Are Bedbug Bites Contagious in Redbridge?

When a child comes home from school with red marks, or a relative who stayed the weekend starts itching, the natural fear is that the bites are catching. They are not. A bedbug bite is the body reacting to the insect’s saliva, and nothing about that reaction can be passed on by hugging, sharing a towel or sitting together.

What Actually Spreads

The insect is the thing that moves. Bedbugs cannot fly or jump, but they crawl into folds and seams and get carried along with whatever they are in. In family life the usual carriers are:

• School bags and PE kits dropped on a bed or bedroom floor.
• Coats laid over a bed or the arm of a sofa during a visit.
• Overnight bags and suitcases after a stay away from home.
• Bedding, cushions and soft toys that move between rooms or houses.
• Second-hand or hired furniture, covered in bedbugs in rented or hired furniture.

So the useful question is not whether someone’s bites are contagious, but whether any of their things have been sitting where bedbugs live.

The Skin: Who to Ask

Bites look different on different people. Some get raised, itchy lumps, sometimes in a line or small group; others get very little, and some people show nothing at all. Scratching can break the skin, and broken skin can become sore or infected, which is a separate matter from the bite itself.

For itching, swelling or a reaction that worries you, a pharmacist or GP is the right person to ask, for adults and children alike. Call 999 if anyone shows signs of a severe allergic reaction. We are pest controllers, so we deal with the bugs; we do not give medical advice.

School, Work and Visitors

Because the bites cannot be caught, there is nothing about a child’s marks that puts classmates at risk. The sensible step is with belongings: send the school bag and coat from a hook in the hall rather than a bedroom, and wash and dry PE kit before it goes back.

The same goes for adults heading to work and for visitors. Keep bags zipped and off beds and sofas, and do not lend out bedding, sleeping bags or pillows until the home has been treated. If relatives are due to stay, the Wanstead page covers a household with extra people sleeping over.

Stopping the Bugs Travelling From Your Home

1. Keep coats, bags and shoes in one place away from bedrooms.
2. Wash clothes and bedding on a hot cycle and dry them hot, then keep them bagged.
3. Do not start sleeping at someone else’s house to escape the bites; the bugs usually go with you.
4. Do not move beds, mattresses or sofas out of the house before treatment.
5. Get the home treated, so there is nothing left to carry.

Treatment is what ends the risk to other people. Heat kills bugs and eggs in one visit; chemical treatment is usually a course of two or three. The comparison of heat and chemical helps you choose, and the borough page covers getting a whole family through it.

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