It May Not Be Their Fault
The timing feels like proof, but it is not. Bedbugs can arrive on a bag from a hotel, a second-hand chair or a friend's sofa weeks earlier, and take a while to build to the point where anyone notices. They may even have travelled the other way, from your home to theirs.
What matters is not where they started but that they are now moving between two beds. Treating one home while the other still has them simply swaps them back.
How to Bring It Up
Keep it practical. Say what you found and where, show them a photo, and suggest you both check your beds before the next stay. Framing it as a shared problem to solve lands better than a question about their flat.
Point them at the signs: dark spotting on the mattress seams and headboard, pale shed skins, small cream eggs in the corners. Bites are a poor guide, because one of you may react and the other may not. A pharmacist or GP can help with itchy skin; call 999 for signs of a severe allergic reaction.
Stop the Back and Forth
- Pause the overnight bags. Until both homes are checked, try not to carry clothes and bags between them.
- If a stay has to happen, bring only what you need in a sealed bag, and hot-wash and tumble dry the clothes afterwards.
- Keep bags off the bed and the floor beside it; a hard chair or a bathroom is better.
- Do not both decamp to one flat. Moving into the home that seems clear is one of the easiest ways to spread them there.
- Keep sleeping in your own bed while you wait for treatment, so they stay in one place.
Checking and Treating Both Homes
If your partner is unsure what they are looking at, an inspection from £120 at their place settles it. If both homes have signs, it is best to plan treatment so the two courses overlap rather than run months apart.
For your Streatham flat, chemical treatment is usually two or three visits about 10–14 days apart, and heat treatment is usually one visit that deals with eggs too, at a higher price. If your partner rents, they should tell their landlord in writing about their own flat.
If a memory foam mattress is involved, as it often is in newer flats, see can bedbugs live in a memory foam mattress. The Lambeth page covers renting with bedbugs more broadly.
Bedbug Control Streatham — Questions
Should my partner stop staying over?
Until both homes are checked, it is sensible to pause overnight stays or keep bags sealed and clothes washed. It is a short break, not a verdict.
Should I tell my flatmates as well?
Yes. Anyone who sleeps in the same flat needs to know, so they can check their own beds and keep their bags and clothes away from the affected room until it is treated.
Can bedbugs travel on a person?
Rarely on the body. They travel in bags, clothes and bedding, which is why those are the things to control.
One of us has bites and the other does not. Is that normal?
Yes. Reactions vary a lot, and some people show nothing at all.
How much is treatment for a flat in Streatham?
From £220. It depends on how many rooms and whether heat or chemical, and we tell you the figure before booking.
Do we need to throw out bedding or clothes?
No. A hot wash and a hot tumble dry deal with washable things. Bag them in the room before they are carried to the machine.
Elsewhere in Lambeth
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Streatham
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Streatham.
Memory Foam Mattresses
Foam is not a hiding place, but the cover, the seams and the base under it are.
Read more →
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 →
Heat or Chemical: How to Choose
Five questions to ask yourself. Answer them honestly and the right treatment picks itself.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Lambeth
Every service has its own page for Lambeth: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Streatham
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us what you found and whether both homes might be involved, and we will explain what to do next.