Bed bugs
Bed Bugs in the Flats Above the Parade
Bed bugs do not come from the shop below or the yard behind. They arrive with people and their belongings: a suitcase, a second-hand bed, a sofa bought online, a guest's bag. What the flats above the parade add is movement. A furnished flat can pass through several tenants with the same bed frame and mattress, and a flat that has been empty for a while may still have bed bugs hidden in the furniture. How bed bugs get into a home sets out the usual routes.
Flats side by side
Above a parade, flats often sit side by side over neighbouring shops, sharing party walls, and sometimes one above another with a shared staircase. Bed bugs can move through gaps around pipes and along skirting boards into the flat next door. Whether bed bugs spread between flats explains what makes that more or less likely.
Moving into a furnished flat
When you move in, look at the mattress seams, the joints of the bed frame and the back of the headboard before you unpack. Tell your landlord or letting agent straight away if you find anything, because it helps show the problem was there before you arrived.
What to Check
- Small dark spots along mattress seams and around the buttons of a headboard
- Pale shed skins in the joints of the bed frame
- Live bugs in the screw holes of flat-pack furniture or behind a loose skirting
- Spots on the underside of a sofa bed or on the fabric under a divan
- Itchy bites that appear overnight, though bites alone do not prove bed bugs
The first signs of bed bugs goes into each of these, and where bed bugs hide shows the places to check first. If the bites are mostly around the ankles and there is a pet in the flat, fleas in Golders Green are worth ruling out. For itchy or inflamed bites, speak to a pharmacist or GP, and call 999 for signs of a severe allergic reaction.
What Not to Do
- Do not move to the sofa or another bedroom; bed bugs follow you and spread
- Do not carry the mattress down the shared stairs to throw it out before treatment
- Do not use shop sprays, which can drive them into walls and the flat next door
- Do not take furniture left on the pavement outside another flat
Booking and Getting Ready
When you book bed bug treatment, say how many rooms are affected, whether the flat is furnished and whether neighbours have mentioned bites. You will be told how to prepare the rooms, and preparing a room for treatment covers the usual steps. The time it takes depends on how established the bed bugs are and how many rooms are involved. Get back in touch if you find live bugs or fresh spotting after treatment. If you are a landlord between tenants, it is easier to deal with an empty flat.
Tenants, Landlords and Who Books
If you rent a flat above a shop, tell your landlord or letting agent as soon as you find signs, and put it in writing. Many landlords arrange treatment themselves, particularly in a furnished let where the bed and sofa are theirs. If you own the flat, you book it directly. Either way, it is worth letting the flat next door or across the landing know, because bed bugs that have spread along a party wall will come back into a treated flat from an untreated one. The shop below does not usually need to be involved, since people rather than the business are the likely source.
For bed bugs across the rest of the borough, including the newer blocks, see Bed Bug Control Barnet.
