Advice
Signs of Bed Bugs and What to Do Next
Bed bugs are small, flat insects that hide close to where people sleep, and knowing the early signs helps you act before they spread through a home.
Read the guide →Many of the properties around here are older, with thick walls, beams and plenty of crevices. Those give bed bugs somewhere to settle once they have arrived on a bag or a piece of furniture.
The treatment, step by step
We begin with the bed and work outward. That means the mattress seams, the frame, the headboard and its fixings, then the skirting, the window sill and any furniture within a few metres of where people sleep. Each infested spot is treated directly, rather than just spraying around the room.
In a Sidbury cottage we often find that cracks in plaster, gaps behind old wooden panels and loose wallpaper edges need attention too. If the house is large or has several bedrooms, we will check each one so that bugs are not left behind to start again.
What you can do before the visit
Bag up bedding and clothes from the affected room, and wash them hot. Dry them on a hot cycle if the fabric allows. Vacuum the mattress, the bed base and the floor, then empty the vacuum outside in a sealed bag. This will not solve the problem alone, but it reduces numbers.
Please move clutter away from the bed, since piles of clothes and boxes give bed bugs places to hide and slow us down. If you let rooms in Sidbury to holiday guests or lodgers, keep the room empty until we have finished and tell us when it was last occupied.
Checking it has worked
A return visit to Sidbury lets us look again at the places that were treated and deal with anything that has hatched or survived. We cannot promise one visit will be enough, and we would rather be honest about that. We also cover Sidford and Sidmouth, so a neighbouring property can be looked at too, all within EX10.
Frequently asked questions
Can bed bugs live in an old stone cottage?
Yes. They are not fussy about the age of a building. Thick walls, beams and gaps in old plaster simply give them more places to hide, which is why treatment covers more than just the bed.
Should I stay somewhere else while you treat the room?
Usually you only need to keep out of the treated room for the time we advise. Most people sleep in another room once it has dried, though keep bedding from the affected room well away.
What if the bugs came with a second-hand bed?
That is a very common cause. We treat the piece itself if it is worth keeping, or advise wrapping it before disposal so bugs are not spread through the house or left for someone else to pick up.