Can You Get Bedbugs at the Gym in Tower Hamlets?

Bedbugs feed on people who are asleep or sitting still for a long time. A gym is full of people who are awake and moving, and nobody spends the night there. That makes it a poor home for them. What a gym does have is lots of bags from lots of households, put down side by side, and that is where the small risk lies.

How a Bedbug Could Get Into Your Kit Bag

Someone with bedbugs at home carries a bag that has been in their bedroom. A bug that has crawled into a seam or pocket comes along for the ride. At the gym that bag sits on a bench or in a locker next to yours, and if a bug wanders out it can end up in the nearest dark fold, which might be your bag.

That chain needs several things to line up, and even then it usually means one bug, not many. The point of a routine is to make sure that a single stray does not reach your bed.

Changing Rooms, Lockers and Benches

• Lockers: a metal locker has few places to hide. The risk is the bag that was in it before yours. Keep your bag closed while it is inside.
• Benches: the joints and the underside of padded benches are where a stray might tuck in. Put your bag on a hook or a hard floor rather than on upholstery.
• Bag piles: at a busy class, bags end up in a heap. Hang yours up or keep it slightly apart.
• Towels and mats: gym towels are laundered hot, and mats have no seams to hide in. They are not the concern.

None of this means the gym has a problem, or that you need to stop going. It is the same sensible habit you would use with luggage on a train.

A Routine for the Gym Bag

1. Choose a bag with a smooth lining and few outer pockets; a hard-sided or wipeable one is easier to check.
2. Keep it zipped whenever it is not in your hand.
3. When you get home, unpack in the hall, kitchen or bathroom, not on the bed.
4. Put worn kit straight into the wash on the hottest setting the labels allow, or through a hot tumble dryer cycle.
5. Store the empty bag away from the bedroom, on a hook or a hard floor.
6. Every so often, look along the inside seams and pockets in good light.

The same routine works for a work bag or a laptop bag, which travel through far more places than a gym bag does. The London guide to bedbugs in the workplace looks at the office side.

If You Think You Have Brought Them Home

Signs to look for are bites that were not there before, small dark spots on the mattress seams, or an actual insect. Bites vary and some people never react, and plenty of marks turn out to be something else, so look for the bug before you blame it. The London guide on whether it is bedbugs or something else helps with that.

If you do find one, catch it in a jar or on tape, keep sleeping in your own bed and call us. An inspection from £120 confirms what it is. If it is bedbugs, the Tower Hamlets page explains the options when you have little time off.

Gyms Checking Their Own Premises

If you run or manage a gym and a member reports finding a bedbug, the approach is the same as for other workplaces: check upholstered benches, changing room seating and staff rest areas, and deal with it properly. See the commercial page for how that works in the borough.

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