How to get rid of bed bugs and keep them out of your home

Bugs may be picked up in a hotel or on public transport and then enter our homes with us. Here's how to deal with them

A hand-held vacuum or the attachment on your machine will allow you to get into every seam and crevice of a potentially affected mattress. Dyson hand-held and stick machines from €249, dyson.ie.

So, with Christmas around the corner, we are all looking forward to reuniting with family. How and ever, have you considered what extra tiny gifts they may arrive with together with the screw-top duty-free wine and food allergies? Just a couple of months ago an army of 40,000 Irish rugby fans went over to sop up the atmosphere of a live game. With the streets of Paris still heaving with dumped mattresses, chances are many of our returning heroes are likely to have brought some important French hitchhikers back with them. Bed bugs!

Searches on Google regarding the little blighters have soared 24000% in recent weeks, and according to one expert interviewed on Irish radio, bedbug levels (at least the ones we are admitting to by calling in the pros) are six times the norm. I was changing the sheets at a home I was staying in and found a little lighter.