Bedbugs in Wicker, Rattan and Vintage Furniture: Hackney

Why Woven and Old Furniture Suits Them

Bedbugs want a narrow gap close to where someone sleeps or sits. A modern flat-pack frame has a handful of those. A wicker chair has thousands: every place the strands cross, every wrap around a leg, every point where the weave meets the frame. Rattan and cane are the same, and bamboo adds hollow sections too.

Older wooden furniture has a different set of hiding places. Joints loosen, veneer lifts at the edges, glue blocks sit in dark corners under the seat, and upholstered pieces have hessian, webbing and rows of tacks underneath. None of this means the piece has bedbugs. It means that if it does, they will be hard to see.

Checking a Piece Before You Buy It

Do the checking where the item is, in daylight, before any money changes hands. Once it is in your hallway, the question has already been decided.

1. Turn it over or tip it back. The underside is where the evidence usually is.
2. Shine a torch along joints, the ends of slats and where the weave meets the frame.
3. Slide a thin card or a credit-card edge into the gaps and see what comes out.
4. Look for dark spotting like dots from a felt pen, pale shed skins and tiny cream-coloured eggs.
5. On upholstered pieces, look at the piping, the buttons and the dust cover stapled underneath.

If the seller will not let you look closely, that is worth weighing. For clothes and textiles bought second-hand, the Hackney Central page covers what to do before they reach the wardrobe.

Once It Is Home

Keep a new-to-you piece out of the bedroom for a while. Put it in a room with a hard floor where you can see around it, and give it a second look after a week or two. Vacuum the weave and joints with a narrow nozzle and empty the vacuum outside straight away.

Shop sprays are not worth it here. They rarely reach into the weave, and they can stain cane or strip old finishes.

Can It Be Treated?

Usually, yes, and the route matters more with this kind of furniture than with most. A residual insecticide goes on surfaces, seams and joints, but it struggles to reach deep into a dense weave or hollow bamboo. Heat does not have that problem: the whole room is raised to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive, and the heat reaches into the piece from every side, eggs included.

That said, some old pieces do not take kindly to heat. Glued joints, lifting veneer, old lacquer and fragile cane can move or crack. Tell us what the piece is and how old it is when you call, and we will say what we would do. The Hackney heat treatment page explains how a room is prepared, and the chemical treatment page covers the other route.

When to Let It Go

Sometimes a chair you paid little for is not worth the trouble, and that is a fair decision. If you do get rid of it, do it carefully. Wrap it fully in plastic sheeting before moving it through the flat, tape the wrap shut and label it clearly so nobody takes it home. Arrange a council collection or take it to the tip yourself rather than leaving it by the bins, where the next person will pick it up.

Furniture someone else has dumped in a shared stairwell is a separate headache, covered on the Hoxton page. And whatever you decide about the one piece, do not throw out your own bed or mattress unless we advise it.

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