Buying Old Furniture
We wanted to buy a piece of used furniture. Is there any advice on how to ensure, that it does not bring bed bugs? Or in general we simply should not buy any second hand furniture?
We wanted to buy a piece of used furniture. Is there any advice on how to ensure, that it does not bring bed bugs? Or in general we simply should not buy any second hand furniture?
There is no way to guarantee the absence of bed bugs. The furniture may harbor deep in its interor a bed bug “kernel,” all but invisible to the eye, but sensitive to subtle shifts in environment, such as zip code. When removed from a shabby second hand store or the dwelling of an unfortunate person who is selling his or her own furniture, and placed in a “well curated” or “nicely edited” home – where it interacts nicely with the sparse modern lines – the kernel “pops” (not audibly). There are more bed bug spores inside than one would think physics allowed. There will be time to think about that later, when you are in state imposed quarantine.
“Bedbugs will hide and lay eggs in almost any material. Sofas, dressers, frames, and lamps all can be contaminated; the bugs have a special predilection for the tiny nooks and imperfections in fabric and wood. (Exterminator Mark Hill advises against buying used wooden headboards.) ”
http://nymag.com/guides/everything/pests/40650/
Maybe they’d be less likely to be in a dining table but why be reckless? This is NYC, living spaces are small; many times somebody’s bedroom IS their living and dining space too. Or if a separate room it’s mere feet away.
People are way too paranoid about bedbugs. If you are that paranoid get extra insurance to cover replacement of your stuff in case of an infestation. And the way bedbugs are now you could just as easily get bedbugs from buying new furnishings as used.
Get educated and be smart when you shop and inspect what you buy. Many things like rugs and upholstered furniture can be professionally cleaned before they enter your home. Here is good resource on bedbugs http://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/
Based on the New York Magazine article about bed bugs that came out a few months ago it seemed that the worst infestations are in the exclusive pre-war buildings of Manhattan’s U.E.S. Hence, I would avoid buying a Louis XVI chaise or a William IV library chair that came from an estate sale of a classic six.
A few weeks ago, I went to the Stair Galleries auction of Louis Auchincloss’s furniture and overheard some fellow bidders ask: “I wonder if he had bedbugs?”
A wooden table from CL should be ok after a good scrub-down, but doesn’t everything one gets off CL need good scrub-down before using it?
also if you give the piece a good shake out on the street it will get things out. you could also do something that is slightly off the cuff, and wipe a little blood on the furniture the lure the bugs out? ive never heard of anyone doing that before tho and supposedly if bedbugs arent hungry and just ate they might not even be tempted by fresh blood for like a year!
*rob*
I always wash old wood furniture very well when I get it anyway. Even before I ever thought of bedbugs. And sometimes it showed evidence of other bug infestations, long ago, from long dried insect parts – often because they were stored in attics, basements, etc., and because roaches like furniture glue. Never found any evidence of anything live in the cracks.
I think it is far-fetched.
Bedbugs infestations come from adjacent apartments or from used mattresses.
They can hide in the crevices of a bed frame, but I doubt they would be in a table unless someone used it to sleep on.
a few things to consider: if the furniture is not from sleeping quarters, it’s probably fine.. unless the person has some major infestation, but like someone else said, i doubt any person who isnt an outright sociopath would be selling bedbug ridden furniture.. if the piece is really expensive and worth it, hire one of those bedbug sniffing dogs but just be upfront and say you are doing it just for a specific piece of furniture, youll have to pay for the dog sniffing but i doubt they will be scamming you if that is all you are hiring them for. also do you know anyone with a walk in freezer? you could just leave the piece of furniture in there for a month or so i believe. or leave the furniture out on a 100 degree day. but yeah, the whole bedbug hysteria has sorta fazed out like the SARS and Bird Flu epidemic. perhaps it’s not as bad as people originally thought?
*rob*
Bedbugs don’t just live in mattresses or upholstered furniture, they’re in cracks and crevices so yes they can be in wood furniture. Everything I’ve been reading says that. Clean wood furniture with vinegar when you really want it clean. Vinegar is naturally antibacterial. I use it on my own floors and wood dining table top.