bed bugs

[OakLeaf]

I read to take everything out of your luggage outside and put it on white garbage bags. The white plastic makes it easier to see the bugs.

+1 on checking hotel mattresses. Also never put your luggage on the floor.

[jessmarimba]

I'll just hope all of his work here is in hotels too!

[marni]

while you still should check the beds in hotels, a catalog store called gaia used to carry a silk travel bag/ sleeping bag style sheet that kept you off of the questionably cleaned sheets in a hotel. I have one and use it whenever I do a cross country tour because between dealing with a) finding a motel that can house 20-30 women for one night, all preferably in ground floor, non smoking rooms, that is not in a huge suburb, and b) finding the next one withing a doable days ride for 6-8 weeks is a challenge which means that at times, the nights' lodging ends up being in less than totally desireable locales.

I also leave anything new or returning luggage outside in the garage and then go straight to the washer or a white garbage bag for 48 hours.

just saying....

[badger]

this may sound stupid, but what does leaving luggage in the garage for 24 hours do? will the bugs leave? die?

[Grog]

Bed bugs can lay dormant for one year so I'm afraid 24 hours in the garage won't do much. Laundry will help kill the eggs if the water's really hot. Not sure the dryer is quite enough, but it's better than nothing I guess...

If you are *really* terrified you can get a bug-proof casing for your mattress. (In fact, you can ask me to give you one - my husband would NOT tolerate it and kept thinking that it made plasticky sounds... I did not think it was that bad.) It's the most obvious hiding spot for them and will prevent most problems supposedly...

When we were in Paris last year I inspected everything in the hotel room when we checked in (mattress seams especially) and couldn't find anything, however the first morning I found a dead bed bug (positively identified) on the bed. No traces of blood anywhere, no feces, nothing but a single dead bed bug. (I kept the dead bug and used it to bargain a deep discount on the room price later on.)

Needless to say, we were freaked out, but there was no way I was going to try finding another hotel in Paris for the remaining two nights, and the other place would have been just as likely to have bed bugs, as every hotel of every major city in the world does. When we landed back home, everything went straight to the hot cycle in the washing machine (even what was not supposed to - that's life!) and our bags were thoroughly inspected and vacuumed outdoors.

Later that summer, I started getting bites on my extremities, often two in a row. (Bed bugs are well known for taking three in a row, also known as "breakfast, lunch and dinner" when they are disturbed in their blood-sucking activities.) Freaked out even more. It took me a while to realize that the bites were occurring after my night shifts volunteering at the aquarium, and that's probably where the bites originated. [For Badger's: I always wondered what the kids brought from home when they came for sleepovers.... But maybe it was just from outside when I checked resp rate at the surface.] In the meantime, we cleaned everything EXTREMELY THOROUGHLY in the home, vacuumed every crack obsessively, and covered our mattress with the aforementioned mattress cover, which my husband despised.

We never saw a bedbug again, but they terrorize me still.

[badger]

I'd imagine the mattress protector's just after the fact, isn't it? If the mattress is already infested, then I'd rather get rid of it than to try and keep them INSIDE the mattress *shiver*

I'm so paranoid now... I wonder if freezing the articles in the freezer would kill the eggs/bugs? I often do that with my wool items or shoes with wool because I had an infestation of wool eating moths a couple of years ago.

About once a year, I'll get a cluster of bites, sometimes up to about 8 tiny, angry red bumps. Itch like nothing else, but I know those are flea bites. I got another bite not long ago that was rather raised and painful/itchy at the same time. I suspect that was a spider, but whenver I have an itch somewhere I'm terrified to look and find the breakfast lunch and dinner.

Thankfully my new washing machine has a "sanitary" setting, which uses hot water and promises to kill 98% of all viruses and bacteria, so hopefully the bugs and eggs will meet their demise, too. Too bad I can't wash leather shoes in a hot cycle...

p.s. I wouldn't be surprised at all about the bed bugs at the aquarium, you'd think with all the exotic stuff they get shipped in there's bound to be unwanted visitors!

[OakLeaf]

Not sure the dryer is quite enough,

I'm no entomologist, but I've read over and over again that 30 minutes at or over 120°F will kill them, and the dryer is an easy way to do that.

Honestly, I think the whole thing is overdone. Bedbugs don't spread disease, they don't eat crops, they don't damage property. They just leave bites on middle-class and wealthy people that are associated with a stigma of poverty. Anyone who spends time outside in the summer gets mosquito and fly bites that are much worse on every level - worse swelling, worse scarring, worse itching, and worse potential as a disease vector.

The bedbug outbreak is just forcing economically comfortable people to admit that they can't 100% control their environment. The whole fanaticism about sterility has taken cleanliness to a level that's unhealthy both physically (in terms of immune system development) and, obviously now, mentally.

I don't consider myself lackadaisical about protecting against bedbugs when I travel, BUT some of what I read just seems obsessive-compulsive.

[badgercat]

Oakleaf, I see where you're coming from. While I don't vacuum my luggage when I get home, I do thoroughly check hotel mattresses and such. But what bothers me about bed bugs has nothing to do with economic stigma, it's the idea that I'd have to spend a huge chunk of my time and money (which as a student, both are at a premium) getting rid of an infestation of something that exists to suck my blood while I sleep (meaning I can't really actively defend my body from them, like I could swat away a fly while sitting outside). Prevention is the best medicine, in this case.

I know that they're essentially harmless, but that doesn't mean that they're not creepy. And that has nothing to do with how much money I do or don't have.

[JennK13]

I'll just hope all of his work here is in hotels too!

haha! nope, it's all residential - from Cherry Hills Village and the Pinery to Colfax. No one is safe!

And, no, 24 hours isn't enough time to do anything about them. After a job, my DH will spray himself down and disrobe his uniform in the garage before coming inside, then straight up to shower.

Also, don't think they only live in mattresses/couches. They can live in wood, too, so simply hanging your clothes in a wooden armoire won't protect you if there's an infestation. The good news - back in CA, the one to two bed bug jobs he did were in hotels. Here, the several a week he does are all residences - like I said, college kids coming home with them from buying used furniture, people picking stuff up on craigslist, people bringing them home from their OUT OF COUNTRY travels (most hotels here are pretty good about staying cleaning and taking care of problems).

[sundial]

When we were vacationing in NM I woke up one morning with a bed bug making its way up my sheet. It is shaped like a lady bug so it's easy to spot. I told the front desk about my plight and they had just treated the room last week for BB. They said that with the military coming home some of them are bringing the uninvited guests along for the ride.

My exterminator told me to use hot steam to kill the bugs and eggs and to look for them along the edge of the mattress and bed rails. Fortunately I didn't find any of them after we got home from our trip.

[Cataboo]

Not everyone who is bitten by bedbugs actually reacts to them. many people have no idea they have an infestation till a guest comes to stay that is allergic to them.

Bed bugs are being spread by travelers - so obviously, they're hitching rides on clothing and in luggage - so it's not unreasonable to expect them to hitch a ride in your clothing or your luggage if you've left them open on a soft surface. Bed bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to chemicals.

I do have a silk liner bag - but I'm not entirely certain why people think bed bugs won't crawl into a silk liner bag just because y ou're in it?

I know I'd be extremely upset if I had a bed bug infestation, so when I know that I have been around them, I take preventative measures. It doesn't cost me anything and it's not really all that much hard work. Just like if I have been staying with a friend or whatever that i know has roaches - I leave my suitcase & such in the shed or outside for however long and inspect very carefully before I will take it into the house.

A landlord once gave me roaches (gave me a used fridge that was infested with them) and it took me about 3 or 4 months of intensive chemical warfare before I managed to get rid of them. It wasn't fun.

[GLC1968]

Bed bugs are being spread by travelers - so obviously, they're hitching rides on clothing and in luggage - so it's not unreasonable to expect them to hitch a ride in your clothing or your luggage if you've left them open on a soft surface.

I should clarify - I understand that they DO travel by hitching a ride or they never would have spread at all. My point is that a little common sense goes a long way. If you suspect that you stayed in a place where they could (or do) live, then take precautions. My guess is that they travel to new and exciting places by accidentally ending up in suitcases/bags because they hitch a ride in clothing/sleepwear, not because they are malicious and trying to infest new homes. I would think that carrying around your own silk sleeping bag is actually inviting them to come home with you. Kind of like people carrying their own pillows when they travel - a perfect bed bug hiding place!

I think everyone should just sleep naked and shower first thing, then the bed bugs wouldn't have any place to stowaway for the ride to your home.

[badger]

and what of folks like me who don't have a garage or a shed to leave the suitcase out? I don't really have a place to spread my stuff out on white garbage bag or sheet to inspect my contents after a trip. I guess I'll just have to run the vacuum all over the outside of the case and dump the contents into the tub and sort things out that way.