Bed bugs
Bed Bugs Between Apartments in Friern Barnet
In a house, bed bugs mostly stay near the beds of the people who live there. In a building of many apartments strung along corridors, they have two more ways to spread. They can be carried: a mattress dragged along a corridor, a sofa left by the bins, a guest who stayed in one apartment and then visits another. And they can walk short distances through the building itself, along gaps behind skirtings, around heating pipes and through service openings in a shared wall.
The apartment either side
A bedroom that backs onto a neighbour's bedroom is the one most likely to be affected if bed bugs are next door. Look closely at the bed nearest the shared wall and at the skirting along it. Can bed bugs spread between flats? explains how far they tend to move and why the rooms along a party wall matter most.
Furniture left in the corridor
Old mattresses and furniture put out in a corridor or bin store are a real risk in a big building. Anything left there may carry bugs into another home if someone takes it in, and bugs can drop off as it is moved. If you are getting rid of an infested mattress, wrap it completely before it leaves the apartment and tell the managing agent. Can bed bugs live in sofas and furniture? covers what else to check.
Checking a Bedroom
- Dark spotting along mattress seams and at the corners of the base
- Pale shed skins in the joints of the bed frame or behind the headboard
- Live bugs in screw holes, under the edge of the carpet or behind a picture near the bed
- Bites that appear overnight, though bites alone prove little
The first signs of bed bugs sets these out in more detail. If the bites are mostly round the ankles and there is a pet in the apartment, it may be fleas instead, and small bristly larvae in a bedroom are more likely a carpet beetle problem.
What to Do, and What to Avoid
- Keep sleeping in the same bed, since moving to the sofa spreads them to another room
- Do not throw out the mattress before treatment unless it is being replaced anyway
- Keep shop sprays and foggers out of it, as they can drive bugs through the wall
- Tell the managing agent, and let the neighbours either side know so they can check their own beds
- Wash and hot-tumble-dry bedding, and bag clothes from the bedroom floor
Booking Treatment for an Apartment
Counting the rooms
When you book bed bug treatment, tell us which rooms have signs. Bedrooms, and a living room with a sofa bed, count as rooms; the internal hallway of an apartment, however long, does not. Say whether neighbours have mentioned bed bugs, because it changes what is worth checking.
Preparing the rooms
Leave the beds made up and the evidence in place, clear the floor around the bed and along the skirtings, and bag loose items so the edges of the room can be reached. How to prepare a room has a fuller list, and we will explain what you need to do before and after the visit.
After the visit
How long it takes to clear depends on the rooms and how established the bugs were. Some activity can be seen for a while afterwards, and why you may still see bed bugs explains why. Get in touch if bites or fresh spotting carry on past the time we give you.
Keeping Them From Coming Back Along the Corridor
Check second-hand furniture before it comes up to the apartment, never take in anything left in a corridor or bin store, and keep luggage off the bed after a trip. Where several apartments are affected, managing agents can arrange treatment for them together. For the wider picture see Bed Bug Control Barnet, and for first steps, bed bugs in Barnet.
