How Much Should You Clear Before Bedbug Treatment in Southwark?

People often do too much before a treatment. They empty wardrobes into bin bags, carry furniture into the hall and pile everything in the living room. That creates new hiding places, moves bedbugs into rooms that did not have them, and hides the very edges we need to get to.

The Principle

Bedbugs live in cracks and seams close to where someone sleeps or sits: mattress seams, frame joints, the back of the headboard, skirting boards, the edges of carpet and the joints of furniture. We need to see and reach those places. Anything that blocks them, or gives the insects more cover, should be dealt with. Anything that does neither can stay.

What to Clear

• The floor, especially under the bed and along the walls. Boxes, bags, shoes, piles of clothes and anything stored under the bed.
• The bed. Strip it completely, including mattress protectors and valances.
• Loose clutter near the bed — bedside table surfaces, anything leaning against the walls.
• Soft items on the sofa if it is being treated: cushion covers that come off, throws and blankets.

What to Bag, and How

Anything washable that has been in the affected room should be bagged in the room, not carried loose through the flat. Clear bags you can tie or seal are best, so you can see what is in them.

1. Bag bedding and clothes from the room while you are still standing in it.
2. Hot-wash and tumble dry what the labels allow, then put it into a fresh, clean bag.
3. Items that cannot be washed but can go in a tumble dryer can go straight in the dryer.
4. Keep the clean bags sealed and out of the treated room until we say it is ready.

If you use a launderette, take the washing in sealed bags and throw the bags away afterwards rather than bringing them home.

What to Leave Where It Is

Furniture stays put. Beds, wardrobes, chests of drawers and the sofa all need to be treated where they stand, and moving them into another room simply moves the insects. Do not throw out the mattress or the bed unless we advise it.

Wardrobes and drawers can usually stay full for heat treatment, because heat reaches inside them. For chemical treatment, we may ask for drawers to be emptied so we can treat the joints; the contents get bagged and washed like everything else.

Heat and Chemical Ask Different Things

For chemical treatment, the priority is access: floors and skirtings clear, bedding stripped and washed. You are back in once treated surfaces are dry.

For heat treatment, the priority is taking out what heat will damage: aerosols, candles, medication, vinyl records, some electronics and plants. Check these for bedbugs before you take them out, and keep them together in one place. The full list is in our heat preparation guide. Pets go out for either route.

A Very Full Room

Some rooms have more in them than a few hours of clearing will deal with, and that is nothing to be embarrassed about. Tell us when you ring. A room that is packed floor to ceiling may need a different approach, a longer visit, or a plan that clears one section at a time. In a small flat, or a shared one where the bags have nowhere to go, the flat share guide and our Southwark page have more on working in tight spaces.

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