Mossel Bay is the first overnight stop for a lot of people driving the Garden Route from Cape Town. Bed bugs like that kind of town. They travel in luggage, not on people, and they get off wherever the suitcase does.
Bed bugs in a Mossel Bay home or guest house are cleared with a thorough inspection of the bedroom and the rooms around it, a first treatment of every crack and seam near the bed, and a second treatment about two weeks later to kill the young that hatch from eggs in between. Skip the second visit and the problem tends to come back within a month or two. Supermarket sprays and foggers rarely reach the bugs, which spend the day tucked into mattress piping, the stapled edge of a bed base and the screw holes of a headboard, and they mostly scatter the bugs further into the room.
We treat bed bugs in family homes, flats, retirement complexes, B&Bs, self-catering units, backpackers and staff accommodation across Mossel Bay and the nearby towns.
Why a holiday and travel town sees bed bugs
A bed bug infestation has nothing to do with how clean a house is. It has everything to do with how many beds, bags and people pass through. Mossel Bay gets all three. Over the December and Easter holidays the town fills with visitors, many of them on long road trips with a different bed every night or two. Tour groups, overlanders, families on the way to Plett and contractors staying a few weeks for work at the harbour all bring luggage that has been in other rooms.
All it takes is one fertilised female in the seam of a backpack. She walks out at night, finds the nearest bed and starts laying. Two months later the room has a problem, and the guest who brought her is long gone.
Locals pick them up too: on the way back from a city hotel, in a second-hand couch bought online, or in a bed passed down from a relative's house.
How to tell it's bed bugs
The bites alone won't tell you, because they look like other bites and some people barely react at all. It's common for one partner to wake up covered in welts while the other sleeps beside them with no marks whatsoever. What gives bed bugs away is what they leave behind:
- Small black dots along mattress seams, the edge of the base and the joints of the headboard. These are droppings, and they smear like ink if you wipe them with a damp cloth
- Rusty spots on the sheets or pillowcase, where a bite bled a little or a fed bug was squashed
- Pale, empty skins in the folds of the mattress and in corners of the base
- The bugs themselves: flat, rust-brown adults the size of a lentil or an apple seed, much smaller and paler when young
- Bites in a line or a cluster on the arms, neck, shoulders and back, the parts that are uncovered when you sleep
Bites mainly around the ankles and lower legs, in a house with a dog or cat, point to fleas instead. If that sounds more like it, see flea and tick control in Mossel Bay, and a clear photo of what you've found is usually enough for us to tell the two apart. Our bed bug profile has pictures of every stage.
What we do
- Look properly We strip the bed and check the mattress, base, headboard, bedside tables, the backs of picture frames, skirting boards, curtain hems and plug points. We also check the rooms on either side, because bed bugs walk through gaps in walls and under doors, especially in flats and guest houses.
- Treat the hiding places Using products registered for bed bugs, we treat every seam, crack, joint and edge within reach of where people sleep, plus the furniture and skirtings around it.
- Come back Eggs are protected from treatment. About two weeks later, after they hatch but before the young are old enough to lay eggs themselves, we treat again. This is the visit that ends it.
- Tell you the truth On the follow-up we look for fresh signs. If a base is too badly infested to save, or another room needs attention, we'll say so.
Once the treatment has dried, the room can be slept in again.
Before we arrive
The preparation you do makes a real difference to how well the treatment works:
- Wash bedding, curtains and the clothes from the bedroom floor and cupboards on a hot cycle, then tumble dry on hot. Heat kills every stage
- Seal clean laundry in plastic bags until the follow-up is done
- Clear the clutter from under the bed and around it, so we can reach the skirtings
- Leave the mattress and base where they are. Dragging an infested mattress through the passage and out the front door can drop bugs all the way along
- Don't buy a new mattress yet. A new mattress in an untreated room is simply new food
Guest houses and self-catering units
For a B&B or a self-catering cottage near the beachfront, one bed bug complaint can do more harm than a year of leaking taps. If a guest tells you they've been bitten, take it seriously, apologise, and move them to a room that doesn't share a wall with the one they were in. Their clothes should go through a hot wash and dry before they're packed again. Don't put another guest in the affected room until it has been inspected.
We can treat between check-out and check-in where the bookings allow it, and we always check the neighbouring rooms rather than only the one with the complaint. If you run several units or a lodge, a regular check through the busy season is part of our commercial pest control work. Owners who let out a house only over the holidays may also want a pre-season visit, as described on our holiday home pest control page.
Flats, complexes and retirement villages
In a block of flats or a retirement village, bed bugs can move between units along pipes and through gaps around plugs and skirtings. If your neighbour has them, it's worth having your unit checked even if you've seen nothing. When we find bed bugs in one unit, we'll recommend checking the units that share its walls, and we'll explain why to the manager or body corporate, so nobody feels singled out.
What it costs
What you pay comes down to how many rooms are affected, how far the bugs have spread, how much furniture and clutter is in the room, and whether it's a single house or several units in a guest house or complex. Both visits are included in the plan we quote, because one treatment on its own isn't a cure. A single bedroom caught early is a modest job. A guest house where bed bugs have moved through three rooms over a busy season takes longer.
The main bed bug treatment page has more on how bed bugs live and spread, and for other pests around town see pest control in Mossel Bay. If you're near Hartenbos, there's a page for bed bug treatment in Hartenbos too. To book, call 044 012 5011 or fill in the online form. We'll talk you through the preparation before we come.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get rid of bed bugs with a spray from the shop?
Very rarely. Shop sprays don't reach the seams and cracks where bed bugs hide, and they tend to spread the bugs into other rooms. A full treatment with a follow-up two weeks later is what actually clears them.
Do I have to throw away my mattress?
Not necessarily. A mattress can be treated and kept unless it's too far gone. We'll tell you on inspection if a mattress or base is too badly infested to save.
Why do bed bugs bite me but not my partner?
They probably bite you both. Some people react to the bites with itchy welts and others show no marks at all.
Can bed bugs spread from the flat next door?
Yes. In flats and complexes they can move between units through gaps around pipes, plugs and skirtings, which is why we check neighbouring units too.
We're moving house. Will the bed bugs come with us?
They can, in furniture, bed bases and boxes. Treat before you move, not after, or you'll be setting up the new place with the same problem.
How soon can guests use the room after treatment?
Once the treatment has dried, the room can be used again. The follow-up treatment about two weeks later is still essential to kill bugs that hatch from eggs.