Are you concerned about bed bugs?  

Fire
I've heard that lighting the furniture of concern on fire will take care of any bed bugs!

Have y'all seen Isabella Ross...
Have y'all seen Isabella Rosselini's short film about bedbugs? It's not really a PSA or anything. Just wonderful art. I love her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MakIB_IJnu0

Ew! Yes I am!
I'm so concerned that I searched out this really old post. I'm about to potentially invite some in tomorrow morning when my fed ex delivery arrives. I guess the neighbors get to watch me unpack it in my front yard. Awesome.

Out of the thousands of piece...
Out of the thousands of pieces of furniture I have purchased for resale I have only ever found evidence of bedbugs on one dresser. There were about a dozen or so dead carcasses fixed to spider webs on the underside. I discovered them after the piece had been paid for and loaded onto my van.
I unloaded in my driveway and bombed the entire piece with orange/citrus oil (I also smoked out my van with the same stuff). I was so freaked out I ended up leaving the piece outside overnight and sold it the very next day on craigslist for just a few dollars more than I paid.
Someone got a great deal on a Borge Mogensen teak dresser!

Well -- it could
it could be worse -- you didn't take a loss on the merchandise !
I'm surprised to hear of bedbugs caught by a spider web; bedbugs crawl, they don't fly. (They can apparently be trapped in some kind of sticky trap. Professionals don't rid homes that way, but they do use them to sample the environment before and after treatment.)

UK?
I haven't heard of this being a UK problem yet, I'm sure Mr. Nigel Farrage would have protested if there was evidence that hordes of foreign bedbugs were arriving on these shores. Native British bedbugs would be fine though.

they are here
Some friends in london just walked in a newly rented room infested with bed bugs. After having the bed professionally disinfested they had to get rid of it and buy a new one.

Try this
SDR,
I am not sure about DDT (no prior usage), but I know that Chlordane (banned in 1988 by the EPA) is very effective. Any supplies on hand (individuals not business) after that date are grandfathered. While this product is no longer available in the United States, less developed countries (Mexico and similar) still sell this product.
Warning this is a somewhat toxic product, hence gloves and a protective mask (not a pollen mask) should be used.

Chlordane? "somewhat toxic"--?
Well alrighty, then!
http://www.epa.gov/ttnatw01/hlthef/chlordan.html

Question: are you concerned about bed bugs
*spanky*
To use the words of General "Buck" Turgidson "I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed".
With a "careful" application (I use Dupont Tyvek coveralls and booties, rubber gloves and a 3M Respirator) this should be the final solution to the bed bug question.
I am not concerned about any type of insect.

well, good---
make sure you don't take that outfit off for awhile, though. Chlordane has a half life of 10-20 years and can cause some very serious health problems.
I'm not afraid of bugs but I do have healthy reservations about certain chemicals.

Thank you
*spanky*
All kidding aside, I am aware of the non-positive potential* of this product and I understand suit removal to minimize possible problems. A long half-life is one of the benefits** of Chlordane when used responsibly (not bed bug removal - I was joking).
I appreciate your concern and I am grateful.
Thank you.
*soil removal is required for regrowth of vegetation in any area treated
** when used next to building, with a sound and sealed foundation, an impenetrable barrier is created to eliminate vermin.

Time for a snappy.
do my shoes clash with the sofa?
Yes?
Aunt Mark, serial snapper.

On the contrary,
they seem to match perfectly ! How is that possible.
Luv, Uncle Steve
Thanks, niceguy. I'll see if I can score some. Bugs don't bug me much, either. This has been an interesting experiment. After a year and a half, I've just re-occupied my sleeping chamber, fortifying it with a fine-mesh and foam-taped screen door. It's clean, and I've had two heavenly nights on my new Coleman air mattress in my own bed-space (was sleeping on the increasingly infested built-in couch). What will they do now that they've lost their nightly meal ticket ?
I've just re-notified the landlord. Heat treatment seems to be the remedy of choice; I wonder if they spring for the price (a friend just paid $4300 for that treatment).
TMI ? Sorry, folks . . .

You're so sweet.
And I'm not sure that I would like any bugs in my space. Bugs don't normally bite me. Fortunately, the salt air is too concentrated in my zip code for most bugs to survive. I don't need window screens. Now, as a landlord, I am having an on-going situation with rats in one of my stellar Palm Beach rental homes. I have spent enough to put a mentally challenged teenager through college trying to rid the lovely home of the rodents. This has been a problem for more than a decade. The other rental home has a black snake infestation..and they will come inside if the doors are left open. My god, I belong in a highrise, on tranquilizers.
Always,
Aunt Mark