeping It Manageable

You do not need to wash everything you own. Start with what is on and around the bed, then clothes worn in that room, then anything stored under the bed. Clothes in drawers in rooms with no signs can be left alone.

Items that cannot be washed, such as shoes or a bag, can be sealed and left in the room for heat, or kept bagged until we have been. If you are unsure what has spread where, the inspection from £120 narrows down which rooms need the laundry effort at all. The Hillingdon page has more on treating a whole house.

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