What Brings Bed Bugs Into a Kenton Family House
A bed bug travels lying flat in a fold: the seam of a holdall, the turn-up of a packed pair of jeans, the gap behind the lining of a rucksack. It stays there for as long as the journey lasts and gets off wherever the bag is put down. That is the whole of it, and it is why a spotless house is as likely to receive one as any other. The guide on how bed bugs get in covers the routes; working out which one it was rarely changes what happens next.
The Bag That Comes Home Full
Kenton station puts the Bakerloo line and the Overground at the end of a great many journeys, and a case coming back from a hotel, a hostel or a relative's spare room arrives with whatever it collected. Set it down on a hard floor or in the bath rather than on a made bed, run the washable contents straight through a hot cycle, and look along the lining seams and the wheel housings before the case goes anywhere. Interwar houses have somewhere better to store luggage than a bedroom - the garage, or the boarded part of the loft - and using it costs nothing.
Sleepovers and the School Holidays
Children's sleepovers move sleeping bags, pillows and soft toys between houses in both directions, and half term brings cousins and grandparents with cases that were somewhere else last week. If itching starts a week or two after people stayed, begin with whatever they slept on - the spare divan, the air bed, the sofa - before pulling your own bedroom apart. Say something to the other family too. It is bad luck being passed around, not a judgement on anybody's home, and a quiet word lets them look at their end.
A Bed Bought or Handed On
Growing families buy beds second-hand, inherit them from relatives or take one that a neighbour is finished with, and a divan base is a particularly good hiding place: hollow, fabric-covered and rarely turned over. Before anything comes through the front door, tip it up in the drive and look at the corners, the stapled underside and the screw holes, and do the same with a headboard. The guide to bed bugs in furniture explains what to look at on upholstery.
Checking Bunks, Divans and a Child's Room
Bed bugs stay close to where someone sleeps and spend the day pressed into a crack, so the search is a narrow one. Strip the bed and work outwards with a torch.
- Mattress seams, piping and the label pocket, on both sides
- The joints, bolt holes and slat ends of a bunk frame - top bunk included
- Under a divan base, along the stapled edge and inside the drawer runners
- Behind a headboard where it touches the wall, and behind a loose skirting or socket nearby
- The frame and folds of a sofa bed or a futon used by visitors
You are looking for dark spotting that has soaked into fabric like ink, pale shed skins the shape of the insect, and the insects themselves. Bites alone prove very little: one person comes up in a row of lumps and the person in the next bed shows nothing at all. The first signs guide shows what the evidence looks like, and the hiding places guide goes further into a room.
What Makes It Worse
Moving a child into the spare room takes the problem with them and turns one room into two. Shop-bought foggers push bugs deeper into the fabric of a house. Putting a mattress out on the drive before anyone has looked at it usually turns out to have been unnecessary - this guide explains why.
Getting Bedrooms Ready in a House on Three Floors
Many Kenton houses now run over three levels, with a converted loft above the original bedrooms, which matters when you carry things about. Bag anything that is coming out of an affected room, in the room, and keep it bagged until it has been through a hot wash or a hot dryer - do not carry loose bedding down two flights to the machine. Clear the floor so the edges of the carpet and the skirtings can be reached, pull beds away from walls, and leave drawers and under-bed storage where we can get at them. The preparation guide sets out the rest, and we will talk it through when you book.
Booking, Counting Rooms and Afterwards
Tell us how many rooms have signs, what kind of beds are in them and who sleeps where, and say if anyone in the house is pregnant, very young or unwell so that arrangements suit the household. Afterwards, keep beds made up and in use; an empty bedroom gives you nothing to judge by. Expect to see the odd insect for a while, and get back in touch if bites are still appearing several weeks on rather than waiting and hoping - this guide explains what that does and does not mean. If you rent, tell the landlord or agent in writing as well; Pest Control Kenton covers how treatments are arranged around a tenancy.
Keeping Bed Bugs Out of a Busy Kenton House
Because bed bugs arrive with people, prevention is a set of small habits rather than anything structural. Keep cases out of bedrooms between trips. Look over any bed, mattress or upholstered chair before it comes into the house, whoever it is from. Strip and wash the spare bed after guests rather than a fortnight later. And when you change a bed, spend ten seconds on the seams and the frame corners - the earlier one is found, the fewer rooms end up on the booking.
