Bedbugs on a UK Holiday: Cottages, Campsites and B&Bs: Richmond

Holiday lets in this country are cleaned between guests, often very well. Cleaning is not the point with bedbugs, though. They arrive in the luggage of whoever stayed last, and a spotless room can still have a few tucked into the bed frame. The same goes for a static caravan, a glamping pod or a room above a pub. The checks below take little time and need no equipment beyond a phone torch.

The Check When You Arrive

Before the bags go anywhere, leave them in the bathroom, on a tiled hall floor or in the car. Then look at the beds, starting with the one you will sleep in.

1. Pull back the sheet at the head end and look along the mattress piping and the label for small dark spots, pale shed skins or live insects.
2. Lift the corner of the mattress and look at the base or slats underneath, especially where wood meets wood.
3. Shine the torch down the back of the headboard and into any screw holes.
4. Look at the seams of a sofa bed or any upholstered chair in the bedroom.
5. In a tent or pod, check the seams of any mattress or cushion provided.

What you are looking for is shown in the London guide to early signs of bedbugs. Clean seams are a good sign. One or two dots are not proof of anything, but a line of spotting along a seam, or anything moving, is worth acting on.

If You Find Them There

Stay calm and do not unpack. Take clear photographs of what you found, with something for scale, and tell the owner or the host straight away. A reasonable owner will want to know and should offer another room or unit that is not next to the affected one; if that is not possible, it may be better to leave. Anything you want to say about refunds or bookings is between you and them; we are pest controllers, not legal advisers.

Before you move, check the bags you brought in. Anything that touched the bed or the floor next to it goes into a sealed bag. Clothing you have worn can go in there too, for washing at home. Owners of small places who want to know what to do next can read the London guide on handling a guest report of bedbugs.

Campsites and Caravans

Your own tent is rarely the problem. The risk on a campsite sits with shared bedding, hired sleeping mats and the upholstered benches in hire caravans, which have seams and staples bedbugs like. Treat those as you would a B&B bed: look before you lie down. At the end of the trip, air out sleeping bags and check the stitching on pads and bags before they go back in the loft.

Coming Home

This is where most of the risk sits, found or not. A car boot of holdalls, coats and dirty washing is the easiest way for a few insects to reach your bedroom. Give unpacking a fixed order:

• Bring the bags into a hall, kitchen or utility room with a hard floor, not upstairs.
• Empty clothes straight into the washing machine and wash on the hottest setting each label allows, then tumble dry.
• Put items that cannot be washed into a sealed bag and keep them apart until you have looked them over.
• Vacuum the case, including its seams, zips and wheel housings, and empty the vacuum outside.
• Store the empty case away from the bedrooms, not under a bed.

If you saw signs where you stayed, keep an eye on your own beds for a few weeks afterwards. Newly arrived bedbugs can take a while to show. If you then spot something, book an inspection in Richmond, which starts from £120, before paying for a treatment.

If They Have Already Come Home With You

Keep sleeping in your own bed, leave the furniture where it is and ring us. A room treated early is usually a smaller job. Chemical treatment is normally two or three visits around 10 to 14 days apart; heat is usually one long visit and kills the eggs too. The borough page on chemical treatment and the one on heat treatment explain how each is run, and treatments start from £220. Coming back from a cruise or coach tour is a slightly different case, covered on the Twickenham page.

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