Bed bug treatment in Garsfontein

If you're waking up with itchy bites in a line or a cluster, and you've found tiny dark spots on the mattress seams, you very likely have bed bugs. They can be cleared, but not with a single spray and not by throwing the mattress out. It takes a proper inspection, treatment of every hiding place and a follow-up visit to catch the ones that hatch afterwards.

How bed bugs get into Garsfontein homes

Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They have nothing to do with dirt and everything to do with movement. In a family suburb like Garsfontein, the common routes are:

• Suitcases back from holidays, business trips and guesthouses
• Sleeping bags and duffel bags from school camps, sports tours and sleepovers
• Second-hand beds, couches and headboards bought online or from a neighbour moving out
• Visitors who are staying over, and students coming home from residences or shared digs

Once inside, they settle close to where people sleep or sit for long periods, and in complexes they can creep between units along skirting boards and wall sockets.

How to tell it's bed bugs

Bites alone aren't enough to be sure, because mosquito, flea and mite bites can look similar. What confirms bed bugs is physical evidence:

• Rusty or dark spots along mattress seams, the base and the headboard
• Pale, empty shed skins in folds and corners
• Flat, oval, brown insects about the size of an apple seed, hiding in seams, behind the headboard or in the bed frame joints
• Tiny white eggs in cracks of wooden bed frames and bedside tables
• A sweetish, musty smell in heavily infested rooms

If you're not sure whether the bites on your legs are bed bugs or something else, our page on biting insects in Garsfontein goes through the usual culprits.

What our treatment involves

Before we arrive

We'll give you a short preparation list. It usually means stripping the beds, washing bedding and clothes from the affected rooms on a hot wash, and clearing clutter from under beds so we can reach everything. Please don't move items from an infested bedroom into other rooms. That's how one room becomes three.

On the day

We take apart what needs to come apart: bed bases, headboards, bedside drawers. We treat seams, joints, cracks, skirting boards, plug points and the furniture closest to the bed with products registered for bed bugs, applied directly to where they hide. You don't need to move out for this, but the treated rooms should be left until surfaces are dry.

The follow-up

Bed bug eggs are protected and can hatch after the first treatment. A follow-up visit about two weeks later deals with that next wave, and it's not optional if you want the problem gone.

Mistakes that spread the problem

Sleeping on the couch to escape the bites. The bugs follow the person, and now the lounge is infested too. Dragging the mattress out onto the pavement can also scatter bugs through the passage on the way out, and a new mattress on an infested base will simply be reinfested. In most cases, the mattress can be treated and kept.

A tip for Garsfontein families who travel

When the kids come home from camp or a tour, unpack in the laundry or on a tiled floor rather than on the bed. Put everything that can be washed straight into the machine on a hot cycle, and tumble-dry what you can. Check the seams of the bag before it goes back into the cupboard. It takes ten minutes and it's the single best way to stop bed bugs before they settle in.

What does bed bug treatment cost?

It's priced on how many rooms and pieces of furniture are affected, and how established the infestation is. A single bedroom caught early is a much smaller job than a house where bugs have spread to the lounge. The follow-up visit is part of the treatment. This is one pest where DIY sprays rarely work, because store-bought products don't reach the eggs and cracks where most of the bugs hide.

For a step-by-step look at what's involved, have a look at our bed bug removal guide, or see our approach city-wide on the bed bug control in Pretoria page. We also treat bed bugs in homes and rental flats in Faerie Glen. The full list of what we handle locally is on pest control for Garsfontein.

Our treatment is backed by a 3-month guarantee, so if bed bugs return in that period, we'll be back. Phone 012 012 5526 to arrange an inspection. If you've caught a bug on tape or photographed the mattress seams, WhatsApp the picture through and we'll confirm it.