Bedbugs...Do you check hotels for bugs when you stay overnight?

[Alexandra]

I have a friend who stayed at a little country inn a month ago and came home with bedbugs. They have made her life a misery. She is trying to use diatemacious earth (sp?) and a pest control service. She has resorted to sleeping in her guest room with the lights on (bugs only come out in the dark).
My family is going to a really nice hotel for a week-end (courtesy of my mom!) and I am freaked out by this bug thing that my friend has. I have read that it doesn't matter how wonderful the hotel is - they are all candidates for being a host to this disgusting pest.
Have you had experience with the bugs - either avoiding them or ridding your home of them?
Thanks for any feedback!

[mommybee]

I do check the beds everytime we stay at a hotel. My husband and I pull back the sheets and look really closely at the mattress.


I know they are hard to see but I've heard you should check for them. I can't say we are completely safe, but it really panics me.

At this point I can't even relax in a hotel, but if you gotta it helps to check.

I've heard you can get them in very nice hotels as well as lower end.

[Philothea]

They are an epidemic is Boston area hotels. Bad for tourism, but it did make more more aware when I go elsewhere.

[Jan in SC]

I check every.single.time! The last time we were at a hotel my 6yods starting checking for us.

[shell in SC]

I check everytime too. . .I usually just pick up the pillow and look under it. I didn't use to. I started after my mom, dad, sis and sis in law went to Hawaii to visit my brother when he was stationed there and my sister (who is like the princess and the pea) found bed bugs. She spoke to the mgmt of the hotel and they gave her a new room but they were ALL freaked out.

So yeah every since they told me that story (of course it was SO much more dramatic at the time) I check!

shell

[Cadam]

Thy can only be controlled by professionals from what I hear but yes, I check the mattresses. Bed bugs are no respecter of how many stars a hotel has.

[Chris in VA]

Eeeewwww. Just eeeewwww!

Lately I've been grossed out about the fact that hotels only wash the SHEETS, not the BLANKETS. Who knew? Blech.:tongue_smilie:

[BizyPenguin]

I pull back all covers and blankets and do a thorough check of all beds. I check pillow cases too!! Absolutely!! Once, years ago, I noticed that our bed had been made, but the sheets looked slept in b/c I saw strands of someone's hair. You bet I called the front desk immediately and had them bring up fresh sheets and change the linens. Oprah went across the country with Gayle last year and did some Oprah shows about it and she was so creeped out by the whole bed bug thing that she bought her own bed sheets at store along the way and used them at the motels she and Gayle slept in during the trip. Hey, I'm not Oprah, but I don't blame her one bit! LOL!

[Lisa at Home]

Dh used to be in the pest elimination division of one of the largest chemical companies in the world, and he used to do a lot of the bedbug training for hotels.

The biggest problem with bedbugs is that just ONE is considered an infestation. The only real way to be sure you have gotten them all is to completely throw away *everything* in the room, and treat each room that touches-whether above, below, or next to. Throw away everything-the mattresses, the furniture, the carpet, everything!

This is why it is such a big deal to not bring them home.

They were almost completely eliminated in the USA, but when international travel became common, so did the bedbug. This unfortunately means you are more likely to see them in nicer hotels than Motel 8's. If someone can afford to come to the US from India (or wherever), then they usually have enough money to stay somewhere nice. Consequently, you're also more likely to see them in large urban or vacation destination type places where there is a lot of international travel..

~Lisa

[mcconnellboys]

But HOW do you check for them??? I didn't think there was any way to tell as I thought they hide in seams, etc. during the day....