Can Bedbugs Live in Shoes in Islington?

Bedbugs live close to where people sleep, because that is where they feed. A pair of shoes by the front door is a long way from the bed in bedbug terms. A pile of trainers under the bed, or a rack against the bedroom wall, is not. The first question is always where the shoes are.

How Likely Is It?

Shoes are not somewhere bedbugs choose to settle when a bed is available. They prefer seams and joints within easy reach of a sleeping person. But a shoe offers darkness, folded fabric and small gaps, and in a room with a lot of bedbugs they will use whatever is nearby. Shoes stored in the bedroom are worth checking; shoes kept elsewhere rarely have them.

Shoes are also a way for bedbugs to travel, in the same way a bag is. A shoe left by a hotel bed or on a sofa in someone else’s home can pick one up and bring it back.

Racks, Boxes and the Space Under the Bed

In a small flat, shoes end up wherever there is room, and that is often under the bed or on a rack in the bedroom. Those are the ones to deal with. A wooden or fabric shoe rack has joints and folds of its own, and a shoe box under the bed gives bedbugs a cardboard hiding place right beside the sleeper.

Trainers, Slippers and Boots

• Trainers: the tongue, the padded collar, under the insole and in the seams where the upper meets the sole.
• Slippers: often kept right by the bed, soft and fabric-lined, so worth the closest look.
• Boots: the inside of the shaft, laces and eyelets, and any fleece lining.
• Sandals and hard shoes: little to hide in, so rarely a concern.

Look inside with a torch, and tap each shoe over a sheet of white paper to see what drops out. Dark spots, pale shed skins or live bugs are what you are looking for. If you are unsure what you have found, an inspection from £120 confirms it before anything else is spent.

What to Do With Footwear

1. Move shoes out of the bedroom to a hard floor near the front door, checking each pair as you go.
2. Put washable trainers and slippers through a hot wash or a hot tumble-dryer cycle, if the care label allows it.
3. Put shoes that cannot be washed into a sealed bag and keep them sealed until treatment is done.
4. Empty any shoe boxes that were under the bed and recycle the boxes outside.
5. Do not spray shoes with a shop insecticide; it rarely reaches the ones inside and can scatter them.

With heat treatment, shoes left in the treated room are heated along with everything else, though anything with a vinyl or plastic part that could warp is better taken out; ask us if you are unsure. With chemical treatment, shoes come off the floor so the skirting and carpet edge can be treated. The Islington chemical treatment page explains the visits.

Keeping Them Out of the Bedroom Afterwards

Once treatment is done, keeping shoes by the door rather than the bed is a simple habit that removes one more hiding place. The Islington page covers preparing a flat with no spare room, and why bedbugs reappear after treatment explains what to do if you see signs again.

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