I don't like having roaches in my house or in a hotel i'm staying at, either.

I've run into bed bugs 3 times - once in a hospital guest center in LA - found a couple, I immediately put all my clothes into the laundry - hot water & high heat. And did it again. They gave us a new room which seemed to be fine, but I kept the luggage up on tables and left it zipped.

When we got back home, I again washed all the clothes on hot water & dried on high heat (including my wool which did survive these 3 washings) - and left the luggage out in the shed for the winter. Extended cold temps will kill them.

Then in Costa Rica last november, one hotel had them - I'd put my luggage up in the closet with it zipped just thinking the place was grungy - so when I got back from costa rica, basically put what could take it in laundry on high heat, everything else went into the shed and stayed their for the winter - given that we had the 4 feet of snow last winter...

Then a few weeks ago, I was at a wedding in NJ... i didn't see any bedbugs in the hotel, but one of the other wedding guests in the other wing of the Marriot hotel we were at woke up covered in bites... I had just stuck my bag on the couch and not zipped it up - so again, I stuck everything that could take it in the laundry on high heat - the rest of the clothing has gone into the shed and I guess it's staying there till spring and hopefully the cold'll kill any bugs that may be in it. Since it was a wedding, I had nice clothes for the rehearsal dinner & such that I don't think will survive high heat.

I have needed a couple pieces of clothing from the bag - and those have gone on the dashboard of my car on a hot sunny day to heat them up to temperatures that should kill bed bugs.

From what I read, if you have clothes you think are suspect, you can stick them in a black bag and leave them out in the sun for several hours on a day that's over 70 some degrees - 20 mins at 140 degrees will kill them, but also a few hours at 110 degrees will kill them as well.

I figure my dashboard gets hot enough, but I did inspect looking for eggs or bugs before hand. Eggs are supposed to hatch within 1-2 weeks.