What Heat Can Harm
Heat treatment takes a whole room to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive, and holds it there for hours. Ordinary furniture, clothes and books come through it. Some older and more delicate things may not, and in a house full of family pieces it pays to go through them properly.
- Old animal glues in antique joints and veneers, which can soften
- Lacquered, French-polished or painted finishes
- Oil paintings, old photographs, film and vinyl records
- Musical instruments, especially anything stringed or glued
- Candles, wax, aerosols, medication and plants, as in any house
We are not restorers, and we will not guess at how a particular piece will behave. If you are unsure about something valuable, treat it as heat-sensitive and we will plan around it.
The Problem With Moving Things Out
Taking precious items out of the room seems the obvious answer, but bedbugs hide in exactly the kind of carved joints, drawer runners and old upholstery that antiques have. Carry an infested chest of drawers into another room and you have moved the problem there.
So anything that comes out has to be checked before it goes, and kept apart afterwards. Put small items in sealed bags. Leave larger pieces somewhere with nothing else around them, not in a spare bedroom. Tell us what has been moved and where. A thorough inspection can confirm which pieces are actually involved.
When Chemical Treatment Suits a Room Better
If a room is full of pieces that should not be heated, a chemical treatment may be the better choice. It puts a residual insecticide into seams, frames and skirtings rather than heating everything. It does not reliably kill eggs, so it usually takes two visits and sometimes three, about 10–14 days apart.
Residual products are applied to where bedbugs hide, not sprayed over polished surfaces. Tell us about any finish you are worried about and we will say where we would and would not apply. Some houses end up with a mix: heat in the bedrooms that can take it, chemical in the room with the heirlooms.
Upholstered and Carved Beds
Old beds with buttoned or carved headboards give bedbugs a lot of places to live. Our headboard guide covers whether to treat or replace one. Please do not throw out an old bed before we have looked at it. It can usually be treated, and moving it spreads them through the house.
A Dulwich house with several affected bedrooms is priced on those rooms, not the whole house. Our Southwark bedbug control page covers the rest of the area.
Bedbug Control Dulwich — Questions
Can you treat an antique mattress or a family feather bed?
Often, yes. Tell us what it is made of when you ring. If we think it is unlikely to survive treatment, or unlikely to be cleared, we will say so plainly before any money is spent.
Will heat treatment damage my antique furniture?
Solid furniture usually comes through, but old glues, veneers and some finishes can be affected. If a piece matters to you, tell us and we will plan around it.
Can I put heirlooms in the loft until it is over?
Only if they have been checked first. Otherwise you may be storing bedbugs in the loft to come back later.
Is chemical treatment gentler on old things?
It avoids heat, but it is a residual insecticide. We apply it where bedbugs hide, not over finished surfaces, and we talk through anything you are worried about.
Does a large house cost more?
The price follows how many rooms are involved and which treatment, not the size of the house. You get the figure on the phone before anything is booked.
Elsewhere in Southwark
The other areas in the borough, each written around a different situation.
Bedbug Advice for Dulwich
Picked for this page: the guides that go further on what matters for Dulwich.
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 →
How Professional Chemical Treatment Works
What is actually in a professional treatment, and why it is not the tin from the hardware shop.
Read more →
Bedbugs in a Headboard
Why the headboard is one of the first places we look, and what to do with one that has them.
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 Treatments in Southwark
Every service has its own page for Southwark: heat, chemical, hotels, commercial premises and inspections.
Covering Dulwich
Tell Us About the Property
List any antiques or heat-sensitive pieces in the affected rooms of your Dulwich home, and we will plan the treatment around them.