Bed bugs are rising in Melbourne rentals, hotels and share houses. Learn the early signs and why professional treatment is the only reliable fix.
Why Bed Bugs Are Spreading in Melbourne
Bed bugs hitchhike on luggage, second-hand furniture and clothing. With Melbourne's dense apartments, share houses, short-stay rentals and frequent travel, they spread easily between rooms and units. They are not a sign of poor hygiene - anyone can get them.
Early Warning Signs
- Small itchy bites in lines or clusters, often on arms, shoulders and legs
- Tiny rust-coloured spots on sheets and mattress seams
- Dark specks (droppings) along the mattress piping, bed frame and headboard
- Shed skins or a faint sweet, musty odour near the bed
Why DIY Almost Never Works
Bed bugs hide deep in mattress seams, bed frames, skirting and power points, and their eggs resist most retail sprays. Bombs scatter them to neighbouring rooms. Without treating every harbourage and the eggs, the infestation returns.
How We Treat Bed Bugs
We carry out a detailed inspection, then use a combination of heat treatment and targeted chemical application to reach bugs and eggs in every crack and crevice. A follow-up inspection confirms eradication. We'll also advise exactly what to wash, heat or dispose of.
If You Travel
Inspect hotel mattress seams, keep luggage off the bed, and wash travel clothes on a hot cycle when you get home. Suspect bed bugs? Don't wait - they multiply fast. Call Pest Eraze on 0416 528 547.
Cost of Bed Bug Treatment
Professional bed bug treatment in Melbourne starts from around $349, with heat treatment often recommended for a faster, more thorough result than chemical treatment alone, particularly for share houses and rentals where an infestation has had time to spread between rooms.
Why Store-Bought Sprays Rarely Work
Bed bugs hide deep in mattress seams, bed frames, skirting boards, and even power points during the day, and surface sprays typically only reach the bugs out in the open, scattering the rest deeper into hiding spots. This is why professional treatment - combining heat, targeted chemical application, and a follow-up visit - has a far higher success rate than DIY products.
Heat vs Chemical: Which Treatment Is Right?
Heat treatment raises the room to a temperature lethal to bed bugs and their eggs in a single session - the fastest route to eradication and ideal for heavy infestations or where chemical sensitivity is a concern. Chemical treatment uses targeted residual products in every harbourage and usually needs a follow-up visit to catch late hatchers. Many Melbourne jobs combine both: heat for the knockdown, residual for insurance. The right choice depends on the room layout, severity, and budget - inspection first, always.
How to Prepare Your Home for Treatment
- Wash all bedding and clothing on a hot cycle (60°C+) and seal clean items in bags
- Declutter around the bed - but do NOT move items to other rooms (that spreads the infestation)
- Vacuum mattress seams, bed frame, and skirting; dispose of the vacuum bag outside
- Leave furniture in place - technicians treat it where it stands
Do You Need to Throw Away Your Mattress?
Usually not. A professionally treated mattress inside a quality bed-bug-proof encasement is safe to keep - the encasement traps any survivors, which die inside it. Discarding a mattress mid-infestation often makes things worse: dragging it through the house seeds bugs into hallways, and the replacement mattress gets reinfested by the bugs still living in the bed frame and skirting. Treat first, encase, and keep.
Bed Bugs in Rentals: Who Pays?
It depends on the cause - if bed bugs were present at the start of the tenancy it is generally the rental provider's issue; if they arrived with a tenant's travel or second-hand furniture, generally the renter's. Document everything with photos and act fast either way, because the infestation grows weekly. Our guide to rental pest responsibilities in Victoria covers the details.
