Keeping the Spare Room Ready
The room you keep for placements may sit empty for weeks. That is when bedbugs, if they are there, go unnoticed, because nobody is being bitten. Check the bed in that room between placements, not only when a phone call comes.
- Strip the bed and look along the mattress seams and corners.
- Check the frame joints and the back of the headboard.
- Look at the skirting nearest the bed.
- Keep spare bedding sealed in bags so it is clean when you need it.
When a Child Arrives With Belongings
Children in care sometimes arrive with a bag or two from a home that had bedbugs. Handle this gently. Their belongings matter to them, and nothing about it is their fault.
- Unpack together, in a room nobody sleeps in. A kitchen or hallway works.
- Wash clothes and soft toys on hot where the labels allow, then dry them hot. Explain that everything gets a wash when it comes to a new home.
- Keep what cannot be washed sealed in a clear bag, so the child can still see it, until it has been checked.
- Leave the bag they came with outside the bedroom. Suitcases and rucksacks are easily carried in and out again.
If You Find Them
If the spare room has them before a placement, you need to know how long it will be out of use. Heat treatment is usually one visit, and the room is back in use once it has cooled. Chemical treatment means back in the room once surfaces are dry, but a course of two or three visits over a few weeks. Heat costs more than chemical.
Follow the instructions we give on the day about when children and pets can go back into a treated room. Your fostering service may have its own procedures, so tell your supervising social worker as well. If a child has been bitten, a pharmacist or GP can advise; call 999 for signs of a severe allergic reaction.
Planning Ahead as a Carer
An inspection from £120 before you are approved for a room, or between placements, gives you confidence the room is clear. If you are not sure whether marks on a mattress are bedbugs at all, the London guide to bedbugs or something else helps.
Carers in Brompton and across Kensington and Chelsea can ring with the placement date and the number of rooms involved, and we will say which treatment fits the timing. If a placement is due in days, say so at the start of the call, and we can work out whether the room can be treated and back in use before the child arrives.
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Bedbug Control Brompton — Questions
Can a child sleep in a room straight after treatment?
After heat, once the room has cooled. After chemical, once the treated surfaces are dry. Follow the instructions we give on the day.
Should I tell the child's social worker?
Yes. Your fostering service may want to know, particularly if belongings came from a home with bedbugs.
Do I need to throw away a child's belongings?
Almost never. Most things can be washed, dried hot or checked and sealed. Ask us before throwing anything out.
Can you treat the room before a placement starts?
Often, yes. Heat is usually one visit. Ring with the date and we will tell you what is possible.
What does it cost to treat a spare room in Brompton?
Treatments are from £220 and inspections from £120. The figure depends on rooms and method and is given on the phone first.
Elsewhere in Kensington and Chelsea
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Brompton
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Brompton.
The Early Signs, and the Timeline
Week one to month six. What is detectable when, and why 'early' is mostly invisible.
Read more →
Bedbugs, or Something Else?
A walkthrough you can do tonight with a torch, and what to do with what you find.
Read more →
How Long Does a Heat Treatment Take?
Why one London flat takes four hours and another takes ten, and what decides it.
Read more →Are Bedbugs Worse in Summer?
Warmth, holiday luggage and visitors, why winter does not fix it, and when people tend to notice.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Kensington and Chelsea
Every service has its own page for Kensington and Chelsea: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Brompton
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us when the room is needed and what you have found, and we will say how quickly it can be done.