Luton Borough Council’s Approach
This national bedbug problem has not missed Luton.
The Pest Control Service is currently receiving an
alarming number of bedbug jobs on a weekly basis.
Whilst the bedbug is not known to be a carrier of
disease, the Council does recognise the bedbug as
being an obnoxious pest with which to have to share
a home.
Please remember, it is your responsibility to
ensure all preliminary requirements are met.
The Officers will require 
Access to all areas that need treating –
which will be all bedrooms and beds and
adjacent areas.

Beds must have been stripped and
bedcovers put into sealed bin liners. We
advise they are placed in the bath for
storage. Pay attention to the draws often
built into divan beds which must also be
emptied.
Successful treatment can be a lengthy process. To
ensure effective and successful treatment the
Council expects complete cooperation from the
homeowner.
The Pest Control Officers attending your infestation
have to work within the Laws regarding pesticides
and have a duty of care to you not to endanger your
health by excessive use of pesticides in your house
Therefore, having identified that you have a bedbug
problem at home and arranged for a visit from
council Pest Control Officers you should make your
home ready for the treatment.
Council Pest Control Officers are trained to
Advanced Pest Management Diploma level and
work within the restraints of the Control of
Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
regulations and other Health and Safety guidelines.
The insecticides used in your home will be used
properly and safely and the Pest Control Officers will
advise you on any further precautions you need to
take. However, you should be aware that no
insecticides are completely safe and it is for this
reason that the Council expect full cooperation from
you to ensure that the infestation is eradicated
quickly and efficiently with the minimum use of
insecticides

All wardrobes, draws and bookcases to
be emptied and contents placed in
sealed bin liners.

All furniture to be pulled away from the
walls for access to the back of the
furniture and skirting.

All pictures and posters off the walls and
available for inspection.

All bagged up items of clothing and
bedding must be removed from the
rooms that need treating.

Only
bedroom
furniture,
beds,
mattresses and curtains are to be left in
the bedrooms. All electrical appliances
TV’s, computers etc. must be removed.
PEST CONTROL OFFICERS WILL NOT CARRY
OUT ANY TREATMENT IF YOUR PROPERTY IS
NOT COMPLETELY READY UPON THEIR
ARRIVAL.
Bedbug Treatment
Information Sheet.
This information sheet has been
produced for your benefit to provide you
with information on the pest you are
experiencing and for you to prepare
your property before the Pest Control
Officer arrives to treat.
Please read this leaflet thoroughly and
comply with the instructions.
Pest Control
Environmental Services
Luton Borough Council
Town Hall
Luton LU1 2BQ
Tel: 01582 510330
Email: pestcontrol@luton.gov.uk
Please ensure that you leave a telephone
number so that Pest Control can contact
you during office hours
If you need this in large print, on
tape or in
Cimex lectularius

The Bedbug
Modern insecticides developed in the late 1940s
virtually eliminated the bedbug from the domestic
scene in the UK. They are however back with a
vengeance, the ease and frequency of foreign travel
and a developed resistance to insecticides are some
of the factors that are blamed for this increase, but
the experts feel that there are other causes which
are still not clear. Some areas of the country are
experiencing up to 300% increase in reported
infestations on 5 years ago.
Bedbug infestations most commonly occur as a
consequence of :


Bringing them home in luggage after staying
in infested accommodation,
Visitors staying at your house who come
from infested homes
Accepting infested second-hand furniture.
Here are some facts about the bedbug




Bedbugs are principally pests of humans
but can take feeds from pets, birds and
bats.
The adults are about the size and, when
well fed, the same colour as an apple pip –
dark red.
They should not be confused with the mites
that most people have naturally in their beds
– unpleasant though it may seem. Bed bugs
are much larger.
They do not live on the body but hide in the
mattress, skirting boards or cracks due to
poor joinery in the bedroom. They are also
to be found under wallpaper, the back of
pictures and posters, in clock and radios
beside the bed and electric fittings in the
bedroom.



Their harbourage sites are normally fairly
close to their hosts but they are capable of
hunting down a feed by detecting a host’s
body warmth and breath. So moving to
another bedroom will only give short-term
respite from the pest.
They emerge at night and can guzzle up to
four times their body weight in quarter of an
hour.
A female can lay about 350 small comma–
shaped pale-coloured eggs in her lifetime
and so a gravid female can be responsible
for many thousand offspring a year.
Bedbugs can infest even the cleanest of
homes. An infestation therefore does not
indicate a dirty home.
It is important that an infestation is treated at an
early stage. Infestations are more difficult to
eradicate once they are established as then there
are often several generations of breeding bedbugs.
The first indication of an infestation is usually the
itchy red bites caused by the feeding nymphs.
Closer inspection might show small blood smears
on the sheets or dead nymphs in the bed.
As the infestation becomes more mature, distinct
blood smears will be noticeable and some people
may suffer a bad reaction to the bites. At this stage
faecal deposits outside cracks and joins in
woodwork,
around
seams in wallpaper
etc identify definite
harbourage sites.
Faecal spotting
on a mattress
Often live bedbugs can be found within the
bedcovers.
There may also be an unpleasant odour associated
with heavy infestations of bedbugs.
So, if visiting family abroad,
putting up casual visitors,
staying
in
budget
accommodation or buying
second-hand furniture is part
of your lifestyle or you are
semi mobile in that you stay
in short term lets, student
accommodation and such
like, then you should have an
increased awareness of this
National and International
problem.
* An Internet search using Google or some
other search engine using “Bedbug”,
“Cimex lectularius”, “Clive Boase”, will
provide further information on this pest.
Z:\ECS\Environmental health\Pest Control\Information Sheets
September 2012