Why Not to Squash It
Identification is most of the decision at this stage, and it is considerably harder from a smear than from an insect. Several things get reported as bed bugs and none of them is treated the same way: carpet beetle larvae, fleas, spider beetles, booklice, young cockroaches.
A flattened insect on a piece of kitchen roll loses the shape, the profile and usually the legs. An intact one is identifiable in seconds, from a photograph, without anybody travelling.
The exception nobody minds. If it is on you, or on a child, deal with it however you like. Nobody is asking anybody to be calm about an insect on their skin. The advice applies to one found on a bed, a wall or a floor.
How To Catch It
They are slow — about the pace of an ant — and they cannot jump or fly at any stage. You have more time than it feels like.
- Clear sticky tape is the easiest: press a strip over it and fold the tape onto itself. It stays visible through the tape
- A small clear bag or jar works, coaxed in with a piece of card
- A glass and a card, the spider method, if it is on a flat surface
- Do not use tissue. It crushes them and you lose the specimen
- Seal whatever you use, and label it with the date and where it was found
Photograph It Properly
Even with a specimen in hand, the photograph is what gets used on the phone.
- Against something white and plain
- Something in frame for scale — a fingertip, a coin, a ruler edge
- Tap to focus on the insect, and use macro or zoom if your phone has it
- Side lighting rather than flash
- One shot of where it was found, as well as the insect itself
What You Are Looking At
- Bed bug: four to five millimetres when adult, oval, flat top-to-bottom, reddish-brown, wingless. Round and dark if it has fed. Nymphs the same shape, smaller, paler
- Carpet beetle larva: elongated and obviously bristly. Not a biter
- Flea: narrow side-to-side, two to three millimetres, dark, hard-shelled, and it jumps
- Spider beetle: shiny, rounded, long legs. Harmless
- Booklouse: very small, pale, fast, associated with damp
Then Stop
Having caught it, the rest of the evening is about not making things worse.
- Look at the seam or joint it came from, and photograph anything else there
- Do not spray anything
- Do not move anything out of the room
- Strip the bedding into a bag in the room and hot wash and hot tumble dry it
- Sleep in the same bed
- Call, and lead with what you caught and where
Hungerford: Keep It Until Somebody Has Seen It
Do not throw the specimen away once you have taken a photograph. It costs nothing to keep a sealed bag in a drawer for a fortnight, and if there is any question later — from a landlord, an agent or an insurer — the insect itself settles it in a way a photograph does not.
Do not take it to another room to look at it in better light. It is sealed in tape or a jar, so the risk is small - but people routinely carry the whole bedding bundle with them while they are at it, and that is not small at all.
Bed bugs in Hungerford? Pest Control Specialists Berkshire treats bed bugs from £220 for the first room. Bed Bug Treatments in Hungerford has the full detail, or call 0118 336 1366.