Bedbug Control New Cross

First, Tell the House

Goldsmiths is at New Cross, and this page is written for students renting a room in a private shared house rather than living in halls.

The student whose room it is often keeps quiet, because it feels like an accusation. It is not. Bedbugs arrive in luggage, second-hand furniture and on visits, and they have nothing to do with how anyone keeps their room. The sooner the others know, the sooner they can check their own beds, and the smaller the job.

Ask everyone to strip their beds and check the mattress seams and frame joints. If anyone finds anything, the job is no longer one room, and it is better to know that before booking.

Then Tell the Landlord, in Writing

Send an email to the landlord or letting agent saying what has been found, in which room, and when. Keep a copy. Who arranges and pays depends on the tenancy and on the cause, and a joint tenancy can be different from individual room lets. The tenant or landlord guide goes through this; we are pest controllers, not legal advisers.

If you are in university-managed halls rather than a private house, the approach is different, and is covered in the student accommodation guide.

What Happens to the Other Rooms

• The affected room is treated in full: bed, furniture, skirtings and anything stored in it.
• Rooms sharing a wall or a floor with it are worth inspecting, especially if bedrooms sit above or below each other.
• The sofa and communal seating are checked if the affected student has been sleeping or lying on them.
• Other bedrooms are treated only if we find signs there. There is no point paying to treat a clear room.

The single most useful rule for the house: nobody moves into someone else’s room or onto the sofa to escape the bites. It is the quickest way to turn one room into three.

Heat or Chemical Mid-Term

Term time changes the choice more than people expect. Chemical costs less, takes one to two hours a visit, and the room is usable again once it is dry. But it does not reliably kill eggs, so it means two, sometimes three, visits about 10–14 days apart, with bedding stripped and hot-washed and the floor cleared each time. Around deadlines, that is a lot of disruption spread over a month.

Heat costs more but is usually one visit, taking most of a day, and kills the eggs as well. Laptops, chargers and other electronics are on the list of things to take out, along with aerosols, candles and medication. For a student who needs the room back and working, one day out is often easier than a month of visits. The heat timing guide sets out the day.

Treatments start at from £220. More about renting in converted houses across the borough is on the Lewisham page.

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