The essentials
In the days before, wash at 60 °C or tumble-dry hot all fabrics from the affected rooms and keep them in sealed bags, vacuum the bed, base and skirting boards and throw the bag away outside, and clear the space around the bed. Above all, don't move anything into other rooms: that is how an infestation spreads.
A bed bug can tuck itself into a seam, a slat or a power socket. The easier those hiding places are to reach on the day, the better the treatment gets to them. ANSES, the French health and safety agency, also points out that cleaning, vacuuming and tidying the room come before any treatment.
Two to three days before
Go room by room, starting with the bedroom:
- Bedding, curtains, clothes: wash at 60 °C or tumble-dry hot, then keep in sealed bags until treatment is complete.
- Vacuum the mattress, bed base, seams and skirting boards; empty the bag or bin into an outdoor bin.
- Clear the area around the bed and along the walls, nothing stored under the bed.
- Gather electronics and fragile items so the technician can check them.
Reflexes that make it worse
Switching rooms or sleeping on the sofa seems sensible, but bed bugs follow their food source: you. They then settle in a second room.
- Don't carry fabrics or boxes into another room or to friends' homes.
- Keep sleeping in your usual bed until the treatment.
- No foggers or shop-bought insecticides: ANSES warns of poisoning risks and resistance.
- Wrap any furniture you throw out in plastic and make it unusable before it goes to bulky waste.
After the first visit
The photo report tells you when you can use the room again and which areas not to wash. The next visit is timed to the hatching of the eggs, to reach young bed bugs before they lay in turn.
Remember
- Fabrics washed at 60 °C or tumble-dried hot, then bagged.
- Thorough vacuuming, bag thrown away outside.
- Nothing changes room before treatment.
- No shop-bought products on the side.
General information, valid at the date of publication; it is no substitute for advice from a lawyer or a health professional.