Bed bugs treatment in Orpington

Recently attended a property in Orpington for bed bugs. Upon arrival I took my torch and magnifying glass from the truck as the customer had sent pictures that were out of focus and not even zoomed. Less than 30 seconds of looking in this property had me returning to my truck for my Specialised bed bug cimex eradicator. And for my sprayer and insecticides.

The steamer was filled and switched on to heat up whilst I then made my chemical mix for the job in hand. Once my insecticides were all made up to the correct dosage. I went to check on the steamers progress and investigate further.

The information I had been given from the customer was that this problem had only started one or two weeks ago. But once I started investigating more this was not a run of the mill job. Starting to look at the rear of the headboard I could see bed bug spotting in areas around the seams of the fabric.

To get an effective hit with the steamer I was going to have to remove some of the fabric on the rear of the headboard. I popped to customer and asked if it was ok to remove it. The response was whatever we need to do to get done Steve. The husband was not reacting to bites on this job and only his wife was suffering from the large lumps or welts. These can often be associated with bed bug bites. At time of being bitten you do not normally feel it, as you are injected with a local anaesthetic.

Upon removal of the fabric the real problem started to be seen in full. There all life stages visible particularly on one side of the bed where the customers wife sleeps. There were lots of different moults from the bed bugs which happens as they grow. They shed a layer of exoskeleton; this normally happens once they have had one feed and they have a growth spurt. From the 1^st stage to the 5^th stage one meal can be enough for each growth stage.

Also visible were lots of eggs. On closer inspection you could see they had hatched out. With bed bugs they tend to spend time together so it is normal to see clusters in jobs that are infested. Infestation is generally a bad word and should only be used for particularly bad cases of which this 100% qualified. The number of eggs laid on average is around four per day but could be as many as seven. The eggs are impervious to insecticide so spraying them has little to no effect.

Time to get started on treatment

Steamer now up to pressure and ready to go I started to steam them all. Everything that is visible from egg to nymph to adult every seam on the head board has to be meticulously steamed. On the back of the head board where I had removed the fabric there were lots of potential pockets where 1^st and 2^nd stage nymphs were observed trying to avoid the steam. There were so many areas on this head board that the process to steam it took me 50 minutes to steam just the headboard. Also, the fact there were so many life stages. Sadly, after spending all this time and the customer being advised he decided the headboard had to go directly out in the garden. I advised against it but he said he truly can’t live with it.

The mattress

Next port of call was the mattress. Now this was an odd one. For the shear amount of activity in this job there was almost zero signs on the mattress at all. No blood spotting, no eggs, no nymphs in the seams and poppers. Both sides of the mattress were steamed. The poppers and seams are steamed as normal with my bed bug treatments. Another reason I always steam the mattress is we never use insecticide on a mattress (there is only one product cleared for this usage). You really can leave no stone unturned in the quest to eradicate bed bugs from a home.

I then proceeded to move the mattress to one side and attack the bed frame. As I parted the bedframe large adult female bed bug was visible with a well-fed 2^nd/3^rd stage nymph egg again visible but not in the numbers of the headboard. As I flipped the divan bed frame over, I could see the fabric at the foot end which matched the headboard had a small nymph running. As I started to part the fabric, moults and an adult was observed. Wasting no time, I grabbed the steamer and attacked that end of the bed.

At this point I popped back to the customer and said there is no choice to cut open the bottom of the bed. The black fabric would not be seen when the bed was in use anyway. But I can’t leave any potential hiding spots. Plus, we need access to the inside as although steam is good it sometimes can’t get everywhere. It being opens means once I get to the second part of the treatment I can get a good dosage of insecticide spray inside.

Fabric removed

Now with the fabric gone I started to question did I really need to have cut it. But my years of experience were right a small nymph showed and was promptly dealt with. As I tilted the bed frame a dead adult dropped from an area I had hit with steam on the outside. The steam treatment on the second half of the bedframe was exactly same. Very low activity but none the less activity.

At this point I was around 1 hour and 40 minutes into this job and if I’m honest. I under quoted the job. But true to my word and price I carried on.

Next up was the bedside cabinets. As soon as I spun the cabinet around, I could see activity in the edge of where the back boards slots in. This gap is another perfect bed bug hidey hole. I grabbed my camera and got some more pictures. Of which you will see through this post and from this job.

Inside the gap were several large adults and eggs up and down the slot. With a pocket of concentration near the top. Again, the cimex eradicator was taking no prisoners. I steamed all the cracks and crevices I could get to. Finally, I had finished steaming I was around 2 and half hours in at this point.

Insecticide spray part of a bed bugs treatment

Next up was the spray part of the treatment. I had made the insecticide up when I arrived at the job so made sure to give my sprayer a liberal shake to make sure there was no separation. This is not normally an issue with liquid concentrates. But I never leave anything to chance.

Systematically I started to spray the room in reverse order. The cabinets were sprayed first so that I could put them in lace either side of the bed. The drawers, runners, cracks and crevices were treated thoroughly and placed back.

Next up was the bed base. Whilst it was still separated inside of the bed base was done. Then flip them over to the correct way up and the outside is sprayed. With everything sprayed the mattress was put back into place. This job was so bad and it was laminate floor but I still fully coated the floor before the bed was put back in place. There was a every chance they could be anywhere in this bedroom.

The other end of the room

Now the last bit of furniture at the end of the room a small table. A quick look with my torch showed no signs of bed bugs but all the under sides and legs of the table were sprayed. The wardrobe again had no signs of bed bugs but was fully sprayed.

All of the wall floor junctions were sprayed but as mentioned previously, the complete floor was sprayed.

The ceiling rose, fire alarm and a weird switch on the ceiling were all sprayed. Along with a square around each socket on the room and switch. We do not spray these directly we only do a complete circuit around the socket/ switches.

Unusual things on a bed bugs treatment

The other thing that you don’t often see is bed bugs that are sat in the ceiling/wall junction and I saw this in 3 places at least. At this point the customer came to see how I was doing. He said to me I wouldn’t worry about down here Steve, I never see them this end. But where I had sprayed a nymph was observed to be climbing the wall trying to get away from the insecticide. I pointed it out to the customer who then was in shock and walked off.

That was just around the time I was finishing my treatment. I was now 3 hours in. Time to write the report and tell the customer what I had found. If I am honest, he really didn’t want to know what I found and the extent of his problems. Nor did he want to see any photographic evidence either.

A quick word on the professional insecticides

There are differences between the insecticide that you buy over the counter and the stuff we use professionally. The insecticide you buy to spray wasp for example works super quickly. However, it has no residual effect. The professional insecticides work in a different way and have a cumulative toxic effect that takes time to build. But it also has the plus sides, depending on the product used of how long it remains active for. Some professional grade residual insecticides will stay full knock down strength for 30 days.

When treating bed bugs, it’s important to use the correct insecticide for the job. Generally ones containing growth inhibitors to stunt growth and stop reproduction. We really need to use every tool and trick in the book to stop these insects in their tracks.