Don’t let the bedbugs bite

In early Colonial days and on into pioneer times, it was a twice-a-year cleaning chore to dismantle the family’s rope beds for cleaning. The ropes, which provided foundation for the mattresses, would have stretched and sagged with use. The straw mattresses would have hardened and probably become infested with bedbugs. So, on a sunny, dry day, everyone would drag their mattress and ropes outside for cleaning

Rope beds were not beds made of rope. They were wooden beds that were strung with rope to support the mattresses. The ropes were woven in and out of holes that were drilled in all four rails of the bed frame in an open basket-weave pattern. The ropes were pulled as tightly as possible when newly roped, but, in time, they stretched and allowed the mattress to sag. Periodic tightening with a rope-bed key was necessary.


Source:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/sep/15/dont-let-bedbugs-bite/