Bed bug control in Harat Al Shuruq, Jeddah

Targeted, not broadcast

Product goes into cracks and runways, never sprayed across open surfaces.
Told before we start

What we will use, where it goes, and what to cover or move before we arrive.
A follow-up visit

We return after the first treatment, because what survives it does not show on the day.
Homes and businesses

Apartments and villas, and kitchens and stores that need a record of each visit.

Why they keep coming back in Harat Al Shuruq

Working through Harat Al Shuruq, the pattern that stands out is an infestation starting in one room above a shop and reaching the flat next door through furniture carried between the two. The method is set out in full on Bed bug control in detail.

The first reason

Old houses and new blocks share the same street

In Harat Al Shuruq a popular house with old wooden window and door frames can stand right beside a newer low rise block with modern seams and skirting, so the places worth checking are decided by each building's age, not by which side of the road it sits on.

The second reason

Shops below, homes directly above them

The shops fronting Harat Al Shuruq take in stock and cartons carried up the road from Jeddah and Madinah, with living space sitting right above them, so bed bugs can travel up with whatever is carried between the storeroom and the flat, and the two are easy to treat as one job rather than two.

The third reason

On the inland side of town, not the seafront

Harat Al Shuruq sits on the landward edge of Thuwal, near the Jeddah Madinah road and the open ground beyond it, away from the harbour and the corniche, so callers here are more often people passing on the highway than fishing crews, and that changes where an infestation is likely to have started.

Harat Al Shuruq on the map

Harat Al Shuruq sits about 0.5 km from Harat Al Sawalhah and about 0.5 km from Harat Al Kanadirah.

Open in Google Maps

Before treatment

The places that decide the treatment

Building ages vary from house to house within the same quarter, an old popular home standing beside a newer concrete block, so where bed bugs can hide changes from one address to the next.

The stitched piping along the edge of a mattress

The mattress seam

In the quarter's older popular houses, an inherited mattress seam is often years older than anything found in the newer flats above the shops.

A wooden bed frame and its slats seen from below

Frame joints and screw holes

Furniture in the newer low rise flats here tends to be flat packed and screwed together, while the heavy wooden beds in the older houses were built with fewer, larger joints.

An upholstered headboard fixed to a bedroom wall

The headboard and the wall behind it

In the flats sitting over the shops, the headboard often backs onto the same wall that faces the street where deliveries are carried in every day.

What the bedding shows

Marks show up more clearly on the heavy cotton bedding common in the quarter's older houses than on the synthetic bedding used in the newer flats.

A fabric sofa and the seam of its cushion

Sofas and armchairs

Upholstered chairs in the newer flats are usually bought ready made from showrooms, while sofas in the older houses may have been reupholstered locally years ago.

An open suitcase on a luggage rack in a room

Luggage and second hand furniture

Families in the quarter often move from an old popular house into a newer block close by, and furniture goes with them without always being checked first.

How we work

1
Inspect and map the spread

We strip the bed and work through the mattress and base seams, the frame joints, the headboard and the skirting, then check the upholstered furniture and the neighbouring rooms to see how far it has gone.
2
Laundry, heat and steam

Bedding is bagged and sealed inside the room, then washed and dried hot. Steam runs along the seams and edges, because heat reaches the cemented eggs that a liquid never will.
3
Targeted, non-repellent application

A non-repellent product goes onto the harbourage itself, with a dust into voids and screw holes. We do not use a repellent aerosol, because it drives the insect deeper into the wall and into the next room.
4
Monitoring and the follow-up visit

A sealed encasement goes onto the mattress and the base, with monitors under the bed legs, then we return once the remaining eggs have hatched and re-treat anything still active.

What bed bug control includes

A recorded inspection

Mattress and base seams, frame joints, the headboard, the skirting and every upholstered piece in the room.
Steam and targeted application

Steam along the seams and edges, and a non-repellent product on the harbourage itself, not on the surfaces you sleep on.
Voids and pipe entries

Behind the skirting, around pipe entries and under socket plates, which is the route from one unit to the next.
Monitors under the bed legs

Checked at every visit, they show remaining activity before the bites do.
Laundry, encasement and aftercare

The hot wash and dryer routine, a sealed encasement on the mattress and base, and what must not be carried out of the room.
A follow-up timed to the hatch

A date set on the hatch, and re-treatment of anything still active.

What is different about Thuwal Sub-Municipality

Thuwal sub municipality is a small fishing town on the Red Sea coast at the far northern edge of Jeddah governorate. Its old quarters are closely packed popular and mud built houses on narrow streets, with newer low rise concrete homes from the town's development programme beside them. Sea humidity stays high all year, the fishing harbour and the corniche form its seafront, water arrives by tanker so household tanks are everywhere, and the town sits on Wadi Thuwal, ringed by open ground and by the irrigated green campus of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

Questions about this district

Do overnight lodgers off the Jeddah Madinah highway mean the room needs checking after they leave?

Yes. Any room let for a single night to someone passing through needs checking after each guest, because one bag is enough to carry bed bugs into the mattress seams and the joints before any sign shows.

Our flat is newly built, does that mean we are safe from bed bugs?

No. Bed bugs do not care how old a building is, they arrive with a person, a bag or a piece of furniture, so a newer flat in the quarter is not immune, even if it has fewer of the old hiding places an older house collects over time.

Our shop takes cardboard deliveries off the highway, could bed bugs travel in the packaging?

Yes, cartons arriving from suppliers are worth checking, especially where the storeroom sits right below the stairs up to the flat, because a single bed bug carried in a box is enough to start an infestation upstairs.

We keep a storeroom that faces the open ground behind the quarter, does it need checking?

Yes. Any room used to keep old furniture or bags that are rarely opened is worth checking, because bed bugs prefer quiet, low traffic spots like a store room set apart from the bedroom.

The shop and the flat above it have different owners, does inspection need coordinating?

It helps to. Even with different owners the building shares one staircase and one set of walls, and treating the flat alone without agreeing access with the shop owner can leave the source of the infestation untouched.

We bought secondhand furniture from showrooms in Jeddah, delivered up the highway, could it carry bed bugs?

Yes. Any secondhand piece coming from outside the quarter is worth checking before it comes into the house, whether it travelled from a Jeddah showroom or a local market, distance from the source does not lower the risk.

How much does bed bug control in Harat Al Shuruq cost?

It is set after the inspection, because the price follows the type of infestation, the size of the space, how far it has spread and the number of visits it needs. Send a photo and a description on WhatsApp and we will give you an estimate before we reach Harat Al Shuruq.