As the nights draw in and central heating clicks back on across Nottingham, we start getting a different kind of call-out to the ones we’ve had all summer. Fewer wasp nests, more bed bugs. It catches a lot of people off guard — bed bugs feel like a problem you hear about on the news, not something that turns up in a quiet semi in Woodthorpe or a terrace off Nottingham Road in Old Basford. But autumn is genuinely one of the busiest times of year for them, and Sherwood, Arnold, Woodthorpe, Bulwell and Old Basford all have the ingredients that make an infestation more likely.
Why bed bugs pick up in September and October
Three things happen at once this time of year. Students and young professionals move house for the new term and the new tax year of tenancies, which means more secondhand beds, sofas and mattresses changing hands. People start buying from charity shops, car boot sales and online marketplaces again once the weather turns, hunting for cosy furniture for the colder months. And with the heating going on, homes become a stable, warm environment that bed bugs thrive in all year round rather than just in summer.
Arnold and Sherwood have a steady flow of family homes turning over their furniture through the charity shops along Mansfield Road and Front Street, and Arnold’s rental market brings regular tenant changeovers too. Bulwell has a similar pattern around its market and secondhand furniture traders, and Old Basford’s older terraced housing — much of it split into flats and rented rooms — means bed bugs that get into one property have an easy route into the next through shared walls, hallways and bins.
What to look out for
Bed bugs are easy to miss early on because the first sign usually isn’t the bug itself. Look for small reddish-brown spots on mattress seams or bedding (these are droppings, not blood, despite how they look), tiny pale eggs and shed skins in the seams of a mattress or along skirting boards, and a musty, slightly sweet smell in a room that’s had a heavy infestation. The bites themselves are often mistaken for something else entirely — they tend to appear in a line or cluster, usually on skin that was exposed while sleeping, and can take days to show up, which is part of why people don’t connect them to bed bugs straight away.
Why DIY treatment usually makes it worse
We understand the instinct to reach for a shop-bought spray first, but bed bugs are genuinely one of the hardest pests to treat without professional-grade equipment. They hide deep in mattress seams, bed frames, skirting board gaps and even behind wallpaper, and a surface spray only kills what it directly touches. Worse, disturbing a colony without fully eradicating it often scatters bugs into neighbouring rooms or, in a flat or terrace, into next door — which is exactly the shared-wall risk we see a lot of in Old Basford and parts of Bulwell.
A proper treatment plan usually needs more than one visit, because bed bug eggs can survive an initial treatment and hatch a week or two later. We treat the whole area, not just the bed, and talk landlords and tenants through the practical side too — washing and drying bedding on a hot cycle, vacuuming thoroughly, and knowing what can safely be kept versus what’s better replaced.
A quick word for landlords and letting agents
If you manage rental properties in Arnold, Sherwood or Bulwell, autumn changeovers are exactly when bed bugs travel between tenancies via furniture left behind or moved in. A pre-tenancy inspection is a cheap way to catch a problem before a new tenant moves in and before it becomes a dispute about who’s responsible.
Buying secondhand furniture this autumn?
It’s not a reason to avoid charity shops and secondhand buys — just worth a quick check of seams and joints before anything comes into the house, and ideally a period of isolation or a hot steam treatment for upholstered pieces if you’re not certain of their history.
If you’re in Sherwood, Arnold, Woodthorpe, Bulwell or Old Basford and think you might have bed bugs, don’t wait for it to get worse — it very rarely resolves on its own. Call NestBusters on 0742 984 9483 or visit nottinghampest.co.uk to book an inspection.
