Should Other Bedrooms Be Checked?

The Four Questions

1. "Has anybody swapped rooms in the last few months?"

The most useful question there is and the one nobody thinks to answer, because at the time it had nothing to do with insects. Somebody being bitten often moves before they have worked out what is biting them — and takes it with them.

Ask it plainly, and ask about temporary moves too: a fortnight in the spare room, a week on a sibling's floor, a spell downstairs after an argument.

2. "Has anybody else had marks they did not think about?"

Reaction varies enormously between people, and some show nothing at all. A teenager who assumed it was the cat, or a partner who put it down to the new washing powder, is a data point.

Ask about the last three months, not the last week.

3. "Has any furniture or bedding moved between rooms?"

A mattress swapped between children as they grew, a chair brought downstairs, a duvet that spent a fortnight in the spare room, a headboard moved. Each is a direct route.

4. "Has anybody had friends stay, or stayed anywhere?"

Sleepovers in both directions, a week at a grandparent's, a school trip, a festival. Not an accusation of anybody — a way of working out which bed might have been the first one.

What the Answers Change

• Somebody swapped rooms: both rooms are in scope, and the room they came FROM is probably the original
• Somebody else has unexplained marks: their room is in scope regardless of what their bed looks like
• Furniture moved: the receiving room is in scope
• Sleepovers or stays: not scope so much as origin — it helps establish how long this has been going
• All four are no: a single-room job is a reasonable call, with the other beds checked while somebody is there

Every Bed, Not Every Bedroom

The count that matters is beds. In a family home that usually means more than the bedrooms:

• Bunk beds count as two, and they are one structure — if one has activity, both do
• A trundle or pull-out under a bed is a bed
• A sofa bed in a study or playroom is a bed
• A guest bed nobody sleeps in is a bed, and is the one this goes wrong in
• A cot or toddler bed is a bed

Woodley: The Answer Is Almost Always Cheaper Than the Alternative

Checking every bed in a family home is half an hour. Treating a second room in November because it was not looked at in September is not.

And the sequencing problem is worse in a family home than anywhere: children move between rooms, share things, and have friends to stay, so an untreated room in a house with children has more ways of reaching a treated one than in a household of adults.