Bed bugs in Ho Chi Minh City: the signs, how to check a bed, and what to do tonight

Bed bugs are small, flat, wingless insects that feed on people's blood during sleep; the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives their length as about 1 to 7 mm. They cannot fly or jump. They crawl, and they move between homes in luggage, clothing and second-hand furniture. The CDC notes that they can live for several months without feeding, so a bedroom left empty for a few days is not necessarily clear.

Bites usually appear on skin left uncovered during sleep, such as the neck, arms and shoulders, often in a line or cluster. They are weak evidence on their own: people react differently, other insects leave similar marks, and according to the CDC a bite can take up to two weeks to show.

The CDC states that bed bugs are not known to spread disease to people. The harm is itching, lost sleep, sometimes an allergic reaction, and infection from scratching. See a doctor if bites swell badly, fill with pus or come with signs of allergy.

Fleas are the usual confusion, and flea control starts with the pet and a vet, not the bed.

Physical traces are the reliable evidence. The CDC notes that bed bugs can travel some distance in a night but usually live within about 2.4 metres of where people sleep, so the search centres on the bed and whatever stands beside it. The CDC and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) list these signs:

• Rust-coloured or reddish stains on sheets, pillowcases and the mattress, left by crushed bugs.
• Small black dots, like ink marks, on sheets, pillowcases and the mattress piping.
• Shed skins and eggs in the seams and around the mattress buttons.
• Live bugs in mattress seams, piping and labels, in cracks of the bed frame and headboard, in sofa cushion folds, drawer joints and electrical sockets, and behind pictures.
• A sweetish, musty smell once there are many of them.

Work outwards from the mattress with a torch, gloves, a stiff plastic card to run along crevices and a zip-lock bag for samples. The same sequence serves for a furnished flat, on a viewing or on moving-in day, and for second-hand furniture.

• Strip the bed. Examine the piping, corners and buttons of the mattress, including the underside.
• Check the bed frame, above all the joints and screw holes, and the back of a headboard fixed to the wall.
• Look into the bedside table and its drawers, and the crevices and cushions of any sofa near where people sleep.
• Inspect skirting boards, the edges of peeling wallpaper, picture frames and sockets near the bed.
• Photograph what you find and keep a sample in a sealed bag or under sticky tape; both help a professional confirm the species.

Contain them first. The EPA sets out bed bug control in six steps: identify the problem, make a plan, keep the bugs from spreading, prepare, kill them, then evaluate and prevent. The first evening belongs to the third.

• Keep sleeping in the same room. Moving to another bedroom or the sofa can carry bugs there and widens the area to be treated.
• Seal bedding, clothes and soft toys in thick plastic bags before they leave the room, labelled to wash, to freeze or to store.
• Wash at the hottest setting the care label allows, then dry completely on high heat. With no dryer, take the sealed bags to a laundrette, open them at the drum and put the empty bags in an outside bin. Keep clean items in fresh bags, off the bed, until the bed has been dealt with.
• Vacuum the mattress piping and buttons, the bed frame and its joints, sofa crevices, carpet edges and skirting. Seal the bag and take it to an outside bin at once; empty a bagless canister into a sealed bag and wash it.
• Pull the bed a few centimetres from the wall, keep bedding off the floor and clear the space under the bed, bagging what you remove.
• Do not use an ordinary insect spray: it can scatter bed bugs into other rooms or the flat next door.

Bed bugs and their eggs are sensitive to heat, so the EPA's guidance relies on the dryer and on steam. No single measure is enough. Combine them and keep checking at least every seven days, as the EPA advises, because eggs can hatch after the first round.

Some remedies passed on by word of mouth do not work and put the household at risk. The EPA warns against the first four below; the last is the rule for insecticides in Vietnam.

• Alcohol, kerosene or petrol: a fire risk and a health risk.
• Heating the whole room with a heater, gas stove or charcoal burner: ineffective and dangerous.
• Pool-grade or food-grade diatomaceous earth, which can harm you when inhaled.
• Total-release foggers, except with great care and never as the only measure.
• Garden or agricultural products in a bedroom. Use only an insecticide with a registration number from Vietnam's Ministry of Health, follow its label, keep children and pets out for the time it states, never mix products, and do not spray mattresses, pillows or toys unless the label allows it.

Call when bed bugs are in more than one room; when you are still being bitten two to three weeks after washing, drying and vacuuming thoroughly; when they have reached the sofa, wall cracks or sockets; when a short-term rental has to be dealt with between guests; or when there are young children or older people at home.

Home measures reduce the numbers but tend to fail once the bugs have left the mattress:

• Bed bugs are small and flat and settle deep in bed-frame joints, sockets, skirting and the spines of books, so treating the mattress alone misses most of them.
• Eggs stick firmly in crevices and can hatch after the first round is over.
• A mattress carried out in a hurry, unwrapped, can shed bugs along the corridor and in the lift.

According to the CDC, bed bugs spread mainly in luggage, overnight bags, clothing and furniture, mostly carried unknowingly by travellers. For a household that travels often, the EPA recommends a few habits:

• On arrival, put the suitcase on the luggage rack or in a dry bathtub, not on the bed or a carpeted floor.
• Before you sleep, shine your phone torch on the mattress piping, the corners of the sheets, the headboard and the luggage rack.
• If you see signs, photograph them and ask for another room, preferably not an adjoining one.
• At home, unpack on a balcony or a hard floor, put clothes straight into the washing machine and dryer, and check the seams of the suitcase.
• Store suitcases away from the bedroom, never under the bed.

UpClean surveys the home free of charge, then sends a written plan and an all-inclusive quote: the rooms to be treated, how long to stay out of them, what to prepare, the number of follow-up checks and the warranty terms.

UpClean's own pest-control technicians treat the hiding places with products that hold a valid registration number in Vietnam, and return for the follow-up checks. Up specialists, UpClean's identity-verified and trained staff, bag the textiles, protect the rooms, vacuum seams, bed frames, sofas and rugs in detail, and clean mattresses, sofas and bedding at the point the plan calls for. UpClean has declared its eligibility to provide pest-control services as required by regulation; the declaration and product information are available on request.

After each visit you receive an Up Report by WhatsApp or Zalo: before-and-after photos, where traces were found and the follow-up schedule. To book, send photos of the stains, the bites or an insect you have caught to 0968 726 135 on WhatsApp or Zalo, or call between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM on any day. Enquiries, quotes and the Up Report can all be in English. You receive the specialist's name and photo before the visit, which is what an apartment building needs if it asks residents to register outside staff. In a rental, visits are fitted between guest stays where possible.

Bed bug and flea control

What the service includes and the areas covered.

Mattress cleaning

Done in the home, at the point the treatment plan allows.

Sofa and mattress care in a humid climate

Routine care once the bed bugs have been dealt with.

Book a survey

Send the request online.