Start with the instructions for your visit
Every property is different, so the instructions you receive when you book bed bug treatment come first. The steps below are the general groundwork that applies to most bedrooms. If anything here differs from what you have been asked to do, follow the advice for your own visit.
Bag it before it moves
Anything leaving the affected room should be sealed in a bag first; heavy-duty bin bags or large zip-seal bags both work. Tie them inside the room, then carry them directly to the washing machine or to wherever they will be stored. Opening a bag of infested bedding on the landing undoes the whole point.
Hot wash and a hot tumble dry
Bedding, pillowcases, curtains and clothes from the room should go through the hottest wash the care label allows, ideally 60°C, followed by a tumble dry on a high heat setting. The dryer is just as important as the wash, because it heats the whole load right through to the seams. Things that cannot be washed but will survive a dryer, such as many soft toys and cushions, can be tumble dried on high by themselves.
Keep clean items out of the room
Once washed and dried, pack clothes and bedding into fresh sealed bags or plastic boxes with lids. Keep them closed and off the bedroom floor until after the visit, and only unpack what you need day to day.
Clear the floor and the edges of the room
- Pick up clothes, shoes, bags and boxes from the floor and from under the bed
- Empty bedside table drawers into sealed bags
- Move stored items away from the skirting boards so the edges of the room can be reached
- Leave plug sockets, carpet edges and the bed frame easy to get at
Clutter does not cause bed bugs, but every pile left in the room is one more place for them to shelter.
Vacuum carefully
A thorough vacuum of the carpet edges, mattress seams and bed base picks up some bugs, eggs and spotting. Use the crevice tool, then empty the cylinder or remove the bag at once into a sealed bin bag and take it straight outside. Never leave a full vacuum bag sitting indoors.
What not to do beforehand
- Do not move to another bedroom or the sofa to sleep
- Do not dismantle the bed and carry the pieces through the house
- Do not set off shop-bought foggers or bug bombs, which are not recommended and can scatter bed bugs
- Do not throw out the mattress or furniture before speaking to us
- Do not put freshly washed items back into the room before the visit
Whether the mattress can stay is covered in getting rid of bed bugs without throwing out your mattress.
Other rooms and other people
If someone also sleeps on a sofa in the living room, that room needs the same preparation and should be counted when you book; halls and landings are not counted as rooms. In shared houses and HMOs, in Kilburn and elsewhere, each tenant's room needs preparing, which is simpler if the landlord coordinates it. Landlords getting an empty room ready between tenancies, in Kenton for example, should say the room is unoccupied when booking. Tell us too if there are babies, pets or anyone with a health condition in the home, so the advice you get fits your household.
Booking and cost
Bed bug control in Brent is priced by the room: £220 for the first room and £120 for each additional room. A bedroom plus a living room used for sleeping is £340, and three bedrooms come to £460. For what happens after that, see how long bed bug treatment takes.
