Bedbugs have hit the news in recent weeks, with infestations sweeping across Paris and other French cities. But worry about the small insects \u2013 which often live in furniture and bedding and can leave an itchy bite \u2013 is nothing new. Katherine Harvey examines how our ancestors have tried to get rid of the micro-pests\u2026 <\/p>

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Keeping clean<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Although the link between bedbugs and poor hygiene is tenuous, cleanliness has often been seen as the key to both avoiding and eradicating infestations.<\/p>\n
During the medieval and early modern periods, when vermin were believed to spontaneously generate from dirt, householders were advised to keep their bedrooms clean and well-ventilated.<\/p>\n
Like many victims, the Scottish writer Jane Carlyle (1801\u201366) embarked on cleaning marathons whenever she found bedbugs in her own home. Once, after washing infested bedding, she drenched the kitchen floor with twenty pails of water \u201cto drown any that might attempt to save themselves\u201d. On another occasion, she found that her servant\u2019s bed \u201cwas impregnated with them beyond even my cleansing powers\u201d, and decided to throw it away.<\/p>\n
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In the early 20th century, anti-bug strategies often focused on educating the poor. In 1930s Glasgow, a council scheme to instruct tenants in \u201cthe practice of household cleanliness\u201d required them to wash their belongings with soap and water whilst under supervision. In New York, women who attended the home economics centres founded by Mabel Hyde Kittredge (1867\u20131955) were taught to scrub their bed frames weekly, whether or not they had an infestation.<\/p>\n
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Heat and cold\u2026 or buying a new house<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Modern advice for dealing with infested bedding often includes lots of hot washes, or a few days in the freezer. Although they lacked such domestic appliances, our ancestors often used similar strategies.<\/p>\n
The 18th-century cabinet-maker William Cauty recommended that \u201cif you can spare your bedsteads for some weeks or months, commit them naked to the yard out-house,\u201d adding that \u201cexcessive heat or excessive cold being the absolute cure of all vermin.\u201d (He also suggested that in extreme circumstances, the best remedy was to buy a new house.)<\/p>\n
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