pdquick

They often bite in threes; the adage is "breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

Unfortunately, routine cleaning does not kill them. This distinguishes them from body lice, which are easily killed in the laundry because they are specifically adapted to live on the clothing of humans. The cabin could be spotless and still carry bed bugs. Bed bugs bite, inject an anesthetic so you don't feel them, feed, then wander off into a dark corner to mate and lay eggs. Bed bugs can wait a long time (up to months) for the next meal. The human host often wakes up itchy the morning after being bitten, because by then the anesthetic has worn off an immune reaction has kicked in. The bites look like weals the size of a quarter, which tend to go down during the day. Hydrocortisone cream helps. Fortunately, they do not transmit disease to humans; this is another way they are distinguished from lice.

Bites that are predominately on the feet and ankles are more likely to be from fleas. The red bumps tend to be smaller and more randomly distributed (i.e., not in lines or groups).

I always pull back the sheets in a hotel and check the mattress seams for bed bugs. It never occurred to me to look at plane seats.

cesco.g

After my last flight IAD-LAX I encountered two insect bites on my left leg, which itched extremely and took about 5 days to heal. I was travelling with family and we all stayed at the same accommodations in Europe and the same flight to IAD, but none of other 3 family members got any bites at all.

BTW, it was the evening 777 and I was seated in 12H / C-cabin at the end of last month.

1111

Do you have a tail number?

EsquireFlyer

IMO this account is consistent with the conclusion of bedbugs on the plane seat.

OTOH the one in the newspaper is not.

mazatal

Eaten by fleas EWR-SFO last night.
Will have to spray myself down b4 the flight and then wipe down the seat next time.
Gross
I want my DDT back!!

n9536j

More likely bedbugs In the seat

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, mazatal!

You might want to read this thread as well.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite......-seats.html

courcoison

Good Day:

Over the last 12 months I have seen an increased numbers of "pets' allowed in the cabin.

"pets" can and do carry fleas.

United does nothing to control pest infestation.

Last Wednesday from PHX to SFO the passenger next to me in first class carried a cat/kitten.

When I boarded the purser was on "all four" playing with the pet and it took five-minute for her to get back up so I could sit.

The flight was 3 hours late. A regular occurrence over the last 2 months because of a particularly cold summer in San Francisco.

The purser/flight attendant came back with photographs of her own cats and the cat/kitten owner drank 2 beers before we took off.

The cat/kitten stank/smelled.

I know it is fashionable to talk about bed bugs but let's be honest a take a good look around us when we fly every week.

What do you see, pets or bed bugs?

EsquireFlyer

I agree. Fleas are a more likely explanation than bed bugs IMO.

SQPPS

...yet another thing to carry on-board but I think it will help insure no more problems:

Avenger Organic Bedbug Killer

Buy it at Magellan's. I always spray down my seat with a tincture of LDM-100 to kill micro organisms. Now it seems I'll have to do both.

cesco.g

(Sorry to reply late) No I did not unfortunately. BTW, never having concentrated on tail #s, what are the best ways to spot them? Before flight and once inside the plane?

username

and 9 out of 10 bedbugs prefer the new C

It is bad once you start thinking about things they spray in the cabin - you are in an enclosed space breathing in that stuff....not that they weren't doing it before this.

On the subject of that, do the airlines still have to spray the cabins before landing in Australia?

UALurkerORD

I agree that fleas seem to go under the radar regarding itching/bites after plan trips. To my untrained eye, I've actually seen a "bedbug" on a UA flight LGA-ORD this summer. I know what one looks like based on my paranoid research, and this was a dead ringer... however about 2x the size that it's supposed to be. I smacked it with my reading material as soon as I saw it.

I let the FA know that I thought I killed a bedbug, and all he did was wipe the muck and slime off of the window. Whether it was or wasn't a bedbug... I always think twice before using pillows/blankets.

businesstraveller2

I gotta be honest. I've flown a few "other carriers" recently and I noticed how much cleaner their planes were than UA metal. OK well most of the UA flights I've been on recently were UX but still - I flew American Eagle and the plane was an order of magnitude cleaner than the UX planes I was on - one had dead bugs trapped between the panes of glass in the windows, among other things - dirty seats, dirty smelly bathrooms etc. The AE bathroom was comparatively very clean. Also just flew VS transatlantic and also quite clean. I wipe my seat down with the hot towel and the UA towel always comes up black but these other airlines not so. This is not the same as bugs but where there's smoke.....

FriendlySkies

This is UX you are talking about, so much different than mainline. When I'm in F on mainline, I always wipe down the tray table and the arm rests. I've never seen one come back black..