In December, Plett's population multiplies, and every guest arrives with luggage from somewhere else. A bed bug in a holiday rental doesn't care how good the view is. Here's how to deal with it without losing your season.
Bed bugs in a Plettenberg Bay hotel, guest house, rental or home are cleared with two treatments about a fortnight apart, the second aimed at the bugs that hatch after the first. The first visit covers every bed, base, headboard and piece of furniture, and every crack within a couple of metres of where people sleep. In season, with rooms turning over daily, we also lock the affected room, inspect its neighbours and fit both treatments around your bookings. Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They have nothing to do with how well a place is run, and they turn up in five-star suites as easily as in backpackers.
We deal with bed bugs at hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, lodges, holiday rentals, staff accommodation and private homes across Plettenberg Bay.
Why Plett is a bed bug town in season
Plettenberg Bay's population swells hugely over the December holidays and again over Easter, with visitors from all over South Africa and abroad. Hotels, guest houses and holiday homes turn rooms over quickly, sometimes daily. Bed bugs ride in luggage, clothing and bags, and a single suitcase from an infested hotel elsewhere can leave enough behind to start a problem. Holiday rentals have an added risk: the property may be cleaned by a service between guests, but nobody checks the mattress seams until a guest finds bites.
Staff accommodation, which fills up in season with temporary workers, is another place they spread.
Recognising bed bugs
- Bites that appear overnight, often in a line, on arms, neck, shoulders or face
- Dark dots on mattress seams, the base, headboard or luggage rack that turn into smears under a damp cloth
- Tiny pale eggs and empty skins in seams and joints
- Small reddish-brown stains on the linen
- Flat, oval bugs, reddish brown and about 5 mm long
Share our bed bugs profile with housekeeping, so they know what they're looking for.
When a guest reports bites in peak season
- Apologise, give the guest a room on the other side of the building, and offer to hot-wash and tumble-dry their clothes.
- Lock the room. Its bedding, mattress and furniture stay put.
- Seal the bedding in a bag before it leaves the room, and wash it on the hottest cycle it can take.
- Let us know, with a photo of the mattress seam if possible.
We'll work out with you when to inspect and treat, and talk you through what to tell the next guests booked into that room.
How we treat
- Inspection The affected room, its neighbours on both sides and across the passage, and the linen store.
- First treatment Every mattress and base in the room, then headboards, side tables, skirtings, curtain hems, plug points, the luggage rack and anything upholstered.
- Second treatment Two weeks or so later, booked into a gap in your calendar.
- Clearance A final check, with a written note of what was done for your records.
Holiday rentals and Airbnb-style homes
For owners renting out a house or apartment, the most effective protection is simple: ask the cleaners to check mattress seams and headboards at every changeover, and book a pre-season inspection before December. If a guest reports bites, act quickly and keep a record of what was done. Our holiday home pest control page explains a pre-season visit.
Hotels and lodges
Larger properties do best with a planned approach: a share of the rooms inspected at each visit, housekeeping staff who know the early signs, and a clear plan for when something is found. Our commercial pest control contracts are set up for exactly that.
Preparing a room
- Wash bedding, curtains and any fabric items on the hottest wash they allow, then tumble dry on high
- Keep clean items sealed in bags until after treatment
- Clear around the beds and empty bedside drawers and luggage racks
- Don't throw out mattresses unless we advise it
What doesn't work
Foggers and bug bombs can't get into the seams and cracks bed bugs hide in by day, and they drive the bugs sideways into the next room. Shuffling guests between rooms without treating spreads them further. Dumping a bed while the room stays untreated leaves the bugs in the headboard, skirtings and furniture.
Second homes and visiting family
Not every Plett bed bug problem starts with a paying guest. Second homes fill up over the holidays with family and friends from all over the country, and their luggage is just as likely to carry a few bed bugs as anyone else's. If the bites start a few days after a big family holiday, check the guest rooms first. The same two-visit treatment applies, and the sooner it starts after the visitors leave, the smaller the job.
What it costs
What we quote depends on the number of rooms and beds, the amount of upholstered furniture, and how far the bugs have spread. Both treatments are included. One room caught early is a contained job; several rooms in a full guest house in December take more time and careful planning around arrivals.
How they live and spread is on the bed bug treatment page, and everything else we do in Plett is on pest control in Plettenberg Bay. For a Plett guest house or home, phone 044 012 5011, or contact us with the number of rooms affected.
Frequently asked questions
A guest reports bites in the middle of December. What now?
Shut that room, put the guest somewhere well away from it and apologise. Bagged linen goes to the laundry, the furniture stays put, and then you phone us.
Can the room be done on changeover day?
If it can stay empty until the treatment is dry, yes. Give us the changeover times when you call and we'll plan around them.
How do I protect a holiday rental from bed bugs?
Have cleaners check mattress seams and headboards at every changeover, and book a pre-season inspection before the busy season.
Do you provide a record of the treatment?
Yes. You get a written note of what was done and when, which is useful if a guest raises it later.
Can bed bugs survive in a house that's been empty since Easter?
They can. Adult bed bugs go months without a meal, so an empty house can still have them waiting when the first guests arrive.
Can you treat the whole house at once?
If several rooms are affected, yes, and it's often simpler to do the house in one go between bookings than room by room.