Daily Archives: April 14, 2007

Bed Bugs, Commercial Services

Traveling? Beware of Bed Bugs in Your Hotel Room

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Spring break is here for many schools and colleges. With spring comes warm and rainy weather, perfect conditions for increased bed bug activity. Bed bugs can live in extreme environments both hot and cold, but thrive best when it’s warm and humid. Put it all together and you may find yourself visiting with the nasty critters during your spring break travels.

In a recent segment of Good Morning America, correspondent Elisabeth Leamy recounted the experience of opera singer Alison Trainer. Everything seemed fine when Trainer checked into her Phoenix, Arizona hotel. She crawled between the sheets and fell asleep, unaware that hundreds of bed bugs had crawled in with her. She was horrified when she woke up scratching in the middle of the night.

“They were all over the bed and the comforter and the pillows and I pulled the sheets off and they were just everywhere,” she told Leamy on the ABC morning news show. (Click the post title for more on the Good Morning America segment.)

Trainer lost more than a good night’s sleep. She wound up with 150 bites and 23 scars.

You can’t avoid travelling, but there are a few things you can do to minimize the risk of a traumatic encounter with bed bugs. Before you unpack or even sit or lie on the bed, give your hotel room a thorough inspection:

  • Pull back the sheets and look for rust-colored stains from bed bug feces.
  • Check the bed mattress for bed bugs. Look in the seams of the mattress and box spring for telltale rusty brown spots or smears.
  • Use a flashlight to check behind the headboard.
  • Pull out dresser and nightstand drawers and use your flashlight again to check the seams and underneath the drawers.
  • Keep your luggage on the luggage rack.

If you find any evidence of bed bugs, alert the hotel management at once and asked to be moved immediately to a different room. Do not move to a room next door or a floor just above or below the infected room as bed bugs can easily travel through vents and wall voids and these will most likely be the next rooms invaded by the little buggers. Frankly, if it’s an option, you’ll probably sleep better in a different hotel altogether.

When you get home:

  • Vacuum your suitcase and any other carryalls. Immediately seal the vacuum bag in double plastic and dispose of it in your outdoor trash receptacle.
  • Wash all clothes in hot water. Use the dryer on its hottest setting.
If you take these precautions you’re less likely to bring home an unexpected creepy crawly souvenir of your trip. If the worst happens and bed bugs do follow you home, contact the bed bug experts at Stern Envirnonmental Group immediately. We will get rid of your bed bugs — guaranteed.

A note to lodging owners: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Even though bed bugs are brought into hotels by guests and not by any unsanitary conditions at your facility, this kind of word of mouth advertising is enough to sink you for the coming tourist season. Contact Stern Environmental Group about pest management services to keep your facility bed bug free.

For more information and photos about bed bugs, check out the bed bug page on the Stern Environmental Group website. You’ll sleep well tonight when you get “Stern” with your pests.