Bed Bug Control Oundle

Oundle is a market town in Northamptonshire, on the River Nene, with many old stone buildings. It sits outside Cambridgeshire, but it is inside the area we cover, and the price is the same as in Cambridge.

Bed bugs have nothing to do with the age of a house. They arrive with people, luggage and furniture into new builds and old cottages alike, as our post on the main cause of bed bugs explains. What an older home does change is where they end up.

Why Older Homes Give Bed Bugs More Room

A bed bug wants a narrow, dark gap close to where someone sleeps. Modern rooms have fewer of those than old ones. In an older property it is common to find:

• Gaps between floorboards, and between the boards and the skirting
• Skirting that has shrunk or come slightly away from an uneven wall
• Picture rails, dado rails and moulded door frames with small gaps behind them
• Cracks in plaster or where wallpaper has lifted at a seam
• Built-in cupboards and window seats close to the bed

None of these cause bed bugs, but each is somewhere a small infestation can extend beyond the bed. That is why an inspection in an older room works outwards from the bed carefully rather than stopping at the mattress.

Old Furniture Is the Bigger Factor

Furniture can matter as much as the building. Wooden bed frames with many joints, carved headboards, upholstered chairs and chests of drawers all offer the kind of cracks bed bugs prefer, and second-hand or inherited pieces are one of the ways they arrive in the first place.

• Check any second-hand bed, headboard or upholstered piece before it comes indoors, with a torch, along every joint and seam
• Look underneath and inside, not just at the visible faces
• Be most careful with anything that has been part of a bed or has stood beside one

How Treatment Works in an Older Room

The approach is the same as anywhere: find the extent, then treat the places bed bugs shelter rather than spraying open surfaces. In an older room that simply means more places to treat carefully, along boards, skirting and rails as well as the bed itself. A second visit is more likely where there are lots of hiding places, and we tell you whether we expect one when we quote.

Before treating, we explain what we are using, where it goes, when you can use the room again and what to do about pets. Please follow those instructions. If you have a question about a pet, speak to your vet.

What You Can Do Before the Visit

• Keep sleeping in the same bed, so the bed bugs stay where they can be found
• Strip the bed and hot wash and tumble dry the bedding
• Clear the floor around the bed and along the walls
• Do not fill gaps or re-fix skirting before we come, as that can seal bed bugs in rather than out
• Tell us about any furniture you particularly want to keep

Once treatment has worked, filling floorboard gaps and re-fixing loose skirting is a sensible way to leave fewer places for any future arrival. Doing it first just hides the problem from the treatment.

Price and Next Steps

Bed bug control in Oundle is £220 for the first room, plus £80 for each additional room, with no call-out fee. The bed bug treatment cost guide explains how rooms are counted and the main bed bug control page describes the service. The nearest town page we have is bed bug control in Peterborough. Every treatment is guaranteed: if the problem comes back within 14 days of treatment, we return and re-treat free of charge.

To check a room before you ring, where bed bugs hide takes you through it place by place.