Start With Their Say-So
It is their home, so the decisions are theirs. Ask before you ring anyone, and ask whether they would like family to know. If they are happy for you to speak for them, they can tell us that on the phone at the start of the call and we will talk the job through with you both.
If they rent from a council or a housing association, the landlord may arrange treatment; who pays depends on the tenancy, and a report in writing is the place to start. We can help with the pest side of that, not the legal side.
What a Helper Can Usefully Do
- Wash the bedding. Strip the bed, put everything straight into a bag in the room, and take the bag to the machine. A hot wash and a hot dry.
- Clear the bedroom floor. Shoes, boxes and piles of papers. Bag soft items; hard items can be wiped and left in the room.
- Gather the medication. Before a heat treatment, medicines, aerosols, candles and some electronics must come out of the room. Keep medicines together and within reach of the person who takes them.
- Arrange where they will spend the day. Heat takes most of a day. A chemical visit is one to two hours, and they can go back into the room once it is dry.
- Be there on the day if you can. A familiar face helps, and you can pass on the instructions we give.
What to Leave Alone
Please do not carry their mattress or chair out of the house, even if they ask you to. Moving infested furniture spreads bedbugs, and we would rather look at it first. For the same reason, taking them to stay at your house until it is sorted can take the problem with them, into your spare room. If they need somewhere else to be for the treatment day, a daytime visit somewhere is better than a night away with a packed bag.
Do not tip insect spray from the shop around the bed. It rarely reaches where bedbugs hide and can scatter them into other rooms.
Which Treatment Asks Less of Them
The two routes ask different things. Chemical treatment needs bedding stripped and the floor clear at each visit, and there are usually two or three visits about 10 to 14 days apart, so a helper is needed more than once. Heat treatment is usually one visit but needs the heat-sensitive items out and the person out of the house for most of a day, and it costs more. Both start from £220; we give the figure on the phone before anything is booked.
If nobody is sure it is bedbugs, an inspection from £120 is a gentle first step, and it gives family something definite to act on. For marks on the skin, a pharmacist or their GP is the right person to see. Our guide on what bedbugs feed on explains why a tidy or untidy home makes no difference, which some people find a relief to hear.
Bedbug Control Ham — Questions
My neighbour is embarrassed. How do I raise it?
Plainly and kindly. Bedbugs are carried in on luggage, furniture and visitors; they are not a sign of a dirty home, and knowing that often makes it easier to accept help.
Can you speak to me instead of them?
Yes, if they are happy for you to. They can tell us so at the start of the call, and we will talk the job through with you both.
They take a lot of medication. Is that a problem for heat?
Medication has to come out of the room before heat treatment. Keep it together and somewhere they can reach it during the day. If you are unsure about anything specific, ask when you ring.
Should I check my own home?
If you have been carrying laundry or sitting on their furniture, it is sensible to look at your own bed seams over the next few weeks. Bag their washing in their home so nothing loose travels.
They have been bitten a lot. What should they do?
See a pharmacist or GP about the bites. Call 999 if there are signs of a severe allergic reaction, such as difficulty breathing or swelling of the face.
Elsewhere in Richmond
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Ham
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Ham.
Preparing Your Home for Heat Treatment
What to do the week before, the night before and the morning of. A plan, not a list.
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 Treatment for Care Homes
Treating around a resident who cannot easily move, and why heat is often the wrong answer.
Read more →
What Bedbugs Feed On
Blood and nothing else: how often they feed, why a spotless house is no defence, and what it means for treatment.
Read more →Bedbug Treatments in Richmond
Every service has its own page for Richmond: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Ham
Tell Us About the Property
Tell us whether you are ringing on someone else's behalf, and what they can and cannot manage.