Bed bugs do not respond to the tactics that work on most household pests. They do not forage, they do not take bait, and they spend most of their lives inside a seam or a screw hole a few feet from where someone sleeps. A treatment that does not reach those places simply pushes the population next door.

What the inspection covers

We start with the bed and work outward: frame joints, headboard fixings, mattress piping, the underside of the box spring, then skirting, outlets and any upholstered furniture within about eight feet. Interceptors go under every leg. What we find determines the size of the job, and you get that in writing before anything is scheduled.

Heat, applied properly

Heat works because it reaches everything in the room at once, including eggs. It only works if the room actually gets there. Ours are monitored with remote probes at the coldest points — inside a wardrobe, behind a headboard — and held above the threshold for a sustained period rather than briefly touched.

The failure mode is almost never the equipment. It is a room that read 122°F at the sensor by the door and 108°F behind the dresser nobody moved.

Preparing your room

• Strip beds and bag laundry; we will tell you what to wash and at what temperature.
• Remove aerosols, candles, medication and anything else heat-sensitive.
• Leave furniture where it is. Moving it before treatment spreads the problem.
• Plan to be out of the property for six to eight hours.

The follow-up

We return at day fourteen, read the interceptors and re-inspect the harborage points. If anything is active we treat again at no charge. Only when that visit reads clear do we close the file.