Having Visitors While You Have Bedbugs: Islington

Bedbugs do not jump onto people passing through a room. They hide in fabric, bags and furniture and move at night towards someone who is resting. That shapes the answer: a short visit is a small risk, an overnight stay is a much bigger one, and most of the risk is in where people put their things.

Should You Postpone?

An overnight guest is the one to put off. Someone sleeping in your home, on the sofa or in your bed, gives bedbugs hours of close contact with a person and their luggage, and their home is where any hitchhikers end up. Put overnight stays on hold until treatment is finished.

Daytime visits are different. A friend who comes for a cup of tea and sits on a hard chair in the kitchen is at very little risk, as long as their coat and bag are looked after. A long evening on the sofa you suspect is another matter. Use your judgement about where they will sit and for how long.

What to Tell Them

It is tempting to say nothing and hope for the best. We would tell them. A simple explanation lets them decide for themselves and means that, if they do find something later, they know where it came from and can act quickly.

Something like this is enough: you have bedbugs, treatment is booked, and you would rather they did not stay over or sit in the bedroom until it is sorted. Most people take it far better than you expect, and some will say they have been through the same thing.

Where Coats and Bags Should Go

• Keep them off beds, sofas and upholstered chairs.
• Hang coats on a hook in the kitchen or bathroom, or over a hard chair.
• Put bags on a hard floor or a table, zipped shut.
• Do not pile everything in the bedroom because it is the only free space.
• Suggest they give their coat a hot tumble-dry when they get home if they are worried.

In a small flat, where the bedroom is often the natural place to dump coats, this takes a little planning. Clear a hook or a chair in a room with a hard floor before anyone arrives.

Children and Relatives Who Stay Often

Grandparents who babysit, children who stay every other weekend and relatives who treat your spare bed as theirs are the harder cases. Where you can, move the visit to their home until treatment is complete. If a child has to stay, keep their bag packed from freshly washed clothes, keep it off the bed, and wash everything that comes back with them on a hot cycle.

Bunk beds and cabin beds used by visiting children have their own weak spots; our bunk bed guide goes through them.

After Treatment

With heat, the eggs are killed along with the bugs, so once the rooms have cooled and there are no further signs you can have people round as normal. With chemical treatment, the course is usually two or three visits about 10 to 14 days apart, and it is sensible to wait until it is complete before anyone stays the night. The London guide to what happens after treatment explains what to watch for in the weeks that follow.

If you are still choosing between the two, the Islington page covers how each fits a small home.

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