Guides · Watford

How to Prepare Your Home for Bed Bug Treatment

Bed bug treatment succeeds or fails largely on what the householder does beforehand. A technician can only treat surfaces they can reach, and bed bugs shelter in exactly the places clutter accumulates. This page sets out what to do before the appointment and, just as importantly, what not to do.

Start the laundry, and be systematic about it

Strip all bedding, and wash it at 60°C or above - that temperature kills bed bugs at every life stage, including eggs, which lower temperatures do not. Tumble drying on a hot cycle for at least thirty minutes achieves the same. Do the same with clothing from any drawers or wardrobes in affected rooms. The critical part is what happens next: bag the clean items and keep them sealed and out of the room until after treatment. Washing everything and putting it straight back is the single most common reason a treatment has to be repeated.

Reduce clutter, but do not move it between rooms

Clear the floor around beds and along skirting boards, and empty bedside drawers. This is so the technician can reach the harbourage points, which are almost always within a couple of metres of where people sleep. What matters is where the clutter goes. Do not carry boxes, bedding or clothing from an affected room into an unaffected one - that is how a problem in one bedroom becomes a problem across the whole house. Bag anything you remove, seal it, and keep it in the affected room or outside.

Leave the furniture where it is

Do not dismantle beds, move mattresses out of the property, or throw furniture away before the technician has seen it. The location of the infestation tells them where to treat, and a stripped, rearranged room destroys that information. Throwing out a mattress before treatment also rarely helps, because the population is usually already in the bed frame, the headboard and the skirting as well - and moving an infested mattress through the house spreads it. If anything genuinely needs disposing of, the technician will say so afterwards.

Vacuum, and deal with the vacuum properly

Vacuum the mattress, the bed frame, along skirting boards and into carpet edges. This removes a proportion of the live insects and eggs and improves how well the treatment takes. Immediately afterwards, remove the bag or empty the canister into a plastic bag, seal it, and put it in an outside bin. A vacuum left full is a container of live bed bugs sitting in the house.

On the day and afterwards

Make sure pets, fish tanks and anyone with respiratory conditions can be out of the property for the period the technician specifies, and that they have access to every room that needs treating - including any adjoining rooms, because bed bugs travel. Afterwards, follow the re-entry time you are given, and do not wash or shampoo treated floors and skirting, which removes the residual product that catches insects emerging from eggs later. Expect a second visit: one treatment almost never clears a bed bug infestation completely, and the follow-up is what deals with the generation that hatches after the first.

Common questions

How long before I can go back in?

It depends on the products used and will be specified by the technician on the day, but a few hours is typical. You will also be told how long to ventilate the rooms and when it is safe for children and pets to return. Follow the times given rather than a general figure found online.

Do I need to throw out my mattress?

Usually not. Mattresses can normally be treated in place, and disposal often does not solve the problem because the infestation extends into the frame, headboard and surrounding room. Never move an infested mattress through the house or leave it in a communal area - that spreads the problem to neighbours.

Why does it take more than one visit?

Bed bug eggs are highly resistant and hatch over a period of days to weeks after the initial treatment. The follow-up visit, usually spaced a couple of weeks later, is timed to deal with newly emerged insects before they can breed. A treatment plan with only one visit is unlikely to clear an established infestation.