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Got Bedbugs? Your Hotel Might!

by Sarah Pascarella, SmarterTravel Staff – April 25, 2010

“Wherever there are humans, there will be bedbugs,” says Dr. Changlu Wang, assistant professor, Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. And how right he is—in recent years, cases of bedbug infestation have exploded, and the critters don’t discriminate. You can find bedbugs in high-end luxury hotels, budget motels, remote cabins, and even cruise ships. Planes, trains, and automobiles offer places where these creepy-crawlies can hitch a ride, too.

Just because bedbugs are prevalent, though, doesn’t mean you have to take them home with you. Follow our expert advice to make sure you’re safe and bug-free, both on the road and at home.

Before You Leave the House

Safeguard your suitcase before you get to the airport. “In the cargo hold of an airliner, your bag is right in there with other suitcases,” says Missy Henriksen, vice president, public affairs, National Pest Management Association. “Bedbugs are referred to as ‘hitchhikers,’ they can be on a red suitcase to city A, but can jump onto a blue suitcase to city B.”

To prevent any bugs from hitching a ride on your baggage, put your suitcase or duffel inside a sealed plastic bag before you drop it off at the ticket counter. “[This] will minimize bugs coming into contact with other suitcases that have been exposed,” says Henriksen.

“There are some over-the-counter travel sprays that are helpful. Basically, they will enable bugs to avoid the luggage and suitcase, but they can’t be depended upon altogether,” says Jennifer Erdogan, director of the bedbug division at Bell Environmental Services, Parsippany, New Jersey.

“Alternatively, you can spray [your suitcase with] an insect repellent that contains DEET, which will prevent bedbugs from hiding on the luggage,” says Wang. If you’re not averse to chemicals, this may be a good option; in either case, a plastic covering is a good first line of defense.

At Your Hotel

“The term bedbug can be a misnomer,” says Henriksen. “Travelers need to understand that they’re ‘bedbugs’ because they’re often found in the bed area, but are also found around the bed and in other rooms, the living room, for example.”

“Any three-dimensional surface in a room with a crack or crevice [bedbugs] can find harbor in,” says Erdogan. “They prefer to squeeze in cracks and crevices. They’ll live inside the box springs, or line up along folds and seams of mattresses, inside couches, easy chairs, headboards, baseboards.”

“When you first get into your room, store your suitcase in the bathroom or room with a linoleum floor,” says Henriksen. “You can see [bugs] on the linoleum, [there’s] less chance of exposure. Then go and do an inspection of the bed. Pull back the sheet and the bed linens, and look on the mattress pad cover and under the dust ruffle. What you’re looking for is a bug the size of a lentil or an apple seed. Look for anything that [seems] out of place, like those seeds, [and] signs of blood, little droplets of blood, that would indicate the bugs have been eating from humans. If you see signs, there may be reason to suspect there’s a problem.”

“You may see fecal droppings that look like pen dots, [and] molted skins,” says Erdogan. “Look at the box spring. Make your way out from there, inspect the head board, base moldings, end tables, any kind of sofa or chairs.”

“It’s useful to have a flashlight to help with the inspection,” says Wang. In addition to the bed and soft furnishings, “check anything on the wall, any decorations such as picture frames.”

“Check your drawers before putting any clothing in and also the luggage rack,” says Henriksen. “If all looks OK, [you] should feel comfortable moving into the room. We also recommend keeping your luggage off the floor. Bedbugs can travel from room to room; if someone else is having trouble in their room, bedbugs can come through the wall.”

If all these steps seem like too much to remember, you can download Bell Environmental’s mobile app, Roscoe’s Tips, free for your iPhone, which features a step-by-step guide for inspecting your hotel room.

If you suspect you’ve been bit by a bedbug, for the most part, the bites will be harmless—more a nuisance than anything serious. “Usually it’s like a mosquito bite,” says Wang. “It depends on the person; each person reacts differently. In most cases, you’ll just see a little bump, [which] will disappear within three to five days. Some people may have itchiness or redness for more than one week or two … You don’t really need any treatment unless in some cases you feel very itchy; buy and apply anti-itching cream.”

Back Home

Before you enter your house, take a few minutes to do a sanity check and make sure you haven’t transported any bugs home.

“You can purchase dissolvable plastic bags, so as soon as you get home, put your clothes right in the wash and launder them,” says Erdogan. You won’t even have to take your clothes out of the bag before putting them in your washing machine. “Heat and plastic bags really are your friend. You may want to schedule a dog inspection, have the [bug-detecting dogs] sniff the luggage before even going in the house.”

“Any item you’ve brought with you on your travels should be laundered,” says Henriksen. “Take those clothes to the dry cleaners or wash everything in hot water, whether you’ve worn it or not. Look at your suitcase before bringing it inside to see if there are any signs of bugs, droppings, anything that doesn’t look right. If so, vacuum out your suitcase prior to coming in to the house.”

If you get settled at home and suspect that you may have brought bedbugs inside with you, always contact a pest control professional. “This is not a do-it-yourself pest,” says Henriksen. “[A professional] knows how to identify and treat [bedbugs] and it will take several different visits to take care of the problem. This is something that travelers should not be embarrassed about—it’s not a hygiene or socioeconomic pest, it’s an equal opportunity pest and you will need to bring in help.”

Beware Bed Bugs When You Pack, Travel

Beware Bed Bugs When You Pack, Travel

Health Officials Say They’ve Seen Increase In Bed Bug Cases This Year

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Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Holidays!

Five Insects You Want in Your Garden

Ever wondered which insects are beneficial to your garden? Well, wonder no more, check out this great article below from Associated Content.

Five Insects You Want in Your Garden

Most gardeners know these days that, in the words of the great Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a changin’.” Organic is the way, or at least most of the time. It’s friendly to you, your plants, your soil, and your budget for the most part. Integrated Pest Management is another way to go which encompasses the friendliest methods of controlling our garden pests as well as includes the last resort of applying chemicals. When thinking Integrated Pest Management or IPM as I will refer to it, one must recognize that a healthy garden will take care of itself just as a healthy human body will easily fight off a virus or minor bacterial infection without the use of prescription drugs.

There are several factors that complete an IPM system for any garden. One aspect is controlling the insect pests in the garden through cultural, mechanical, biological, or chemical means. In this article I’m briefly outlining five of the most common insects that offer biological control of typical pests in the southwest desert garden. It’s important to note, however, if you want to depend on these insects to do your dirty work of killing those nasty pests, then you must refrain from using most insecticides and keep your garden thriving from a complete IPM maintenance system.

Assassin bugs: What a name! They don’t discriminate. They are from the order of “True Bugs”, and will kill their prey by using their long beak or piercing mouth tube and to stick and suck the juices from the pest they have trapped. They tend to be brownish or reddish, and are about half and inch long. They have spiny legs which help in trapping their prey.

Green Lacewing larvae: The lacewing larva is the key here. Attracting the adults is the first plan of action. They are prominent in our desert area, and are attracted to nectar sources like Angelica, Dill, Coreopsis,and Sunflowers. After you’ve brought the delicate light-green, winged adults to the garden then you can wait to find their eggs hanging from thin strands on the underside of the plants they were feeding from. They will only have one egg per strand due to the voracious nature of the larvae and to prevent them from eating each other. Once hatched, each of the larvae can take down up to 200 aphids a week. In general, they attack the eggs and the immature stages of most soft-bodied pests such as: aphids, thrip, spider mites, whitefly, mealybugs, leafhoppers, and the eggs and caterpillars of most pest moths.

Ladybeetles and larvae: Ladybeetles and their larvae feed on a few different garden pests including mealybugs, aphids, scale, and thrip. The beetles themselves are hardy predators but the larvae, like their lacewing buddies, are voracious! Once again, you must attract the adults to the garden first. They are attracted to the same plants as the lacewings as well as dandelions, scented geraniums, and any of your early aphid attracting plants. Think soft stems, easy to pierce through.

Parasitic wasps and flies: These lovely insects are among a large species group. For the most part each one is also quite discriminate as to which pest they attack. Most of the normal garden pests have a parasitic wasp that will attack it. In fact, one species of these little winged assassins, the Trichogramma wasp, attacks butterfly and moth eggs and it is bred and used widely in greenhouse and farm operations to control Cabbage loopers and Hornworm caterpillars. Others will attack aphids only leaving their larva to pupate and eat its host from the inside out. As the larva grows the aphid bloats and eventually the larva eats a little hole in the aphid abdomen leaving the body to harden and mummify, hence the name “aphid mummy” is given to the final phase of the aphid body.

Praying mantids: You won’t get much in the way of pest control from these, but you can bet they will do their part and it will be fascinating! They are such an unusual looking insect, that if anything you want them in your garden for you and your kids to show and tell. They will eat just about anything they can catch and get their mouth around including aphids, mites, caterpillars, flies, bees, moths, and crickets. The young are the most voracious of the life stages, and if there is not a pest to consume they will attack each other. If you bring one of the commercially sold mantid eggs into your garden, try to find one that is from your area.

Remember to make your garden a haven for these and many other beneficial insects. All life flows in a cycle of balance, and your garden is the wonderful microcosm to witness such wonder.

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Bed bugs infestation force out USF student

Campus Lodge Apartments; Bed bugs infestation force out USF student

Spring Hill, FL – “I thought it was because of stress because its finals week and because I work full time,” said Michael Bennett, 21, who says it took him a week to realize what was causing the welts all over his body.

Around 3:00am Tuesday morning, Bennett made the disgusting discovery.

“I turn on my light and I see a bug crawling on me so I instantly take it off, put it down and I look over and I had another one on my arm. So, I take them off and I got kind of nervous because I’ve never seen this kind of bug before. I’ve been in Florida my whole life,” said Bennett.

He got on the computer and made a match: bed bugs.

“I looked between the mattress and the box spring and that’s when I saw a big line of them. I had a couple scurry off and that’s when I flipped out, just ran out of my room,” said Bennett.

Management with the Campus Lodge Apartments in Lutz says they have had “only four cases” of bed bugs this year.

Tim Hanson with corporate management out of Texas told 10 News on Wednesday they had an exterminator in the apartment within 24 hours to start the chemical process. Hanson says they are replacing Bennett’s bed and giving him two options: he can immediately move into a different apartment on the property; or if he doesn’t want to come back, they will advertise the open room but Bennett will have to pay rent until they find someone.

“I don’t feel that is a fair option. They aren’t paying for any of my clothes to be washed, not paying for any of my doctor bills, not paying for my time off and who knows how this is going to affect my finals exam week. they’re not even caring about that,” said Bennett.

Now, at his parents‘ house in Hernando county, Bennett’s mother Sharon agrees, “You don’t pay rent for somewhere you can’t live.”

She will accept nothing less than lease termination without fees. “All I’m really wanting is a termination of the lease. I want him out.”

Meanwhile, all Bennett wants is to study, work and sleep in conditions much cleaner than waht he woke up to on Tuesday.

Since it is the Thanksgiving holiday, apartment management told the Bennett family the issue will not be resolved until next week.

BED BUG TIPS: If you are traveling this holiday weekend, inspect your room for the small, tick-like insects. If you find any bed bugs, ask to move to a room with no history of the creatures and make sure it is nowhere near the infested room. Keep your bags off the floor and bedding because bed bugs live in the upholstery and carpet. Plus, before you come home, spray your bags with an EPA-approved over-the-counter chemical that kills biting bugs and their eggs.

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