What Is the Main Cause of Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs do not appear from nowhere, and they are not produced by mess, damp or old buildings. Every infestation starts with insects, or eggs, being moved from somewhere they already were to somewhere new. Knowing the routes helps you work out where yours came from and how to avoid a repeat.

Why It Is Not About Cleanliness

Bed bugs feed only on blood. Crumbs, rubbish and dust are no use to them, so a clean house is no protection and a messy one is not the cause.

What mess does do is give them more places to hide once they are in, and make a treatment harder to carry out. Clutter around a bed is a reason a problem grows, not the reason it started.

The Usual Ways They Arrive

Travel

Hotels, hostels, holiday lets, halls of residence, sleeper trains and coaches: anywhere lots of people sleep in turn. Bed bugs climb into a suitcase left open on the floor or on the bed and come home with it.

Second-hand furniture

Beds, mattresses, headboards, sofas and upholstered chairs are the highest risk, because they are where bed bugs live. A piece that looks clean can have insects and eggs deep in the joints or under the fabric.

Visitors and guests

Someone staying over with an infestation at home can bring a few in their bag or coat. It is nobody's fault, and it is common in homes that host students, family or lodgers.

Neighbouring properties

In flats, converted houses and terraces, bed bugs can walk between homes along pipes, cables, floor voids and shared walls. If an infestation next door is treated, some may move your way.

Bags, coats and clothing

Less often, they travel on belongings from workplaces, public transport or anywhere people sit for a long time. A single fertilised female is enough to start a colony.

It is not what you did at home. It is what came through the front door.

What Turns a Few Into an Infestation

A handful of bed bugs can be carried in without becoming a problem if they are spotted early. These things let them settle and grow.

• Not noticing for weeks. Some people do not react to bites, so the first sign is often spotting on the mattress long after they arrived.
• Clutter by the bed. Piles of clothes, boxes and bags give them harbourage close to their food.
• Moving between rooms. Sleeping somewhere else once bitten carries them into a second room.
• Shop sprays and foggers. These scatter them rather than clearing them.
• Shared living. Houses of multiple occupation and blocks of flats give them more routes and more people to feed on.

How to Lower the Risk

When you travel

• Keep your case off the floor and off the bed; use the luggage rack, away from the wall.
• Check the mattress seams and headboard with your phone torch when you arrive.
• When you get home, unpack straight into the washing machine and dry on a hot setting.
• Check the seams and pockets of the case before it goes back under the bed.

When you buy second-hand

• Be most cautious with beds, mattresses and upholstered furniture.
• Inspect the joints, seams, staples and underside with a torch before it comes indoors.
• If you are unsure, leave it. A bargain bed frame is not a bargain if it brings in bed bugs.

At home

• Keep the area under and around beds clear.
• Glance at the mattress seams when you change the sheets.
• Act on the first sign rather than waiting to see if it gets worse.

For what the signs actually look like, see our guide to bed bug identification, and for the places to check, our post on where bed bugs hide.

If They Have Already Arrived

Working out where they came from is useful, but it does not change the treatment. Start with what to do if you have a bed bug infestation, then get it dealt with properly. Our bed bug control service is £220 for the first room, plus £80 for each additional room, with no call-out fee, and the bed bug treatment cost guide explains how rooms are counted.