Bedbugs spread could be down to secondhand furniture or shopping parcels, warns pest controller

A fully grown bed bug is around 5mm long. Credit: NHS England

Bedbugs could be entering homes via secondhand furniture or online shopping parcels, a pest controller has said.

It comes amid a bedbug infestation in Paris - with concerns that the critters could make their way to England.

One pest expert says he has seen the number of call-outs he receives double over the last 18 months, which he thinks could be down to a number of factors.

Tony Bennett from Millennium Pest Control told ITV News Anglia: "It's definitely down to second-hand furniture. Obviously, cost of living, people buying beds, mattresses, cots, and even suitcases, they buy them secondhand.

"If you don't know what you're looking for, you're not going to notice it. You're going to put it in your property and then it's going to escalate."

He is now attending about 20 bedbug call-outs a week across his patch in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Mr Bennett added: "The increase in activity is due to people buying online. Everything gets transferred through the post, it all gets packed up and sealed.

"Once it gets into their properties, they open it up. Bedbugs can lay dormant many months without a feed and once they're inside your house, they can accumulate and spread."

There are concerns that the Paris bedbug infestation could reach London, as the French capital has direct rail links to the city.

Mr Bennett added: "People are getting packed together on transport because they can't afford to run their vehicles so they're using London transport and everything's just getting transferred through the seats, through rucksacks, through suitcases, it's easily transferred."

Tony Bennett, from Millennium Pest Control in Norwich. Credit: ITV News Anglia
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Transport for London said it was “not aware of any confirmed sightings of bedbugs” on London’s transport network.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said there was no sign of any bedbugs on London Underground but there was no room for complacency.

"We are making sure TfL is learning the lessons from France and having world-leading cleaning," he previously told ITV News London.

Another pest controller, David Cain, founder of Bed Bugs Limited in London, described reports of a bedbug infestation in Paris driving an increase in London as a “red herring” created by social media.

“People are still encountering bedbugs in virtually every major city in the world. They’re just not hashtagging them like in Paris," he said.

Signs of bedbugs

  • Bites often on skin exposed while sleeping, like the face, neck and arms

  • Spots of blood on your bedding – from the bites or from squashing a bedbug

  • Small brown spots on bedding or furniture (bedbug faeces after they feed off your blood)

  • Any skin casings that bed bugs have been shredding off

Bedbug bites can be raised, itchy and often in a line or grouped together. Credit: NHS

Mr Bennett said: "If the infestation is low, you expect to find a bed bug 3ft from the bed and the headboard.

"So the first time we do a survey, we will look at the bed, we strip the bed, we will look at the mattress and the headboard."

He continued: "If (the infestation) is really low level, we can just steam. Steaming is good because it will kill any live adults, any nymphs, or any egg cases.

"If it's a heavy infestation, we can use a steamer and also we can use a sprayer, which will control the bed bugs over a four-week period."

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