When School Sends a Letter About Bedbugs: Waltham Forest

Schools send these letters because they have been told about bedbugs, or found one, somewhere in the building or among children’s belongings. The letter is information. It does not mean your child has them, and in most cases the honest answer after a proper look will be that nothing has come home.

What the Letter Usually Means

Bedbugs do not live in classrooms the way they live in bedrooms. There is nobody sleeping there at night for them to feed on. A bug found at school has almost always travelled in from somebody’s home, in a bag, a coat or a lunchbox, and it can travel on from school the same way.

So the risk is about belongings moving between school and home. That points straight at what to check: the things that go back and forth every day, and the bed your child sleeps in.

Checking Your Child’s Things

1. Empty the school bag onto a hard, pale surface like a kitchen table, away from beds and sofas.
2. Look along the seams, pockets and zips with a torch, and at the underside of any padded straps.
3. Check the coat the same way, especially the hood, the cuffs and inside the pockets.
4. Put uniform and PE kit through a hot wash and dry.
5. Keep the school bag in the hallway or kitchen from now on rather than in the bedroom.

You are looking for the bugs themselves, small and reddish-brown like an apple pip, and for small dark spots in the seams. The London guide to early signs of bedbugs has pictures of what they leave behind.

Checking Their Bed

Pull the bedding back and look at the mattress seams and piping, the corners, and any labels. Lift the mattress and look at the base and the joints of the frame, and behind the headboard. On a bunk or cabin bed, the joints and slat ends are worth a close look. If there are soft toys that sleep in the bed, give them a hot wash or a hot tumble dry.

Bites on their own are not much to go on. Children get bitten by all sorts of things, and many people, children included, do not react to bedbug bites at all. Our guide to whether you can feel a bedbug bite explains why marks are an unreliable signal. If your child has an itchy reaction, a pharmacist or GP can help; call 999 for any sign of a severe allergic reaction.

Keeping It in Proportion

• There is no need to throw anything away, bag up the whole house or move your child into your bed.
• Moving children between beds is more likely to spread a problem than stop one.
• Follow whatever the school’s letter asks of parents, and ask the school if anything in it is unclear.
• Talk about it calmly at home. Children pick up on worry, and bedbugs have nothing to do with how clean anyone is.

If You Do Find Something

Put the bug in a jar or stick it to clear tape, and photograph any spotting. Leave the bed where it is and keep your child sleeping in it. Then ring us on 0800 955 1018. If you are not sure what you have found, an inspection from £120 confirms it before any treatment is paid for, and the London guide to bedbugs or something else helps rule out lookalikes.

If it is bedbugs, a single child’s bedroom is usually a contained job, and the sooner it is treated the smaller it stays. Let the school know too; it helps them understand what is going on. For households in rented or shared homes, the Waltham Forest page covers who else needs to be told.

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