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Originally Posted by Hanlgt
(Post 14917510)
There is a 30 minute interview by Teri Gross with an entomologist on the NPR show, "Fresh Air" that is very informative.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=129701363 My daughter visited NY and was not bitten there, but about a week later, she woke up with red bites (looks like mosquito bites) up and down her arm. The itch was really unbearable and we guessed it might be bedbugs but did not see one. The next day, at my office computer, there goes a little bug, in full daylight, walking heavily (he was so full!) and she just lightly tapped it to try to stop it and, pop!, it just exploded with an itty bitty spray of bright red blood on the desk. She slid it into a baggie and we called the exterminator, who confirmed it was a bedbug. So we were not infested, but they make babies daily, so we needed to do all this stuff before the exterminator would come. We took every stinkin' article of clothing out of the room and washed it, bought zippered mattress and box spring covers for every bed, vacuumed every crevice we could find, tossed pillows and old stuffed animals, etc, and generally were terrorized, and she was bit three more nights until the guy came to spray the house. Now we have to wait two weeks until he returns for the second half of the work, which supposedly will get the hatched eggs, but I don't get it...what about the eggs that hatch after that? (she is not sleeping in her room yet!) I think I may also have been bit, but everyone reacts differently and I don't think I am allergic, although that doesn't help much psychologically, as this thing is like an alien species that takes over your mind. Basically, at a hotel, I would follow the entomologist's advice from the radio show and put my luggage on the rack (or in the bathtub until I did the bed check) and look with a flashlight around the mattress seams and the drawers and especially behind the headboard, even if I have to take it off the wall--which I just did last week for the first time and it was weird, but doable--and when I get home, everything goes into one giant hefty bag until it goes either in the washer (clothes) or dryer (backpack, laptop case, etc). The bottom line is that the things are really hard to kill and it is best to prevent and do it each time. It is a war, people! The winners are those who invest in exterminator companies or a start-up that trains bedbug sniffing dogs--there are less than 200 of them across the whole US and it is a genius idea for a business these days. One of the hotels we use for work had bedbugs - a coworker found one, put it in a baggie, and took it to the desk. They said they would spray, but we changed hotels regardless. I'm always skeeved out by looking around/under things. I guess as long as I can't see it and it's not affecting me, I don't want to know! Who knows what else is under the beds?! |
I'm wondering if hotels have an obligation (legal or otherwise) to advise guests upon checkin if bedbugs have been found in any rooms. I talked this weekend with my nephew who manages a medium sized full service Hilton Hotel in the Eastern US. He said, for the first time, they found a bedbug infestation in two of their rooms. He said they destroyed all linens and fabrics, replaced the carpet, and had an exterminating company do the rest. I'm curious if you think guests should be advised of such infestations upon checkin. It seems to me to be the right thing to do, but it certainly wouldn't stimulate business. What do you think?
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Originally Posted by maltasr
(Post 14922579)
...They found a bedbug infestation in two of their rooms. He said they destroyed all linens and fabrics, replaced the carpet, and had an exterminating company do the rest....
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Maltasr:
I can't imagine why a hotel should offer this information, even though of course we would like them to. People behave in a herd mentality and will simply avoid going to the entire hotel, even if one room had bedbugs and they were treated. Do hotels inform you if a guy died in that room -or jumped from a balcony -or if a kid had lice there -or if someone got sick with H1N1 last week -or if someone reported seeing a "ghost",- or if every time he turned on Fox News some guest went out of his mind? :) We all have to check for the crazy stuff that bothers us and I would recommend just asking at the front desk and getting a verbal reply, and asking to change rooms to another part of the hotel if they say your room had been treated for bed bugs. But then check behind the headboard and at the mattress seams anyway! |
Originally Posted by Hanlgt
(Post 14925412)
Maltasr:
I can't imagine why a hotel should offer this information, even though of course we would like them to. People behave in a herd mentality and will simply avoid going to the entire hotel, even if one room had bedbugs and they were treated. Do hotels inform you if a guy died in that room -or jumped from a balcony -or if a kid had lice there -or if someone got sick with H1N1 last week -or if someone reported seeing a "ghost",- or if every time he turned on Fox News some guest went out of his mind? :) We all have to check for the crazy stuff that bothers us and I would recommend just asking at the front desk and getting a verbal reply, and asking to change rooms to another part of the hotel if they say your room had been treated for bed bugs. But then check behind the headboard and at the mattress seams anyway! |
It occurred to me that if I actually thought about what has probably gone on in a hotel room I was occupying, I would never stay anywhere except a convent. And convents can get bedbugs too...
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I retract my statement. Apparently bedbugs do not like Louisiana/Mississippi but to claim they dislike the entire South is a pretty broad claim. Haven't traveled to Florida in decades so won't speak to that but to be honest I've never encountered a bedbug or even heard the subject discussed in Texas so I'm a little surprised at this information and these links. You learn something new every day. Cue the Aggie jokes!
Originally Posted by Middle_Seat
(Post 14882797)
I'm not sure that is correct. A couple of the largest universities in Texas have reported infestations in some dorm rooms.
Here are some references: http://reslife.tamu.edu/ua/info/pestControl/bedbugs/ http://www.housing.ufl.edu/facilities/bedbugs.php http://www.utexas.edu/student/housin...heet_10-07.pdf http://www.utexas.edu/student/housin...ures_10-09.pdf http://thermal-remediation.com/bed-bugs/overview.aspx Not ever having seen one, I was somewhat surprised to learn that they are fairly large...1/4 to 5/8 inch long (roughly 7 to 10 mm). |
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