What Should You Do Before a Slough Bed Bug Treatment?

Two Days Before

The laundry is the job that takes the time, and it is the one that gets started too late.

1. Start the washing. All bedding, and worn clothing from the affected room. Hot wash, then a full hot tumble dry — the dryer is doing most of the work
2. Bag it in the room and carry the bag to the machine. Nothing loose through the house, nothing left in a basket on a landing
3. Keep the clean laundry sealed, in a different room, until you are told the room is ready
4. Ask about anything the care label rules out — shoes, bags, dry-clean-only items. Do not just bag them and leave them

For a family, that is several loads. Two days is not generous.

The Day Before

1. Clear under the bed — and keep everything you take out inside the same room
2. Empty divan drawers, into a bag or box that also stays in the room
3. Pull furniture off the walls, far enough to get behind and under it
4. Clear the floor line all the way round so the skirting is reachable
5. Take anything off the walls above the bed if you can do it safely
6. Write down anything you have already done — sprayed, moved, bagged, thrown out

The Morning Of

• Strip the bed to the bare mattress and leave it stripped
• Make sure the bed can be reached from all four sides
• Put pets somewhere else in the property, or out, for the visit and the exclusion period
• Have somebody there who can answer questions about the property
• Have your note ready — dates, what you found, what you have done

What Not To Do In Those Two Days

• Do not move to another room to sleep, however tempting on the last night
• Do not spray anything
• Do not empty the room out into other parts of the house
• Do not throw furniture away before it has been looked at
• Do not deep clean the room — the evidence of where activity is concentrated is what makes the treatment accurate

Slough: If You Are in a Flat

Two additions, both about the building rather than the flat.

• Nothing goes into a communal area during preparation. Not bagged bedding waiting for the machine, not furniture, and certainly not a mattress
• Sort out access. Door entry, parking and whether anybody needs to be let in through a main door are worth settling the day before rather than on the doorstep

If the neighbouring flats are occupied and anybody else has mentioned bites, say so before the visit rather than during it. It changes what the inspection is looking for.