People often associate hotels with feeling luxurious and comfortable; therefore, no one wants to check into their hotel room only to find bed bugs roaming around like they own the place. Bed bugs are small oval insects that come to disturb our peacefulness and drink our blood–literally!
Since bed bugs can prevail nearly everywhere, you’re likely to find them in a hotel room, which is the worst scenario kind of situation because not only will you be dealing with bed bug bites, but you’ll also face the possibility of taking some bed bugs home through your suitcase. Lucky for you, we have exactly what you need! Read on to know all about pest control and bed bugs in hotels.
What Is The Chance Of Finding Bed Bugs In A Hotel Room?
We know you’re hoping for a different answer, but bed bugs in hotels are more frequent than you’d think. What worsened the problem is that bed bugs incidents have been increasing for a few years, particularly in hotels. Statistics show that bed bug incidents rose by nearly 45% in New York City in just one year.
Moreover, if you think those incidents only occur in motels and cheap hotels, you couldn’t be more wrong. The presence of bed bugs has nothing to do with hygiene and luxury. They can live in the cleanest of places. Safe to say that we’re dealing with impartial insects here.
How to Inspect For Bed Bugs In Your Hotel Room
There are a few steps that you can follow to have a safe stay in your room:
Store Your Luggage In A Safe Place
Once you enter your hotel room, the first thing you should do is place your luggage away from the bed. This is essential because you don’t want a sneaky bed bug to jump into your suitcase and hide there safely until you go back home. Even after making sure your room is clear of bed bug infestations, you should keep your luggage somewhere safe, such as on a luggage rack.
In addition, don’t throw your clothes and belongings around. You should keep your room tidy to avoid giving bed bugs places to hide. If you want to be ultimately safe, bring large plastic bags along with you and put your suitcase and bags inside until you check out of the hotel.
Pro Tip: Studies show that bed bugs prefer dark-colored hiding places to bright ones like yellow and green. Keep that in mind the next time you’re buying a suitcase!
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Do A Full Inspection Of Your Room
Once you’ve put your luggage in a safe place, you can do a thorough inspection of your room. Don’t limit your inspection to the bed because bed bugs can be found in cracks and crevices in walls, tile floors, and furniture. Moreover, look around your mattress and bed linens and under them. It’d be best to have a flashlight in your hand because it’ll help you see bed bug eggs better.
Finally, look for any dark-colored blood stains on your bedding due to a bed bug bite. If you don’t find anything, you’re safe!
If you’re a little paranoid and want to be sure, there are a few more places you can look at. First of all, take a look at the mattress seams and the box springs. Moreover, since most hotels have the headboard attached to the room’s wall, you should use a flashlight to look between them.
Next, thoroughly investigate the bed area and inspect any frames hanging on the wall because this is a favorite hiding spot for hotel bedbugs. Also, make sure to inspect any crevices in the dresser and nightstand drawers.
Contact Hotel Staff
If you spot any unusual sights in your hotel room, you should contact the hotel staff immediately so they can make an investigation of the entire room. Kindly note that an unusual sight doesn’t necessarily have to be a bed bug. Some signs that indicate the presence of bed bugs include small yellow skins, bed bugs eggs, and reddish-brown spots on the mattress.
If they find bed bugs, you should ask for a new room, preferably in a different building from the infested room. This is all about avoiding hotel bedbugs.
What A Bed Bug Infestation Means For A Hotel
Hotels are supposed to be comfortable, luxurious, and most important of all, safe. Therefore, you shouldn’t deal with a bed bug infestation in your hotel room. Consequently, hotel management should pay special attention to avoid bed bugs’ presence. If bed bugs are already found, they should immediately call pest control professionals to deal with the issue.
Unfortunately, some travelers opt for suing the hotel to receive compensation, which costs them quite the money.
What’s even worse than economic losses caused by bed bug treatments is the undesirable reputation that’ll stick to the hotel’s name. Negative publicity can bring down even the strongest of businesses. That’s why hotel managements often spend large amounts of money on pest control.
What to Do After Returning Home
Once you return home, you should take some measures to prevent bed bugs from infesting your place.
Clothes
Regarding your clothes, you should immediately wash them all after emptying your suitcase. If you can’t launder them in the meantime, seal them inside a tight plastic bag. However, washing your clothes won’t thoroughly kill bed bugs infesting them. Instead, it’d help if you put them in the dryer on a high heat cycle after laundering them. The high temperature will guarantee you clean clothes.
Suitcase
You should thoroughly vacuum your suitcase before storing it somewhere in the house. This efficiently gets rid of all the possible bed bugs. Once you’ve made sure you vacuumed it thoroughly, you can discard the vacuum’s contents in a tightly shut plastic bag and put it in the garbage.
To be extra safe, you can store your suitcase in a protective cover to ensure that any hitchhiker bug can’t take a ride home.
Shoes
If you leave your shoes near the bed, a bed bug may see them as a proper hiding place. As a result, you should wipe down your shoes with a wet cloth and hot water. This decreases the risk of having infested shoes.
How To Deal With A Bed Bug Infestation
If you’re already too late for the previous steps, and now you have bed bugs crawling in your own home, don’t panic! There are some pest control steps that you can follow.
First of all, you should throw your beddings and linens in the dryer to efficiently kill the insects. Second of all, you should scrub your mattress with a brush to remove any eggs lying around. Those eggs can hatch and introduce new insects to your bed. Finally, once you’re finished, you should vacuum your bed and the surrounding area to ensure no residue bugs remain behind.
Third of all, you should encase your box spring in a tightly shut cover. This will ensure that any bed bugs hiding inside won’t be able to escape and infest the rest of your room. Please don’t take it out of the cover soon, though; bed bugs can survive for months without food.
Finally, you should contact a professional to repair any cracks and crevices in your walls and floors. These are a perfect hiding place for bugs, and they’ll stay inside for months waiting to get out.
If you don’t want to deal with insects and clean around, you can contact a pest control professional company to come and inspect your house.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Get Bed Bugs From Travelling?
As a matter of fact, yes, you can. For example, if you visit a friend’s place or stay in a hotel with bed bug infestations, you may get bed bugs. That’s why you should store your luggage in a safe place and make sure they aren’t in close contact with other people’s luggage.
What Can I Spray On My Bed To Keep Bugs Away?
You can purchase a bed bug spray from the store. If not available, you can spray a lavender scent in hiding areas. Bed bugs don’t like lavender’s smell, and it’ll drive them away from their hiding spot. That’ll make it easier to catch them. However, it won’t be efficient to kill them.
How Do Bed Bugs End Up In Hotels?
Bed bugs can hitch a ride on luggage, clothing, and beddings. Unfortunately, those are very available in hotels. As a result, bed bugs can end up in a hotel through a traveler’s luggage and clothes that have been sent to the dry cleaner and made contact with other clothes or beddings.
Do I Have The Right To Ask About The Hotel’s Bedbugs Prevention Plan?
You do have the right to ask. You can call the hotel and ask about their bedbug prevention and treatment plans prior to checking in. Most businesses in the hospitality industry have solid pest control plans, so you’re most likely to hear good news. Some hotels also conduct occasional inspections with pest management companies.
Do Bed Bugs Transmit Disease?
Many travelers associate bed bugs with transmitting diseases since they bite. However, bed bugs don’t transmit any disease. The only health issues you’ll face are a couple of itchy bites and an allergic reaction if you have sensitive skin.
To Wrap Up
Bed bugs are a headache to deal with, especially when they infest a place as comfortable as a hotel room. Fortunately, most hotels have efficient pest control plans, so even if you find bed bugs, they’ll deal with the issue professionally.
However, you should make sure your luggage and clothes are stored in a safe place to avoid bed bugs hitching a ride with you to your house. Now that you have enough information about the topic, you can have a safe stay at your hotel!
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