Before anything else, stay put
Keep sleeping where you normally sleep. Moving to the sofa or a spare room gives bed bugs a reason to follow, and a problem in one room becomes a problem in two. Do not drag the mattress out, do not set off a shop-bought fogger, and do not carry bedding through the house unbagged. None of this is permanent; it simply keeps the problem where it is while you work out how big it is.
If you can, catch one bug on a strip of clear tape or put it in a sealed bag, and photograph any marks on the mattress. That evidence is useful to a landlord, and it settles the question of what you are dealing with.
Check one: is it a bed bug?
An adult bed bug is flat, oval and reddish-brown, about the size of an apple pip, and it crawls rather than jumps. Bites alone do not prove anything, because people react so differently. The first signs of bed bugs covers the spots, skins and eggs that confirm it. If anyone in the home has a pet, or the bites are mostly around the ankles, compare with bed bugs or fleas; if fleas look more likely, the Brent flea overview is the place to go next.
Check two: which beds are affected?
Look at every bed in the home, not just the one where the bites started. Work outwards from where each person sleeps: mattress seams, the frame, the headboard, then the nearest skirting and sockets. Where bed bugs hide during the day gives the full search order. Note each room where you find signs, because that is what the price and the preparation are based on. Use a torch and a thin card rather than your fingers, and bag any bedding you strip before it leaves the room.
Check three: sofas and chairs
Anywhere a person regularly dozes counts. A sofa used as a bed in a studio flat, a recliner someone falls asleep in, a futon in a box room: all of them can hold bed bugs. Can bed bugs live in sofas explains where to look on upholstered and wooden furniture. Before you give away or dump a sofa you suspect, remember that carrying it through a hallway or down a shared staircase can leave bugs along the way.
Check four: who else is affected?
In a shared house, bed bugs move along pipework and on belongings carried between rooms, so one bedroom rarely stays the only one. The HMOs and conversions of Kilburn show how quickly that happens. In a block, the flat next door or the one below may have them too. Can bed bugs spread between flats covers the signs that they are coming through the wall.
Check five: how did they get in?
Bed bugs arrive on things, not through dirt or damp. A recent trip, a second-hand bed, a guest, a sofa from a previous flat or a new home that was not checked are the usual starting points. Moving house is a common one, and the Cricklewood page covers what to check when furniture moves with you. How bed bugs got into your home helps you trace it, which matters if the source could bring them back.
Tell the right people
If you rent, tell your landlord or letting agent straight away and check your tenancy agreement. Housing association tenants should report it to their landlord first, as the Stonebridge page explains. In a block, the managing agent needs to know if more than one flat is involved. Keep a copy of anything you send. Nobody is to blame for bed bugs, and saying so early is what stops them spreading.
Getting ready and keeping calm afterwards
Once a visit is booked, preparation is mostly laundry, bags and clear floor space; preparing a room for bed bug treatment gives the order. Do not throw out the mattress first, as keeping your mattress explains. Seeing a bug after the visit is not automatically a failure; still seeing bed bugs after treatment says what is normal.
How long it takes
A fixed number of days given before anyone has seen the rooms would be a guess. The timescale depends on how many rooms are involved, how long the bugs have been there, how much clutter surrounds the beds and whether they can keep coming from next door. How long bed bug treatment takes explains what normally happens and what keeps it from dragging on.
Bites and skin
Most bites settle on their own. A pharmacist can advise on itching, and you should speak to a GP if bites become infected or you are worried. Call 999 if someone shows signs of a severe allergic reaction.
Booking bed bug treatment in Brent
Bed bug treatment in Brent is £220 for the first room and £120 for each additional room, so a shared house with three affected bedrooms would be £460. The Brent bed bug page has the detail. When you book bed bug treatment, tell us which rooms you found signs in and whether anyone else in the building is affected.
