Telling Work, School or Friends You Have Bedbugs: Sutton

Bedbugs carry an unfair stigma. They have nothing to do with how clean a house is: they travel in bags, clothes and furniture, and anyone can pick them up. Knowing that makes the conversations easier. You are not confessing to anything; you are passing on practical information.

Who Needs to Know

• Anyone who stayed over recently. A guest who slept in an affected bed may have taken a bug home and should check their own bed and luggage.
• Anyone you stayed with recently. If you slept at a friend’s or a relative’s, the problem may have started there, or you may have carried it there.
• Your landlord or agent, if you rent. In writing, so there is a record. Who arranges and pays depends on the tenancy and the cause.
• A cleaner or carer who works in the bedrooms. So they can bag bedding in the room and keep their own bag off the floor.
• Neighbours through a shared wall, if you are in a flat or a semi and are on friendly terms. They may already have noticed something.

Work and school are different. There is usually no need to tell them, because bedbugs are not an illness and do not tend to live on people. You might mention it if you are worried about a bag you take in, or if tiredness is affecting you.

What to Say

Keep it short, factual and free of apology. Something like: “We have found bedbugs in one of the bedrooms and have treatment booked. You stayed with us recently, so it is worth checking your bed seams and your overnight bag.” That gives them what they need without inviting a long discussion.

If they want to know what to look for, point them to the London guide on early signs of bedbugs. If they ask whether bedbugs cause illness, our guide to whether bedbugs spread disease answers that calmly.

At Work or School

If you do decide to tell an employer, say where the problem is and what you are doing about it. Bedbugs rarely settle in offices because nobody sleeps there, but a bag left under a desk can move a few about; the London guide on bedbugs in the workplace covers it. For a child, a quiet word with the class teacher is plenty if you are worried about a book bag or PE kit. Children do not need to be kept at home.

Visiting While You Wait for Treatment

You do not have to stop seeing people, but a few habits make it much less likely that you take bedbugs with you.

1. Dress from clothes that have been hot-washed or tumble dried and kept bagged away from the bedroom.
2. Take a hard-sided bag, or no bag at all, rather than a fabric one that sits near the bed at home.
3. Leave coats and bags on a hard chair or hook, not on a bed or sofa.
4. Avoid staying overnight until treatment is finished.
5. When you get home, put the clothes you wore straight into a wash.

The same goes the other way round: it is reasonable to put off having guests to stay until treatment is done. Our Cheam page deals with the reverse situation, when a guest tells you afterwards that they had bedbugs.

Getting It Finished

The conversations get easier once there is a treatment date to mention. Heat and chemical treatment both start from £220, and the borough page explains how to keep the problem to one room until then.

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