How To Dispose Of A Mattress With Bed Bugs

If you have a bed bug-infested mattress, instead of getting it treated, you may want to completely get rid of it. After all, disposing of a mattress is also considerably easier and often cheaper than treating, or calling pest control services to treat the bed. In fact, getting rid of bed bugs can be a long term process as it sometimes takes weeks, even months, to get rid of a particularly bad infestation. 

In the event that you do decide to dispose of your mattress after an infestation, you should follow these steps to ensure that you can dispose of it easily, efficiently and safely. 

1. Wear protective clothing

Since you will be handling an affected mattress closely, it is vital that you wear protective clothing, such as gloves and old clothes that you are happy to throw away after the removal. This will ensure that the bed bugs don’t linger in your clothes, or spread to other clothes in the wash. 

2. Seal the mattress up

To prevent the bed bugs from making their way to other furniture or furnishings, it is crucial to seal and wrap the infested mattress up thoroughly and securely. This can be done with plastic wrap and it will help to contain the infestation to the already affected area. 

We recommend doing this before you attempt to carry the mattress through your home since bed bugs might otherwise make their way onto the carpet and other parts of your property. 

3. Be mindful of others

If you choose to store your mattress outside until it is collected, you should be mindful of surrounding areas and the people who pass by, and you should not put it at the side of the road. Not only does dumping your mattress at the side of the road constitute fly-tipping, but it also runs the risk of neighbours or passers-by becoming infected too. 

This is especially true if you live in a flat, since leaving an infested mattress in a shared space can prove very problematic, and allows bed bugs to spread within the environment. 

4. Label the mattress

One of the most important steps of disposing of a bed bug-infested mattress is to ensure that nobody else takes it. Whilst you may be keen to get an infested mattress out of your home as soon as possible, it is important that wherever it is placed, it does not attract new owners. 

There are a few ways to signal to people that the mattress is not free to take, or safe to take, such as:

• Slashing the mattress to render it unfit for use
• Marking the mattress in some way, so as to warn individuals
• Leaving a label explaining that the mattress is infested

5. Pay attention to all surrounding areas

Sadly, you will likely find that bed bugs aren’t only on the bed, and if you have soft furnishings or any other furniture nearby, it will likely have been infected too. As a result, you should deep clean and treat the rest of your bedroom, and other areas of your home, to truly get rid of the infestation. 

We recommend conducting the deep clean only once the mattress has been removed from the home (and before getting a new mattress) since they could continue to emerge from the mattress during and after the clean otherwise. You should also clean all affected bedding or soft furnishings on a hot setting, so as to ensure they are clean and fit for use. 

Whether you hire a professional mattress removal company or book a collection with your local council, it is crucial to communicate clearly and effectively with the people collecting the mattress to ensure that they know it is infested and so that they can take all of the proper precautions as a result, such as wearing gloves and keeping it separate from other waste.

1. Book a scheduled collection with your council

Many local councils also bulky waste collection, including mattresses, for a fair price. They will collect your mattress and dispose of it, making your life easier and giving you more time for the all-important deep clean that will follow. 

However, due to the high demand for council collection services when it comes to bulky waste, you may have to wait some time to have your mattress collected, in which time the infestation could spread further and result in you continuing to sleep in an infected bed for weeks on end. In this event, it is a good idea to seek a faster, more efficient means of disposal. 

2. Take it to a local waste centre

There is also the possibility of taking a mattress to the local recycling centre, since this is a free way to get rid of bulky waste such as mattresses, even if they are infected. 

Although, it is not a good idea to take an infested mattress to the local recycling centre, since not only will you have to transport it in your vehicle, and likely spread the infection to there also, but it is also unhygienic for the people that work there, and those that visit the tip to dispose of their own waste. 

3. Arrange a collection with a professional waste company

The most convenient and stress-free means of disposal is to call in the waste management professionals who are fully qualified to remove, transport and dispose of your mattresses in a safe and considerate fashion, including mattresses with bed bugs. 

When you hire a professional mattress removal company, you can benefit from: 

• No-judgement collection and clearance services
• Rapid response times 
• Eco-friendly disposal and recycling 
• An experienced team of accredited waste removal and disposal experts

If you want to get rid of your infested mattress quickly, get in touch with our mattress removal team. We can collect and clear your infected mattress within just a few hours as part of our same-day collection service (subject to availability).

Contact us today to receive a free no-obligation quote for our furniture disposal services from the best rubbish removal company in London.