Bedbug Inspections Newham

Before You Unpack

Leave your bags and boxes in one place, such as the kitchen or a bathroom with a hard floor, while you look round. If bedbugs are there, you want them to find nothing of yours to climb into.

1. Take a torch, even in daylight, and start with any bed or mattress left in the flat.
2. Look along the mattress seams, the piping and the label for small dark spots, pale shed skins or live bugs.
3. Check the bed frame joints and screw holes, and the back of any headboard.
4. Look at the edges of the carpet near the bed, and behind any sofa or chair left in the living room.
5. Photograph anything you find, with the date, before you touch or clean it.

What professionals look at, and what else gets mistaken for bedbugs, is on the London bedbug inspections page for the full explanation.

Do this on the first day, before anyone sleeps there. A night in the flat with suitcases open on the bed makes it much harder to tell afterwards whether the bedbugs were there first or arrived with you.

Furniture That Came With the Flat

Temporary accommodation is often furnished, and you do not know who used the mattress last. You do not have to accept a mattress you think is affected. Tell the provider in writing, with your photographs, and ask for it to be checked or replaced. Do not drag it out to the landing or the bin store yourself; that moves bedbugs through the building.

If the mattress looks clean but you are worried, our mattress guide explains what to look for.

Check What You Are Bringing Too

If you are moving from a hostel, a shared house or another temporary address, bedbugs can come with you as easily as they can be waiting for you. That is nobody's fault, and it is worth checking honestly.

• Wash and hot-dry clothes and bedding from the last place before they go into drawers.
• Keep soft things bagged until they have been washed.
• Look over suitcases, bags and any furniture you are bringing, especially bed frames and sofas.
• Do not keep a mattress from the last place if you saw bedbugs there, unless it has been treated.

If bedbugs turn up weeks later, being able to say you checked on arrival, and what you found, helps everyone work out what happened.

Children's things deserve a look too. Soft toys, school bags and a cot mattress brought from the last address are easy to forget in the rush of a move, and they end up on beds straight away. Wash what can be washed, and bag the rest until it has been checked.

When to Book an Inspection

Book one if you find spotting or something that might be a bug but you are not sure, if you are being bitten in the first weeks after moving in, or if the provider needs evidence before acting. Inspections start from £120, and you get the findings in writing, which you can pass to your housing officer or landlord.

If the housing officer has already found them, the Plaistow page explains what usually happens next. Who arranges and pays for treatment depends on your tenancy and the cause. Report it in writing. We are pest controllers, not legal advisers.

An inspection is not needed if you check the flat and find nothing, and nobody is being bitten. Keep an eye on the beds for the first few weeks, and ring if anything changes.

If the Inspection Finds Bedbugs

Keep sleeping where you are. Moving onto the sofa or to a relative's house usually spreads them. Keep your belongings bagged and follow what the report recommends. For a flat, the chemical treatment page for Newham explains what preparing for the visits involves; a whole house may suit heat. Treatments start from £220. Ring 0800 955 1018. The Newham bedbug control page has more on busy buildings.

← Bedbug Control Newham · Bedbug Inspections London, in full