Bed bug treatment in Rotterdam: be sure first
Not every bump is a bed bug bite, and not every bed bug is easy to find. Adults are flat, oval and reddish-brown; younger ones are smaller and paler. They feed on blood, emerge from their hiding places at night and crawl back once they have fed. Signs of an infestation include:
- bites in a line or cluster, often on the arms, neck and shoulders
- small red or rust-brown spots on sheets and pillowcases
- black dots in mattress seams, along the slatted base and behind the headboard
- empty shed skins in seams and cracks around the bed
- in a heavy infestation, a sweetish, musty smell in the bedroom
Bed bugs have nothing to do with a dirty home. They can settle just as easily in a spotless flat.
How bed bugs reach your home
Bed bugs do not walk in from outside; they are carried in. The usual routes are a suitcase after a hotel stay, a second-hand bed, sofa or bedside table, and the bags or coats of guests. In apartment blocks they can also move to the neighbours through cracks, skirting boards and pipe openings.
Because they can go a long time without feeding, an infestation will survive a period when nobody sleeps in the bed, so leaving a room empty for a few weeks does not solve it. That is why our pest control in Rotterdam always asks where they came from: knowing the source makes it easier to prevent a repeat.
Our approach: heat and precision
Our inspection never stops at the mattress. We also check the frame, sofa, curtains, skirting boards, sockets and neighbouring rooms, because bed bugs move around. Then we judge how far the infestation has spread and which rooms need to be included.
Heat is at the heart of our bed bug treatment. Bed bugs and their eggs cannot survive high temperatures, so we heat the affected room or belongings in a controlled way until they die. Where needed, a targeted follow-up with a professional product goes into seams and cracks. A check-up visit then shows whether any activity remains.
What to do yourself – and what to avoid
Keep sleeping in your own bed. Moving to the sofa or a spare room often takes the bed bugs with you and makes things worse. We also advise against supermarket insect sprays, which only drive them deeper into cracks.
- Wash bedding and clothes at 60 degrees or more, then tumble-dry on hot.
- Keep washed items in sealed bags until after the treatment.
- Do not put a mattress out on the street; dragging it through the stairwell spreads the infestation.
- Vacuum seams and the floor around the bed and take the bag outside straight away.
Bitten mainly around the ankles, and have a cat or dog? It could be fleas instead. Our flea treatment page explains how to tell the difference.
