Staying With Friends and Family Without Bringing Bedbugs Home: Wandsworth

Most advice about picking up bedbugs while away is about hotels, but a spare room, a sofa bed or a friend's floor carries the same risk, and it is harder to raise with a host than with a receptionist. The good news is that the habits that protect you are small, quick and easy to do without making a fuss.

Checking a Spare Bed Politely

Do it when you are putting your things down, not in front of your host. Pull back the corner of the sheet at the head of the bed and look along the mattress seam and the edge of the frame, then look behind the headboard if it is easy to see. It takes a moment.

You are looking for small dark spots, pale shed skins or the bugs themselves. A sofa bed deserves the same look, including the folding frame. Our London guide to the early signs of bedbugs shows what each looks like.

Keep Your Bags Off the Bed

The bed and the sofa are where bedbugs are most likely to be, and a soft bag left on either is the easiest way for them to leave with you. Put your bag on a hard floor, a chair with a wooden or metal frame, or the bottom of a wardrobe, and zip it shut between uses.

Keep worn clothes in a separate plastic bag inside your luggage, rather than in a pile on the floor beside the bed. It keeps things tidy for your host and gives you one bag to put straight in the washing machine at home.

If You Find Something While You Are There

Tell your host, kindly and in private. Most people have no idea they have bedbugs, and they will want to know. Say what you saw, show them if you caught one, and point them towards an inspection rather than guessing. Then move your bag onto a hard floor, pack your clothes into sealed bags, and follow the steps below when you get home.

If you are the host and a guest has found them, the treatment is the same as for anyone else. The Wandsworth page explains how your type of home shapes it.

Unpacking at Home

1. Leave the bag in the hallway, kitchen or bathroom, not in a bedroom.
2. Take the bag of worn clothes straight to the washing machine, and put the unworn ones in with them.
3. Wash on the hottest setting each fabric allows, then tumble dry hot.
4. Vacuum the inside seams and pockets of the bag, and empty the vacuum outside.
5. Put the empty bag away somewhere that is not a bedroom.

Anything that cannot take a hot wash is covered in our guide to wool, silk and delicate fabrics.

When the Visit Goes the Other Way

The same habits apply when relatives come to stay with you. A spare bed that is used only now and then can go a while without anyone noticing a problem, so it is worth a look after guests leave. If you have been away somewhere more formal, our guide on finding bedbugs in a hotel covers that, and the Southfields page covers holiday home swaps, where the question runs both ways.

If you think something came home with you, keep sleeping in your own bed and ring us. An inspection from £120 answers the question before any money goes on treatment.

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