- More People Moving About
- Second-Hand Furniture and Online Selling
- Homes Closer Together
- Shop Products That Do Less Than They Used To
- What This Means for You
People often ask this in the same breath as asking what they did wrong. The honest answer is usually nothing. Bedbugs travel with people and their belongings, and the way we live now gives them more chances to travel than they had a generation or two ago. We are not going to give you figures; this is about the reasons, not the size of the problem.
More People Moving About
A bedbug cannot fly or jump, and it does not live on a person. It moves by hiding in something that is then carried: a suitcase, a rucksack, a coat, a box. Every night spent in a hotel, a hostel, a holiday let or a friend’s spare room is a chance for one to climb into a bag, and people now spend far more nights away from home than they used to.
It is not just holidays. Work trips, weekends away, students going to and from halls, and people staying on sofas between flats all count. A single pregnant female carried home in a bag is enough to start a problem in a bedroom.
Second-Hand Furniture and Online Selling
Buying and selling used furniture has become easy, and that is mostly a good thing. The catch is that a bed frame, a headboard or an upholstered chair is exactly where bedbugs live, and a seller may have no idea. Many people do not react to bites at all, so a household can have them without knowing.
Anything with joints, seams or fabric is worth checking before it comes through the door: the corners of a frame, the underside of a sofa, the buttons and piping on a headboard. The London guide to places bedbugs hide shows where to look.
Homes Closer Together
More people live in flats, conversions and shared houses, with walls, floors and service pipes in common. A bedbug that gets into one flat has more routes to the next than it would have in a detached house, and shared hallways, laundries and bin stores bring belongings from different homes close together. In a building of converted flats, one household’s problem can become a question for the whole house.
Rented rooms turn over quickly too. Furniture often stays behind when tenants leave, so a new tenant can inherit a bed that has been there through several lettings.
Shop Products That Do Less Than They Used To
Some of the stronger insecticides once sold for household use are no longer available, and bedbugs have become resistant to some of the chemicals that are. A spray from the shop may kill the few bugs it hits directly and leave the rest, including every egg. Worse, it can drive them out of the bed and into skirtings, sockets and the next room.
That is why we would rather people rang us than tried a can first. Professional chemical treatment uses products and methods that are not on sale to the public, and heat does not depend on insecticide at all.
What This Means for You
- Check luggage and bags on a hard floor after a trip, before they reach the bed.
- Look over second-hand furniture before it comes inside, not after.
- Mention it to neighbours or a landlord if you share walls and find signs.
- Skip the shop spray and get the problem confirmed instead.
If you think you have them, the early signs guide tells you what to look for, and the Islington page covers getting a small flat ready for treatment.
Related Questions
Does having bedbugs mean my home is dirty?
No. Bedbugs feed on blood, not on crumbs or dirt, and they turn up in spotless homes as readily as untidy ones.
Can I stop them arriving altogether?
Not with certainty, but checking luggage and second-hand furniture makes a real difference, and catching them early keeps the job small.
Why did the spray I bought not work?
Shop products often miss the eggs and the bugs in cracks, and some bedbugs no longer respond to them. They can also scatter the bugs into other rooms.
Are bedbugs a sign of a problem with the building?
Not in themselves. They usually arrive in belongings. In a shared building they can move between flats, which is why telling the landlord or managing agent in writing matters.
More Bedbug Advice for Islington
Written up in full for people in the borough, and worth reading before the treatment day.
Bedbugs and Leather Furniture
Why the smooth hide matters less than the seams, buttons and the frame underneath.
Read more →
Having Visitors While You Have Bedbugs
Whether to put guests off, what to say, where their coats go, and when to invite them back.
Read more →
Bunk Beds and Cabin Beds
Joints, slats, ladders, storage drawers, and what it means when two people share one frame.
Read more →
Can Bedbugs Live in Shoes?
How likely it really is, the rack by the bed, trainers and slippers, and what to do.
Read more →Bedbug Control Across Islington
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Bedbug Treatments in Islington
Every service has its own page for Islington: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
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