Back from a trip: twenty minutes in the bedroom

Nobody wants to think about this while unpacking. It is still the cheapest twenty minutes you will spend, because a bed bug problem caught on the day the suitcase came home is a small job, and the same problem found six weeks later is not.

Do not unpack on the bed

The bed is the destination. Put the suitcase on a hard floor, in the hall or the bathroom, not on the mattress, not on an upholstered chair, and not on the carpet in the bedroom.

Take the washable clothes straight to the machine. Wash hot if the care label allows it, and tumble dry, because heat is what does the work here. Anything that cannot be washed goes in the dryer on its own for a cycle, if the label allows it.

Check the suitcase before it goes away

Look along the zip, inside the piping and in the seams of the lining. You are looking for small dark specks rather than for insects; the specks are easier to see and they show up first. Vacuum the case inside and out, then empty the vacuum outside the house.

The edges in a bedroom

This is where a surface treatment earns its place. You are treating the routes between where they hide and where you sleep.

• The joints of the bed frame, and the ends of the slats.
• The back of the headboard and the wall behind it.
• Skirting behind and beside the bed.
• The bedside table, underneath and along the back edge.
• Luggage racks, and the base and rails of the wardrobe where the case is stored.
• Mattress seams and the piping, following the label.

Strip the bed and vacuum the frame and the floor edges first. A clean, dry edge is what the coating bonds to. Then a thin, even layer along each of those lines, overlapping slightly.

Let it dry fully with the window open before you make the bed. Do not put linen back on a frame that is still damp.

Keep it up for a few weeks

One treatment is not the end of it. Deep cleaning and steam cleaning a treated edge remove the coating, so treat again after either.

When to call someone

If you find live insects, bites appearing in a line, or dark specks along the mattress seam, this is past the point of a spray bottle. Call a pest control professional. They will knock the population down and can treat the surfaces afterwards to hold the ground between visits, which is the sequence that actually works.