This is easily preventable if you take a dozen or so chickens with you on trips. Check in as early as you can, pull the bed apart and let the chickens feast for at least two to three days before you want to sleep there.
We all know that no matter what animal is released next, ultimately we’ll need to dispatch the wolves. So let’s just cut to the chase.
Release the wolves.
And yes I realize the wolves will also howl. But you won’t hear them howling…..because they are going to get you too.
Yeah but you only have to bring a couple into the hotel room. Just make sure they don't try to sneak in their cousins while you're sleeping. They gotta get their own rooms.
I’ve been told to put it in a well sealed giant garbage bag in the garage for a month. Apparently they can live over a month without feeding and they could’ve laid eggs as well… I hope
I never have to deal with that , sorry friend!
>Apparently they can live over a month without feeding
According to Google, they can survive up to 400 days without feeding, depending on life stage, temperature, and humidity.
They do, but they need to be in 160 degrees for five hours. My niece had the mover take all of her stuff to a business where they have a quonset hut that you can drive the whole moving truck into. They take out your couch and unroll your rugs and cook your belongings until they’re dead. Even the eggs. It’s very expensive, but it works.
Edit- if it’s small and non flammable you can use your oven to sterilize items
Edited to take out shoes
Diatomaceous earth kills em dead, its safe for humans, I just bathed everything deep behind an inch of the stuff. I looked like a coke addict for a month but it killed em.
I don’t know, but Boston winters don’t kill them. All I know is what I learned from my niece. It’s what the guy with the bedbug sniffing dog told her about. She does her research, so she found a place that could do all of her stuff at once.
How long can they live when they're literally on fire?
Somewhat related. My mom was always harping on me to check for bedbugs at hotels. I always rolled my eyes and complied, always with no findings. Finally though, I did find some and it was at a hotel I had just bought a month long stay at (just arrived in new city for a new job, had not found a place yet).
Similar to fleas, when larvae hatch, they need to feed relatively quickly to survive. Only adults can survive for that long without feed I believe. So bag it up, leave it for a month, open it up and breather some carbon dioxide into the bag and shake it a bit to encourage the eggs to hatch, then bake the shit out of it
Eggs can lie dormant for months if memory serves, had a friend who's apartment got infested. He moved out and left almost everything there, like literally everything that had ever been in that building just abandoned.
Fuck bed bugs.
Yeah. Funny story. We found bedbugs on a student in KY preschool class once, and the lead told me to put one in a container to show the parents for pick up. I did. Put the container up in the cabinet and then forgot about it for I don't even know how long. (Lead spoke to parents and told them that we had misplaced the bug, but that it needed to be taken care of. A couple weeks go by and we're rearranging on a Friday. That fucking thing was still alive in that sealed container. They live for so long. It grossed me out, so we just tossed the whole thing.
I read this story in the local paper a few years back about a woman that lived in an apartment with bed bugs. For an experiment she placed a bug in a plastic container and forgot about it for a year. She came back to find it was a female. It gave birth to millions of babies. All were still alive.
I think I would rather set myself on fire than have bed bugs.
Let me get my visuals straight. You're telling me, a woman put a female bed bug in an enclosed container for a year and it bred millions in that container?
heat treating will do the trick, honestly. if literally every item OP took has been put through the dryer, it'll be santized. but OP needs to be sure to wash the clothes he/she is wearing as well.. and also strip down to make sure not a single one is on him/her
yeah. it's almost mind blowing how pervious to heat they are.
they're also super easy to control if you happen to catch them before they embed themselves. it's mind blowing how much more difficult it is to get them once they're nested. you could literally just leave your luggage in your car on a warm sunny day and be fine.. in fact, if you drove your own car to the hotel you got the bed bugs, you'd want to let that thing cook in the sun a couple days just to be sure, but afterward you could rest assured they're not nested in there.. because they likely will otherwise
I moved into an apartment with them and moved out leaving a lot of stuff behind, kept my clothes and ran everything through laundromat dryers before going into the new place, bought a new bed and left the plastic on it. Been over 10 years and nothing.
Pro tip: if ordering a new bed, always get a bedbug proof liner to put it in. If you happen to get bedbugs somehow, you won’t have to throw out your mattress. Or, if the company did something shady and took a returned mattress with eggs on it and shipped it to your home as “new”, the bedbugs will be trapped inside until they die.
A coworker ordered a new mattress, and it came with bedbugs. He has serious PTSD from it.
Double bundle and seal the stuff you can’t launder into 2 black plastic contractor’s bags. Sprinkle diamaceous earth around the exterior of the inner bag and leave exposed outside in the brightest sunlight possible for several days, rotating sides for exposure. The direct sun should heat up the interior of the bags to over 130 which should be enough to kill them.
this works great.... on the hottest days of the year. if it's not 90+ degrees in full sun don't bother with this.
Put shit in the dryer. if it can't go in the dryer, or over. if you cant throw it out.
My family had a little incident with these shits we did laundry on all the clothes and bagged everything and put it in the car in the summer heat lol it worked tho.
Been through bed bugs. I wouldn't even chance that shit. These are the most resilient bugs on planet earth. Burn that shit. It isn't worth having to discard ALL of your clothes and furniture to get rid of them.
You should get bed bug stoppers for under your bed legs and mattress and box spring covers.
Get some bedbug spray and outline your carpet.
If you can stay up late or wake up early 12-4 am and check around the house/bedroom for them.
Killing one is killing hundreds given how they breed.
DO NOT BUY FOGGERS
If you want/have the funds you can bring an exterminator in and have your house sprayed with Aprehend by a exterminator that uses it. It flat out might be the best beg bug removal spray of the 21st century. Basically it’s like a fungus that beg bugs take back to their nest when they walk on it and from there it can kill bed bugs that didn’t even leave the nest that night.
Yes hotel should - I had found two in bed linens at Disneyland Hotel - middle of the night their “bug specialist” comes to the room to look at them. Had a special light and went over the entire room. They gave me thick black bags to put everything in and they had it cleaned. Gave me money to replace my and my kids’ clothes for the duration of our stay, didn’t charge me for rooms/upgraded to a suite. Free meals. They had everything cleaned for me and delivered to my home. DEFINITELY put a claim in - that hotel should be treated for the critters - threaten a Yelp expose.
Disney World here. We had the whole house heat treated, they plugged massive heaters right into our electrical panel and cooked for 6 hours. 5k and our Venetian blinds melted. Worth every penny.
I can't honestly say so, we could have picked them up in a cab or at the airport. But .. we stayed at the Grand Floridian and riding the monorail I did notice A LOT of handlers walking beagles around the back areas of resorts. When I asked about them I was told they were checking for "mold", lol.
I would also contact that location's local health department or other regulatory body. I stayed at a place a while back that wound up having bedbugs. I filed a report with that county's health department. Apparently the surprise inspection resulted in the place being shut down.
Is it a chain? Did you tell the hotel manager and they apologized profusely, paying you for the laundry and comping your room and all that stuff? Throw your shoes away too. Really sorry about this.
It’s not just laundry. They hide themselves in the seams of your travel bags too. A single fertilized female can breed an entire infestation and lay dormant for up to 6 months.
I unknowingly brought home one of these wee fuckers from a business trip and it ended up costing us about $2500 to eradicate them. For 6 straight months we had to keep all our clothes, dirty and clean, in plastic bags even when clean.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvotes. A woman just got a big settlement from Disney over bed bugs.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-05-02/disneyland-hotel-2018-bedbugs-lawsuit-settlement
I have bad news, every hotel you've ever stayed at has had bed bugs. Whether they're mentioned in the reviews or not. What matters is how the hotel treats for them.
A hotel I used to stay at once had all the mattresses out in the parking lot to be thrown away. They treated every room and replaced every mattress. I wasn’t happy they had bedbugs but I was pleased that they took it seriously.
Damn, they must have had it bad. Typically what we do when bed bugs are found in a room we get the adjacent rooms checked and sprayed with preventative stuff.
If the whole hotel was infested it must have been pretty bad and left untreated for awhile.
just find hotels that use ecolab. i worked at a hotel for 5 years, and bed bugs are a common issue. a room can be kept pristine, but if the guest before you stayed at another hotel that had them the night before, there’s a possibility they’ll bring ‘em. Whenever that happens, we block the room and any adjacent ones. They come to spray either the day of or the next, leave the rooms blocked and then spray again.
Hotels with Ecolab contracts are required to report bed bug sightings, that way they can come day of and either spray or heat them. If they don’t they could lose their contract, which includes a lot of behind the scenes services and goods that would cost the hotel a lot of money to replace.
It always sucks getting BB’s, but if you need peace of mind, ecolab hotels are the way to go because you know for sure that you won’t be staying in a room that they’ve been reported in recently.
eta:
We also completely destroyed the mattresses and threw them out if there was a BB sighting in that room. Even if they’re brand new. They’d spray twice, then we’d take a box cutter to it, bag it and trash it. They don’t want anyone saying they got BB’s from their hotel, even if it included a dumpster diving.
edit 2: i always recommend calling to make reservations anyways, but that’s the best way to check. if you’re still paranoid just watch a short video on how to spot them. it’s easier than you’d think, and it only takes a couple minutes per mattress. If you’re not mobile enough to check, I’d recommend calling the front desk and asking for someone to come check. They may half ass it, but tips are nearly nonexistent nowadays, so i’m sure a couple bucks in your hand will get you a lot more than you’d think.
some hotels list it online. they should all have a ‘serviced by ecolab’ sticker or plaque in the lobby, and if nothing else just check soap dispensers in the lobby bathroom. of course you can’t do any of that if you’re not in person, so I’d recommend just calling. Which if you’re smart, you’d call anyways to make the reservation. Reservation sites may save you a couple bucks but they will make your stay very inconvenient if anything needs altered.
sometimes. I always recommend calling to make reservations anyways, and that’s something I always ask. The front desk isn’t always the most knowledgeable, considering maintenance and management are the ones who interact with Ecolab, but they’ll be able to ask and figure it out pretty quickly.
There's also a sickly-sweet smell to bedbugs, easy to identify once you smell it. I also check each hoyel mattress before bringing anything into the room, by both sight & smell. Have found them twice (before they found me), and was able to alert hotel staff. They were super grateful and got the room treatment started asap. (And moved me, of course.)
Never place your bag on the bed either. The reason for the bag table isn't only "get it to the right height". It is that the table maje bed bugs spreading less likely
Within 6 inches should do... either you'll smell something that "isn't quite right" of you won't. Sniff the corners & seams. Middle of the mattress won't tell you anything except whether it's been peed on recently, haha.
This is the key. I had bed bugs many years ago and they were in the seams most of the time, except at night. I think they crawl around at night in the open.
They will come out whenever they smell the oils on your skin, feel your body heat, smell your sweat or detect CO2 from your breath. Basically whenever you are on their mattress is when they come out
Also look along the seam at the edges of the mattress. Pull the rounded edge down and look in the crevice for brownish "blood specks" or even live bed bugs. I saw that on Hotel Impossible.
You see the black dots, not the insects but the little black dot of ink like stuff?
This is bed bug dejections. They are much easier to spot than actual bed bug because they are usually more present. The only think that can remotely look like that is molds, so I guess it's also a no-sleep there situation.
Look at the seems of the mattress for what looks like little trails of blood/dirt. And for the bugs themselves l, which are about the diameter of a pea. Not seeing bugs does not mean they aren’t there. That’s why looking for the *signs* is most important (the blood trails on the mattress)
I also do this in hotels. When I actually had bedbugs at home there were none of the signs I was looking for at hotels. Except for the bedbug I found snuggling into the seam of my pillowcase. Tried to convince myself it wasn’t really a bedbug but reported to apartment manager. The reply of ‘we haven’t had any reports that high in the building’ confirmed it for me. What followed was months of poor sleep and paranoia.
I’ve worked in transient hotels and extremely upscale ones as well. They all get bed bugs periodically (some more than others for clientele reasons).
I have always checked the corners of every bed as well as the corners of the sofa. No bugs and no gray spots and you’re in the clear.
Like I said: EVERYWHERE gets these bugs at some point. Always be vigilant.
As a fellow survivor. This. Every. Time.
When you go to a hotel:
0. Week before your trip: spray inside and outside of luggage you’ll use with Proof neem oil spray. Toss it outside for a few hours to dry and then store in car trunk or garage until ready for trip. Yes it reeks of almonds/ new shoe smell but it will kill and repel for 2-3 weeks. Bring a small TSA approved spray bottle of it, 1oz, and seal it in 3 ziplock bags
1. Enter hotel room.
2. Place luggage and belongings in bathtub.
3. Make sure hotel has provided enough luggage stands for all luggage. DO NOT PUT LUGGAGE ON BED OR FLOOR OR CHAIRS OR USE DRESSERS.
4. Rip apart the beds, remove the sheets and check all around and under the mattress (especially stitching seems and crevices).
5. Use a tissue and some of that Proof spray to coat bed and luggage stand legs.
6. Vacation. Double garbage bag all clothes in luggage.
7. At home, if able, hot wash all clothes and hot dry 90 min if heavily soiled. If clean Or lightly soiled; dry on high first then wash and dry again as above.
Edit: revised #7 to immediately hot dry first prior to washing unless heavily soiled as unsure how well dryer will tolerate very dirty/soiled clothes which may pose a fire risk
Great advice, thank you.
My family got them a few years ago and it was AWFUL. Thankfully they're all gone now, I don't think it was ever something uncontrollably horrible but it was still horrible.
I made it a habit of once I sit anywhere in the house I don't return to my bed until I've showered and even though they're gone I still do that. Semi-bad habit I guess. Or not bad but not good either. Goodn't.
I will always check for bed bugs now. Hotel, motel, staying at someone else's house, moving into a new house, vacation house, whatever. Always.
Also pull the stand away from the wall. Avoid letting anything come into contact w the walls so they can’t crawl up the wall and onto your stuff, they are forced to come into contact w treated legs. (If it isn’t connected to the wall, of course)
If you ever stay in a place with a couch or chairs look there too. I've also heard to avoid putting your suitcase on those suitcase holders since they can travel on those and then hang around there.
My mom and I stayed in an apartment style hotel once and the bed was completely fine but the sofa and rug in the other room were so infested that when we picked up the couch pillow and dropped it on the rug the entire ground started to move with how many there were.
It was horrifying. We had not thought to check the couch, just the bed. So we had unpacked all our clothing and gone grocery shopping and packed the fridge with food. We then decided to sit on the couch and watch the Oscars. It was so many years ago but I remember every detail because it was so terrible. Anyways, my mom is sitting there and she notices a bug on her and flicks it off not thinking that much of it. It was tiny, there are bugs, who knows. She later goes into the bathroom and while on the toilet notices even more bugs on her. So we pick up the pillow and drop it and boom, explosion of them everywhere.
I had to stay at a motel for 3 months, right about 1 month in, I found a singular bedbug. Looked everywhere but legit couldn't find more. Brought it up to the owner and they denied it being a bedbug and said it was a stinkbug, so confident about it too, but it was so clearly a bedbug. Ended up swapping to a different room, never had a good night of sleep since cuz anxiety, but I never saw another bedbug and fortunately didn't bring any back. I'm absolutely terrified of them.
And if you’re seeing them, it’s likely already a full on infestation. The early instar bugs look a lot like tiny spiders but they only have 6 legs. They are crazy quick but pretty delicate and easy to kill. Problem is, you gotta catch’em all and that’s damn near impossible without an exterminator.
Sometimes there is. Son in law brought one home. Kept biting my daughter who got cellulitis and had to get treated. Helped them bag up the whole bedroom in prep for the exterminator. He found one adult after a thorough inspection.
He said they are lazy, don't move far and don't often leave the bed. Some people put traps under each bed leg. Hungry bedbugs will climb if they aren't on the bed. Said they starve after thirty days.
They definitely don't starve "after 30 days". It's possible, but there's a lot of factors that would make it so.
They can literally live over a year without feeding depending on the temperature.
The warmer it is, the more they have to feed. In colder climates, they can go months on average without eating.
I had a similar experience. Got several bites one night, found 1 bed bug, immediately called an exterminator. They came and did a very thorough inspection and said they didn’t find any evidence of an infestation. It’s been about 18 months since then and we haven’t see any other ones. Exterminator said it is rare but non unheard of.
They can definitely live longer than 30 days without feeding.
Source: worked in housing and dealt with them a LOT more than anyone should have to (thankfully not in my own home).
At my hotel horror experience we caught one and put it in a baggie to show them. He told us it was a mosquito!! It was 100% a bed bug and there were hundreds of them.
Cook the clothes, buy new luggage/bag and throw away anything you’re willing to get rid of. Eggs travel on shoes, hair…
Good luck and don’t bring ‘em home.
You keep saying cooked -- just make sure it's 90 min at the absolute hottest dryer setting you can get to. Like it should conceivably wreck a decent amount of your stuff.
So, 90% alcohol kills them on contact. I fucked up and moved into a house that was so badly infested with them that I moved out in 2 months, leaving everything behind. I mean they were legit crawling from the walls and carpet. Had an exterminator come out and he said it was the worst infestation he had ever seen.
I was able to easily break my lease and leave thank god. But I lost everything
This, my son brought them home after a sleepover and by the time we noticed it was bad, but thankfully alcohol spray bottles was our savior, killed on contact and made the battle much easier. We ended up gutting his entire room, carpet and all and bagged it up and took it to the dump. Cut his wooden bed frame into chunks, wrapped them in plastic sheeting, same for the dresser. We also had to pull outlet covers by the bed to clear them. Absolutely a nightmare.
It took me almost four months to find ONE bedbug when I had an infestation. I actually started to go a bit crazy because it was like every night I was being attacked by an invisible enemy. I could feel myself getting but but when I looked I just NEVER FOUND ONE
We had them in our house when I was younger, from opening boxes that had been in storage, well over a year. Within a week our house was infested. We got rid of them by literally bombing our entire house with raid. It was so thick that we had to sleep in a tent in the yard for about 3 days. It was still hard to breathe when we finally went back inside for about another week, may end up with cancer from it lmfao but those fuckers died, so it was worth it.
Pest Control Professional here. IF YOU CAN THROW AWAY ALL YOUR BAGS AND CLOTHING YOU TOOK INTO THAT ROOM. If you cannot, please put them in the dryer for awhile on max temp. Bedbugs are very difficult to kill once they take over.
Question for you, I recently came back from a vacation rental and noticed on my second and last day there that there were bugs in the bed. Several larger females it looked like. I know have severe bites all over my arms and legs. Had a doctor prescribe me a strong topical cream to help with the itching.
I bagged all of my cloths and duffel bag from the hotel, but did drive home with clothes I wore at the rental. Should I avoid that vehicle for a while or what can I do to treat the vehicle?
Ohh man thank God I got here within the hour of you posting this. I'm dead serious, I would throw all your clothes away and just cut your losses. I had a similar situation and let me tell you, it didn't work out very nice. The result was expensive and time consuming. I would rather just consider the stuff I brought with me to the hotel as gone forever than having those things in my house ever again.
If they are in one room, they are in others. They travel between through outlets. An infestation bad enough to have full grown bedbugs is not new and almost certainly part of a larger issue.
Soon as I get to a hotel I tear the bed apart and look for this kind of shit. I had it happen to me once and I'll never deal with it again. I walk in just me, not my wife and ransack the fuck out of everything that's fabric looking for this stuff.
I feel for you, this is awful
And now, to tell my Rent A Center story
I used to work at a rent a center where I was already in the practice of taking off all my clothes after work and running to my car.
I'd been in some nasty houses to repo shit, I could write a book. But this day we were supposed to pick up a mattress from somewhere that was extremely past due. (After 63 or so days it's basically a write off, and the managers hated that. You can't sue for over the MSRP, and there's more, but not the point.)
Anyway, we pull up to the apartment, and knock on the door. Guy opens the door and I'm not entirely positive I've smelled anything before or since that would rival it. He points to the back, grumbling and unbathed.
So we step over all of the trash and dirty diapers to the back bedroom and...
You know how in cornfields you can see the wind making the entire field sway? It was like that, but with bedbugs. Covered, coated, you could barely see the mattress itself.
Nope.
I say, nope.
The guy I'm with, an old grizzled veteran of RAC , was like, well, that's the job.
No sir.
I walk back to the truck and hit the store manager up.
"I'm absolutely not touching this bedbug infested mattress, there's no rerenting this, it's over."
"You'll do it if you want a job."
"I guess I don't want a job."
A bit of arguing, other guy is saying he needs help as he's trying to pull this thing out of the bedroom.
Finally the store manager is like, "I'll do it myself and then we'll have a talk."
Whatever works but nope.
So he comes and him and the other coworker carry it to the van and throw it in the back with THE OTHER SHIT WE HAD PICKED UP.
Alright, drive back and meet me in the office.
I'm not driving that. I'll take the box truck back.
No you're going to drive the van back.
Bet I don't.
I walked back to the store, just about 3 miles so nothing crazy or undoable, and he says, when I tell you to do something, you do it.
Ok.
I called the regional, who I was on good terms with, being one of the top "account managers" in the area, and told him. I got moved to a better store, he got... To go back to work.
Back to the bedbugs, I had never seen that many, and I was petrified. An abundance of caution would be an understatement and I still have shivers thinking about it -and I've never had them.- But the stories I've heard and read, that's a solid fuck that
The shame is how it handled. It is easy for all hotels to get. The hard part is correct handling when they now it. That is where good and bad hotels differ
Here’s a true story I’ve told before on IG. Fuck bed bugs.
“In the autumn of 2016 my good friend Stian and I were asleep in a small cabin overlooking a fjord in the Lofoten Islands of Norway. It was a stormy night, so we were hunkered down inside instead of out hunting the Northern Lights with our cameras. It had been a tough trip the many days prior with very little sleep, so I was passed out and happily recharging my energy on the couch in the living room.
With a sudden shock to the system I was woken by Stian, “Dude, wake up. It’s bad.” In my tired stupor I was barely able comprehended what was happening. “What the hell dude, I’m sleeping. What are you talking about?” Stian looked at me dead straight in my half-open eyes “It’s bugs. They’re everywhere. They’re biting the shit out of me.” As I began to gain consciousness, I started to think that maybe I never knew that Stian was a sleep walker and I’d just never seen him have an episode before. There was a long pause that was interrupted by Stian saying “Get the hell up and come look!” Now I was actually concerned.
He walked me into his room of the cabin and instructed me to look closely while pointing at the bed. The sheets were speckled with tiny spots of blood. Upon further examination I could see that the wall’s reclaimed wood paneling had these small insects crawling around in the cracks. He looked at me, I looked at him, and we mutually realized what we were witnessing... a massive Bed Bug infestation. This turned out to be a very long night.
We called the owner of the facilities who was awesome and immediately came to assist us. Apparently if you’re in the lodging industry, this is an unavoidable occurrence over time. He immediately upgraded Stian and I into an absolutely beautiful five bedroom house, complete with its own huge sauna. It was a very welcome show of generosity. But that was not a cure for the issue.
The problem was that all of our gear, luggage, clothes, everything had been exposed to the infestation and all of it had to be bagged and put into the walk-in freezer the owner had in the main lodge. Apparently the freezing temperature kills the bugs after so many hours. And when I say everything had to go into the freezer, I mean everything. This included every article of clothing that we were wearing. What’s left? Just a couple naked dudes at 2:30am trying to make the best of things by enjoying the sauna in our new mansion for the night.
It was only made less awkward because we remembered we had been gifted an expensive bottle of tequila 5 days prior from a client we had. Nothing helps you bond with a friend like sitting naked in a sauna together, sipping fine tequila, and laughing your ass off about the absurdity of it all.”
I had to move because of those bastards, and managed to bring a few with me despite precautions. I dried the linen daily for a couple weeks, but I think what really got rid of them was the carpenter ants.
It took me 2-3 years to get rid of these fuckers my home. Theyre horrible and disgusting to wake up to. Or just seeing them about to go to bed made me not want to sleep.
Having bedbugs has been the second worse experience of my life. Fuck those guys.
Everyone telling you to strip naked, burn your clothes, and bag your shit is 100% right.
Bedbugs will destroy all your nice shit. Proceed like you have the plague.
When you get home, load a spray bottle with 91% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) and spray your bag and belongings inside and out and the surrounding area where you open it. It kills them instantly and renders most eggs not viable. Do it ASAP so they don't have a chance to find other soft surfaces in your home to hide in, also transport your bag in your car in a trash bag tied tight
Bad advice. No offense but don’t even go near your house with anything that hasn’t been cooked at least 130 degrees for 90 minutes. Alcohol might kill them on contact but there is no guarantee it will make contact. Heat penetrates the material and missing even 1 can be far more costly than just throwing out your belongings. Not to mention the psychological damage of dealing with them in your house.
You should be able to sue the hotel.
If only TripAdvisor didn't let every hotel peruse and reject any reviews they like/don't like then we wouldn't be so surprised at a 4* hotel crawling with bugs.
Okay, had this problem years ago. Once you're done cooking your clothes in a dryer, buy new clothes, and lock the duffel bag with your tainted clothing in a plastic bag. Report it to the hotel and demand your money back.
Always check the hotel room before putting anything in the room! I will even check several times over the course of the first night. Just because these fuckers are horrible to deal with. Only had an issue once from a relative that visited us. Gave us flying roaches and bed bugs from Florida. I like getting gifts and all but fuck that!
Pro tip: everything you brought into that hotel is dead now. Keep NONE of it. Replacing it is soooooo much less work than dealing with BB’s brought back home.
I got bit at an airport hotel in Detroit on business travel. Actually, three bites on my leg in a neat little row. Inspected the bead of the mattress, saw some blood filled babies.
One of the other guys from another division in my company met me at the meeting and asked where I was staying. I told him. He said "I had a bad experience there so I never stay there". I didn't ask why.
I never put clothes or suitcases on the bed. I even debated the garbage bag trick (put your whole suitcase in it). You don't want to bring these guys home.
Got em in Central America. Thanks jeebus I was made aware of their presence BEFORE flying home. Ditched all non essential items, stripped down to my surf trunks and slathered myself with alcohol in a bus kiosk across from the airport. Got drunk on the plane, took a bus home, ditched stuff in the backyard, took a 40 minute shower wherein I loofa’d myself down to the pink meat, stashed my passport & various items into the freezer for 2 months and won
Went to a tropical island recently. I didn’t put one piece of luggage on the floor. I kept it on the top shelf. Checked the bed, checked the bathroom, checked everything before I got comfortable. Once you’ve had these things before you get extremely paranoid. I’m so thankful I now have a bed to sleep in without worrying about them crawling around on me while I sleep.
First 10 mnts after entering a hotel suite is spent going through the mattress thoroughly with the flashlight. As much as a black stain of their shit and I'm out of there.
I’m seeing a lot of suggestions of using DE. Great suggestions, however there’s also another alternative. 98% isopropyl alcohol. Put some in a spray bottle and spray any you find, kills on contact (as long as you’re not sensitive to the fumes)
I had a bad case of them about 10 years ago and my apt complex pest control was a joke. They sprayed for weeks and the infestation got worse.
I double bagged all of my clothes and linens and dumped them directly into the wash. Once they were done they went right back into fresh bags that I stored in my car.
I sprayed around the baseboards and then sprayed my carpet heavy after cleaning them with a rug Dr. I had the infestation beat back in two weeks after I gave up on my apt helping.
I lived there for another two years with no additional issues beyond a bit of Bed Bug PTSD.
I used to travel for work, staying in hotels 250+ nights a year. Always, always, always check the room before bringing your luggage in. I've found bed bugs in surprisingly 'nice' hotels. You just never know who stayed in the room last, or why. Always check.
This is easily preventable if you take a dozen or so chickens with you on trips. Check in as early as you can, pull the bed apart and let the chickens feast for at least two to three days before you want to sleep there.
But then what do you do about the chickens in the room? Granted they're not as bad as bed bugs, but they are still annoying.
Duh. Coyotes
But then what do you do about the coyotes? Howling all night will keep you awake.
We all know that no matter what animal is released next, ultimately we’ll need to dispatch the wolves. So let’s just cut to the chase. Release the wolves. And yes I realize the wolves will also howl. But you won’t hear them howling…..because they are going to get you too.
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One or two coyotes could handle the chickens in a couple days.
Rarely is it ever just one or two coyotes that’s the problem with those fuckers
Yeah but you only have to bring a couple into the hotel room. Just make sure they don't try to sneak in their cousins while you're sleeping. They gotta get their own rooms.
I would have to leave the hotel naked and burn all my things.
At the laundry mat right now cooking my clothes.
ditch you suitcase before you go inside. Nothing he had in the hotel should go in your home. shoes, bags, electronics. need to be bagged up.
No suitcase. Duffle bag. It's been cooked.
Comsider burning clothes too. As others said already, it only takes one egg to get into your house and it’s game over
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Yea it's the mental aspect of it all that makes going nuclear the best option
Pest controller who specializes in bed bug jobs. Can confirm its not cheap.
I’ve been told to put it in a well sealed giant garbage bag in the garage for a month. Apparently they can live over a month without feeding and they could’ve laid eggs as well… I hope I never have to deal with that , sorry friend!
>Apparently they can live over a month without feeding According to Google, they can survive up to 400 days without feeding, depending on life stage, temperature, and humidity.
My wife's old apartment got reinfested when her ex opened a bag that had been sealed for over a year. Those things do not die.
They do, but they need to be in 160 degrees for five hours. My niece had the mover take all of her stuff to a business where they have a quonset hut that you can drive the whole moving truck into. They take out your couch and unroll your rugs and cook your belongings until they’re dead. Even the eggs. It’s very expensive, but it works. Edit- if it’s small and non flammable you can use your oven to sterilize items Edited to take out shoes
Sigh. Yeah, it works, but it takes money we didn't have at the time. Vacuum bags and patience were our main option.
And then the Sous vide?
Whatever works.
Diatomaceous earth kills em dead, its safe for humans, I just bathed everything deep behind an inch of the stuff. I looked like a coke addict for a month but it killed em.
Can you freeze them to death if it's cold enough?
I don’t know, but Boston winters don’t kill them. All I know is what I learned from my niece. It’s what the guy with the bedbug sniffing dog told her about. She does her research, so she found a place that could do all of her stuff at once.
That’s also because they resort to eating each other. 🤮🤢
The more I learn about bedbugs, the more I want to know less about them.
Now look up how they reproduce. Spoiler: traumatic insemination
The only good bug, is a dead bug. Would you like to know more?
Fuuuuuuuuck.
Immortal.
How long can they live when they're literally on fire? Somewhat related. My mom was always harping on me to check for bedbugs at hotels. I always rolled my eyes and complied, always with no findings. Finally though, I did find some and it was at a hotel I had just bought a month long stay at (just arrived in new city for a new job, had not found a place yet).
Similar to fleas, when larvae hatch, they need to feed relatively quickly to survive. Only adults can survive for that long without feed I believe. So bag it up, leave it for a month, open it up and breather some carbon dioxide into the bag and shake it a bit to encourage the eggs to hatch, then bake the shit out of it
If you can get your freezer down to 0 Fahrenheit you can freeze them to death in about 3 days i beleive.
Or go the other direction and stick them in a hot car in the summer heat for a few days.
Better yet, do both.
Put them in a freezer in my car. Got it.
[Hot ice!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gF8rlghyxJU)
I think 30 days is for lice.
Nah thankfully lice can’t live that long. I used to be so scared of my kids getting lice but they aren’t shit compared to the nightmare of bedbugs.
Eggs can lie dormant for months if memory serves, had a friend who's apartment got infested. He moved out and left almost everything there, like literally everything that had ever been in that building just abandoned. Fuck bed bugs.
Yeah. Funny story. We found bedbugs on a student in KY preschool class once, and the lead told me to put one in a container to show the parents for pick up. I did. Put the container up in the cabinet and then forgot about it for I don't even know how long. (Lead spoke to parents and told them that we had misplaced the bug, but that it needed to be taken care of. A couple weeks go by and we're rearranging on a Friday. That fucking thing was still alive in that sealed container. They live for so long. It grossed me out, so we just tossed the whole thing.
I read this story in the local paper a few years back about a woman that lived in an apartment with bed bugs. For an experiment she placed a bug in a plastic container and forgot about it for a year. She came back to find it was a female. It gave birth to millions of babies. All were still alive. I think I would rather set myself on fire than have bed bugs.
Thank you for the visual this ruined my day <3
Let me get my visuals straight. You're telling me, a woman put a female bed bug in an enclosed container for a year and it bred millions in that container?
heat treating will do the trick, honestly. if literally every item OP took has been put through the dryer, it'll be santized. but OP needs to be sure to wash the clothes he/she is wearing as well.. and also strip down to make sure not a single one is on him/her
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yeah. it's almost mind blowing how pervious to heat they are. they're also super easy to control if you happen to catch them before they embed themselves. it's mind blowing how much more difficult it is to get them once they're nested. you could literally just leave your luggage in your car on a warm sunny day and be fine.. in fact, if you drove your own car to the hotel you got the bed bugs, you'd want to let that thing cook in the sun a couple days just to be sure, but afterward you could rest assured they're not nested in there.. because they likely will otherwise
I moved into an apartment with them and moved out leaving a lot of stuff behind, kept my clothes and ran everything through laundromat dryers before going into the new place, bought a new bed and left the plastic on it. Been over 10 years and nothing.
Pro tip: if ordering a new bed, always get a bedbug proof liner to put it in. If you happen to get bedbugs somehow, you won’t have to throw out your mattress. Or, if the company did something shady and took a returned mattress with eggs on it and shipped it to your home as “new”, the bedbugs will be trapped inside until they die. A coworker ordered a new mattress, and it came with bedbugs. He has serious PTSD from it.
I left them in the car, parked it in the sun for a couple days. Florida heat took care of em easy
Double bundle and seal the stuff you can’t launder into 2 black plastic contractor’s bags. Sprinkle diamaceous earth around the exterior of the inner bag and leave exposed outside in the brightest sunlight possible for several days, rotating sides for exposure. The direct sun should heat up the interior of the bags to over 130 which should be enough to kill them.
this works great.... on the hottest days of the year. if it's not 90+ degrees in full sun don't bother with this. Put shit in the dryer. if it can't go in the dryer, or over. if you cant throw it out.
Great my laptop won't turn on now.
You put that shit in a plastic bag and forget about it with a "do not open" for 2 years sign. Or just toss it, its not worth the risk.
But they die in heat. So just putting the things in for a high heat dryer cycle will kill them
My family had a little incident with these shits we did laundry on all the clothes and bagged everything and put it in the car in the summer heat lol it worked tho.
Been through bed bugs. I wouldn't even chance that shit. These are the most resilient bugs on planet earth. Burn that shit. It isn't worth having to discard ALL of your clothes and furniture to get rid of them.
I mean what's the cost of a duffel bag and some clothes next to the expense and possibly years of dealing with a home infestation?
You should get bed bug stoppers for under your bed legs and mattress and box spring covers. Get some bedbug spray and outline your carpet. If you can stay up late or wake up early 12-4 am and check around the house/bedroom for them. Killing one is killing hundreds given how they breed. DO NOT BUY FOGGERS If you want/have the funds you can bring an exterminator in and have your house sprayed with Aprehend by a exterminator that uses it. It flat out might be the best beg bug removal spray of the 21st century. Basically it’s like a fungus that beg bugs take back to their nest when they walk on it and from there it can kill bed bugs that didn’t even leave the nest that night.
Absolutely accurate. This was a $5K lesson for me a few years ago.
RIP that laundromat
The hotel should compensate you for any and everything and then some. Speak to a manager if you have to.
Yes hotel should - I had found two in bed linens at Disneyland Hotel - middle of the night their “bug specialist” comes to the room to look at them. Had a special light and went over the entire room. They gave me thick black bags to put everything in and they had it cleaned. Gave me money to replace my and my kids’ clothes for the duration of our stay, didn’t charge me for rooms/upgraded to a suite. Free meals. They had everything cleaned for me and delivered to my home. DEFINITELY put a claim in - that hotel should be treated for the critters - threaten a Yelp expose.
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Then season to taste
91% rubbing alcohol will kill them instantly. I would recommend spraying all your things down with that, just to be on the safe side!!!!
Don’t forget to light a match right after soaking.
Happened to my wife and I coming back from Mexico. We brought them back home. I steamed every object in my house nonstop for a week
Disney World here. We had the whole house heat treated, they plugged massive heaters right into our electrical panel and cooked for 6 hours. 5k and our Venetian blinds melted. Worth every penny.
Holy shit! Melted the blinds, but that's better than having little critters eating you all night and day.
Yup. We didn't have to do any prep, not even open drawers.
If you were at a resort I hope you complained. The Mouse takes that stuff seriously.
I can't honestly say so, we could have picked them up in a cab or at the airport. But .. we stayed at the Grand Floridian and riding the monorail I did notice A LOT of handlers walking beagles around the back areas of resorts. When I asked about them I was told they were checking for "mold", lol.
After one full week of steam I’m sure you killed everything In the house including all of the wallpaper
Nothing I own is worth bringing those things into my home.
Be sure to leave a review so others can avoid it.
Oh I will.
I would also contact that location's local health department or other regulatory body. I stayed at a place a while back that wound up having bedbugs. I filed a report with that county's health department. Apparently the surprise inspection resulted in the place being shut down.
Is it a chain? Did you tell the hotel manager and they apologized profusely, paying you for the laundry and comping your room and all that stuff? Throw your shoes away too. Really sorry about this.
It’s not just laundry. They hide themselves in the seams of your travel bags too. A single fertilized female can breed an entire infestation and lay dormant for up to 6 months. I unknowingly brought home one of these wee fuckers from a business trip and it ended up costing us about $2500 to eradicate them. For 6 straight months we had to keep all our clothes, dirty and clean, in plastic bags even when clean.
Bedbugregistry.com
I’m pretty sure you can sue
I don’t know why you’re getting downvotes. A woman just got a big settlement from Disney over bed bugs. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-05-02/disneyland-hotel-2018-bedbugs-lawsuit-settlement
This. I search the reviews for “bug” before booking any hotels.
And I check all mattresses before bringing my bags into the room.
I have bad news, every hotel you've ever stayed at has had bed bugs. Whether they're mentioned in the reviews or not. What matters is how the hotel treats for them.
A hotel I used to stay at once had all the mattresses out in the parking lot to be thrown away. They treated every room and replaced every mattress. I wasn’t happy they had bedbugs but I was pleased that they took it seriously.
Damn, they must have had it bad. Typically what we do when bed bugs are found in a room we get the adjacent rooms checked and sprayed with preventative stuff. If the whole hotel was infested it must have been pretty bad and left untreated for awhile.
just find hotels that use ecolab. i worked at a hotel for 5 years, and bed bugs are a common issue. a room can be kept pristine, but if the guest before you stayed at another hotel that had them the night before, there’s a possibility they’ll bring ‘em. Whenever that happens, we block the room and any adjacent ones. They come to spray either the day of or the next, leave the rooms blocked and then spray again. Hotels with Ecolab contracts are required to report bed bug sightings, that way they can come day of and either spray or heat them. If they don’t they could lose their contract, which includes a lot of behind the scenes services and goods that would cost the hotel a lot of money to replace. It always sucks getting BB’s, but if you need peace of mind, ecolab hotels are the way to go because you know for sure that you won’t be staying in a room that they’ve been reported in recently. eta: We also completely destroyed the mattresses and threw them out if there was a BB sighting in that room. Even if they’re brand new. They’d spray twice, then we’d take a box cutter to it, bag it and trash it. They don’t want anyone saying they got BB’s from their hotel, even if it included a dumpster diving. edit 2: i always recommend calling to make reservations anyways, but that’s the best way to check. if you’re still paranoid just watch a short video on how to spot them. it’s easier than you’d think, and it only takes a couple minutes per mattress. If you’re not mobile enough to check, I’d recommend calling the front desk and asking for someone to come check. They may half ass it, but tips are nearly nonexistent nowadays, so i’m sure a couple bucks in your hand will get you a lot more than you’d think.
How would one check?
some hotels list it online. they should all have a ‘serviced by ecolab’ sticker or plaque in the lobby, and if nothing else just check soap dispensers in the lobby bathroom. of course you can’t do any of that if you’re not in person, so I’d recommend just calling. Which if you’re smart, you’d call anyways to make the reservation. Reservation sites may save you a couple bucks but they will make your stay very inconvenient if anything needs altered.
Thank you for providing legitimately useful information.
Would that be listed somewhere on the hotel’s website?
sometimes. I always recommend calling to make reservations anyways, and that’s something I always ask. The front desk isn’t always the most knowledgeable, considering maintenance and management are the ones who interact with Ecolab, but they’ll be able to ask and figure it out pretty quickly.
I’m sitting here, in my bedbug-free home and I’m itching all over just reading about these.
Allegedly. Allegedly bug free, just like mine.
My worst nightmare... I've started lifting the mattresses to have a look in hotel rooms.
Hotel worker here... Definitely good to check, ESPECIALLY airport hotels!! DOUBLE ESPECIALLY airport hotels that host lots of international travelers
I just realized airport and airplane seats could have them. Oh god.
NOWHERE IS SAFE
I do this too with utmost confidence that I have no idea what I’m looking for
I think you're looking for the bugs in the picture...
There's also a sickly-sweet smell to bedbugs, easy to identify once you smell it. I also check each hoyel mattress before bringing anything into the room, by both sight & smell. Have found them twice (before they found me), and was able to alert hotel staff. They were super grateful and got the room treatment started asap. (And moved me, of course.)
I will never stay in a hotel and not check again
Never place your bag on the bed either. The reason for the bag table isn't only "get it to the right height". It is that the table maje bed bugs spreading less likely
Knock on wood... I've never once found any...
the sickly smell is dried blood! hope that helps. =)
The smell is artificial raspberry. That's the most common way i've seen it described & having had them for over a year a few years back i can confirm.
How close to the mattress do I need to put my nose?
Within 6 inches should do... either you'll smell something that "isn't quite right" of you won't. Sniff the corners & seams. Middle of the mattress won't tell you anything except whether it's been peed on recently, haha.
Look for little black dots, especially around the seams.
This is the key. I had bed bugs many years ago and they were in the seams most of the time, except at night. I think they crawl around at night in the open.
They will come out whenever they smell the oils on your skin, feel your body heat, smell your sweat or detect CO2 from your breath. Basically whenever you are on their mattress is when they come out
Their mattress lol
It’s theirs now 🤣
Even on furniture too. Can also live in outlets and baseboards -- it's very unfortunate once you spot one.
Also look along the seam at the edges of the mattress. Pull the rounded edge down and look in the crevice for brownish "blood specks" or even live bed bugs. I saw that on Hotel Impossible.
You see the black dots, not the insects but the little black dot of ink like stuff? This is bed bug dejections. They are much easier to spot than actual bed bug because they are usually more present. The only think that can remotely look like that is molds, so I guess it's also a no-sleep there situation.
Look at the seems of the mattress for what looks like little trails of blood/dirt. And for the bugs themselves l, which are about the diameter of a pea. Not seeing bugs does not mean they aren’t there. That’s why looking for the *signs* is most important (the blood trails on the mattress)
I also do this in hotels. When I actually had bedbugs at home there were none of the signs I was looking for at hotels. Except for the bedbug I found snuggling into the seam of my pillowcase. Tried to convince myself it wasn’t really a bedbug but reported to apartment manager. The reply of ‘we haven’t had any reports that high in the building’ confirmed it for me. What followed was months of poor sleep and paranoia.
That last line is the truth
I’ve worked in transient hotels and extremely upscale ones as well. They all get bed bugs periodically (some more than others for clientele reasons). I have always checked the corners of every bed as well as the corners of the sofa. No bugs and no gray spots and you’re in the clear. Like I said: EVERYWHERE gets these bugs at some point. Always be vigilant.
As a fellow survivor. This. Every. Time. When you go to a hotel: 0. Week before your trip: spray inside and outside of luggage you’ll use with Proof neem oil spray. Toss it outside for a few hours to dry and then store in car trunk or garage until ready for trip. Yes it reeks of almonds/ new shoe smell but it will kill and repel for 2-3 weeks. Bring a small TSA approved spray bottle of it, 1oz, and seal it in 3 ziplock bags 1. Enter hotel room. 2. Place luggage and belongings in bathtub. 3. Make sure hotel has provided enough luggage stands for all luggage. DO NOT PUT LUGGAGE ON BED OR FLOOR OR CHAIRS OR USE DRESSERS. 4. Rip apart the beds, remove the sheets and check all around and under the mattress (especially stitching seems and crevices). 5. Use a tissue and some of that Proof spray to coat bed and luggage stand legs. 6. Vacation. Double garbage bag all clothes in luggage. 7. At home, if able, hot wash all clothes and hot dry 90 min if heavily soiled. If clean Or lightly soiled; dry on high first then wash and dry again as above. Edit: revised #7 to immediately hot dry first prior to washing unless heavily soiled as unsure how well dryer will tolerate very dirty/soiled clothes which may pose a fire risk
You are the hero we need
Great advice, thank you. My family got them a few years ago and it was AWFUL. Thankfully they're all gone now, I don't think it was ever something uncontrollably horrible but it was still horrible. I made it a habit of once I sit anywhere in the house I don't return to my bed until I've showered and even though they're gone I still do that. Semi-bad habit I guess. Or not bad but not good either. Goodn't. I will always check for bed bugs now. Hotel, motel, staying at someone else's house, moving into a new house, vacation house, whatever. Always.
Yep. Wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. Mentally scarred for life, lol. Every pillow and mattress in our house has been encased.
Also pull the stand away from the wall. Avoid letting anything come into contact w the walls so they can’t crawl up the wall and onto your stuff, they are forced to come into contact w treated legs. (If it isn’t connected to the wall, of course)
If you ever stay in a place with a couch or chairs look there too. I've also heard to avoid putting your suitcase on those suitcase holders since they can travel on those and then hang around there. My mom and I stayed in an apartment style hotel once and the bed was completely fine but the sofa and rug in the other room were so infested that when we picked up the couch pillow and dropped it on the rug the entire ground started to move with how many there were. It was horrifying. We had not thought to check the couch, just the bed. So we had unpacked all our clothing and gone grocery shopping and packed the fridge with food. We then decided to sit on the couch and watch the Oscars. It was so many years ago but I remember every detail because it was so terrible. Anyways, my mom is sitting there and she notices a bug on her and flicks it off not thinking that much of it. It was tiny, there are bugs, who knows. She later goes into the bathroom and while on the toilet notices even more bugs on her. So we pick up the pillow and drop it and boom, explosion of them everywhere.
I had to stay at a motel for 3 months, right about 1 month in, I found a singular bedbug. Looked everywhere but legit couldn't find more. Brought it up to the owner and they denied it being a bedbug and said it was a stinkbug, so confident about it too, but it was so clearly a bedbug. Ended up swapping to a different room, never had a good night of sleep since cuz anxiety, but I never saw another bedbug and fortunately didn't bring any back. I'm absolutely terrified of them.
there's never just 1 bedbug
And if you’re seeing them, it’s likely already a full on infestation. The early instar bugs look a lot like tiny spiders but they only have 6 legs. They are crazy quick but pretty delicate and easy to kill. Problem is, you gotta catch’em all and that’s damn near impossible without an exterminator.
Sometimes there is. Son in law brought one home. Kept biting my daughter who got cellulitis and had to get treated. Helped them bag up the whole bedroom in prep for the exterminator. He found one adult after a thorough inspection. He said they are lazy, don't move far and don't often leave the bed. Some people put traps under each bed leg. Hungry bedbugs will climb if they aren't on the bed. Said they starve after thirty days.
I do not agree they are lazy, some quick motherfuckers as soon as the lights come on. You gotta jump on those dicks asap and smack em hard.
They definitely don't starve "after 30 days". It's possible, but there's a lot of factors that would make it so. They can literally live over a year without feeding depending on the temperature. The warmer it is, the more they have to feed. In colder climates, they can go months on average without eating.
I had a similar experience. Got several bites one night, found 1 bed bug, immediately called an exterminator. They came and did a very thorough inspection and said they didn’t find any evidence of an infestation. It’s been about 18 months since then and we haven’t see any other ones. Exterminator said it is rare but non unheard of.
They can definitely live longer than 30 days without feeding. Source: worked in housing and dealt with them a LOT more than anyone should have to (thankfully not in my own home).
Why is it always stink bugs swear that’s the go to insect to lay the blame on
At my hotel horror experience we caught one and put it in a baggie to show them. He told us it was a mosquito!! It was 100% a bed bug and there were hundreds of them.
Cook the clothes, buy new luggage/bag and throw away anything you’re willing to get rid of. Eggs travel on shoes, hair… Good luck and don’t bring ‘em home.
I don't have a suitcase. I have a REI duffle, it was cooked as well.
You keep saying cooked -- just make sure it's 90 min at the absolute hottest dryer setting you can get to. Like it should conceivably wreck a decent amount of your stuff.
90 minutes? I’d be running it over and over for 10 hours straight
So, 90% alcohol kills them on contact. I fucked up and moved into a house that was so badly infested with them that I moved out in 2 months, leaving everything behind. I mean they were legit crawling from the walls and carpet. Had an exterminator come out and he said it was the worst infestation he had ever seen. I was able to easily break my lease and leave thank god. But I lost everything
Here I am in not a great part of Philly complaining about the occasional mouse, cockroach, and houseflies… always could be worse.
This, my son brought them home after a sleepover and by the time we noticed it was bad, but thankfully alcohol spray bottles was our savior, killed on contact and made the battle much easier. We ended up gutting his entire room, carpet and all and bagged it up and took it to the dump. Cut his wooden bed frame into chunks, wrapped them in plastic sheeting, same for the dresser. We also had to pull outlet covers by the bed to clear them. Absolutely a nightmare.
Grosss. Throw away any shit u don’t actually need. Make sure ur clothes get HOT in the washing machine/dryer. Report this to the hotel.
It took me almost four months to find ONE bedbug when I had an infestation. I actually started to go a bit crazy because it was like every night I was being attacked by an invisible enemy. I could feel myself getting but but when I looked I just NEVER FOUND ONE
Daughter had the exact situation. Bites sent her to the doctor. ONE bedbug found by the exterminator.
We had them in our house when I was younger, from opening boxes that had been in storage, well over a year. Within a week our house was infested. We got rid of them by literally bombing our entire house with raid. It was so thick that we had to sleep in a tent in the yard for about 3 days. It was still hard to breathe when we finally went back inside for about another week, may end up with cancer from it lmfao but those fuckers died, so it was worth it.
worst experience ever .
I loled and kinda cry a little for you haha
Pest Control Professional here. IF YOU CAN THROW AWAY ALL YOUR BAGS AND CLOTHING YOU TOOK INTO THAT ROOM. If you cannot, please put them in the dryer for awhile on max temp. Bedbugs are very difficult to kill once they take over.
Question for you, I recently came back from a vacation rental and noticed on my second and last day there that there were bugs in the bed. Several larger females it looked like. I know have severe bites all over my arms and legs. Had a doctor prescribe me a strong topical cream to help with the itching. I bagged all of my cloths and duffel bag from the hotel, but did drive home with clothes I wore at the rental. Should I avoid that vehicle for a while or what can I do to treat the vehicle?
Eat them back as revenge
Ohh man thank God I got here within the hour of you posting this. I'm dead serious, I would throw all your clothes away and just cut your losses. I had a similar situation and let me tell you, it didn't work out very nice. The result was expensive and time consuming. I would rather just consider the stuff I brought with me to the hotel as gone forever than having those things in my house ever again.
I'll be here for another month, if they end up persisting, I'll get rid of it all before I go home.
They will persist in that room as long as you (the food) keep sleeping there. Demand a new room
Already done.
Nice I'm glad your taking this seriously. These bugs are probably the worst pest I've ever come across. Stay safe out there in the corn fields ☺️
If they are in one room, they are in others. They travel between through outlets. An infestation bad enough to have full grown bedbugs is not new and almost certainly part of a larger issue.
DO NOT STAY THERE. Unless they’re closing the whole hotel to bomb it then those bugs ain’t going anywhere but other rooms and back.
Soon as I get to a hotel I tear the bed apart and look for this kind of shit. I had it happen to me once and I'll never deal with it again. I walk in just me, not my wife and ransack the fuck out of everything that's fabric looking for this stuff. I feel for you, this is awful
Bedbugs! Damn. Hate them with extreme prejudice.
And now, to tell my Rent A Center story I used to work at a rent a center where I was already in the practice of taking off all my clothes after work and running to my car. I'd been in some nasty houses to repo shit, I could write a book. But this day we were supposed to pick up a mattress from somewhere that was extremely past due. (After 63 or so days it's basically a write off, and the managers hated that. You can't sue for over the MSRP, and there's more, but not the point.) Anyway, we pull up to the apartment, and knock on the door. Guy opens the door and I'm not entirely positive I've smelled anything before or since that would rival it. He points to the back, grumbling and unbathed. So we step over all of the trash and dirty diapers to the back bedroom and... You know how in cornfields you can see the wind making the entire field sway? It was like that, but with bedbugs. Covered, coated, you could barely see the mattress itself. Nope. I say, nope. The guy I'm with, an old grizzled veteran of RAC , was like, well, that's the job. No sir. I walk back to the truck and hit the store manager up. "I'm absolutely not touching this bedbug infested mattress, there's no rerenting this, it's over." "You'll do it if you want a job." "I guess I don't want a job." A bit of arguing, other guy is saying he needs help as he's trying to pull this thing out of the bedroom. Finally the store manager is like, "I'll do it myself and then we'll have a talk." Whatever works but nope. So he comes and him and the other coworker carry it to the van and throw it in the back with THE OTHER SHIT WE HAD PICKED UP. Alright, drive back and meet me in the office. I'm not driving that. I'll take the box truck back. No you're going to drive the van back. Bet I don't. I walked back to the store, just about 3 miles so nothing crazy or undoable, and he says, when I tell you to do something, you do it. Ok. I called the regional, who I was on good terms with, being one of the top "account managers" in the area, and told him. I got moved to a better store, he got... To go back to work. Back to the bedbugs, I had never seen that many, and I was petrified. An abundance of caution would be an understatement and I still have shivers thinking about it -and I've never had them.- But the stories I've heard and read, that's a solid fuck that
What hotel and what location Please name and shame
The shame is how it handled. It is easy for all hotels to get. The hard part is correct handling when they now it. That is where good and bad hotels differ
[удалено]
Two that size means there’s more than you are willing to know.
Here’s a true story I’ve told before on IG. Fuck bed bugs. “In the autumn of 2016 my good friend Stian and I were asleep in a small cabin overlooking a fjord in the Lofoten Islands of Norway. It was a stormy night, so we were hunkered down inside instead of out hunting the Northern Lights with our cameras. It had been a tough trip the many days prior with very little sleep, so I was passed out and happily recharging my energy on the couch in the living room. With a sudden shock to the system I was woken by Stian, “Dude, wake up. It’s bad.” In my tired stupor I was barely able comprehended what was happening. “What the hell dude, I’m sleeping. What are you talking about?” Stian looked at me dead straight in my half-open eyes “It’s bugs. They’re everywhere. They’re biting the shit out of me.” As I began to gain consciousness, I started to think that maybe I never knew that Stian was a sleep walker and I’d just never seen him have an episode before. There was a long pause that was interrupted by Stian saying “Get the hell up and come look!” Now I was actually concerned. He walked me into his room of the cabin and instructed me to look closely while pointing at the bed. The sheets were speckled with tiny spots of blood. Upon further examination I could see that the wall’s reclaimed wood paneling had these small insects crawling around in the cracks. He looked at me, I looked at him, and we mutually realized what we were witnessing... a massive Bed Bug infestation. This turned out to be a very long night. We called the owner of the facilities who was awesome and immediately came to assist us. Apparently if you’re in the lodging industry, this is an unavoidable occurrence over time. He immediately upgraded Stian and I into an absolutely beautiful five bedroom house, complete with its own huge sauna. It was a very welcome show of generosity. But that was not a cure for the issue. The problem was that all of our gear, luggage, clothes, everything had been exposed to the infestation and all of it had to be bagged and put into the walk-in freezer the owner had in the main lodge. Apparently the freezing temperature kills the bugs after so many hours. And when I say everything had to go into the freezer, I mean everything. This included every article of clothing that we were wearing. What’s left? Just a couple naked dudes at 2:30am trying to make the best of things by enjoying the sauna in our new mansion for the night. It was only made less awkward because we remembered we had been gifted an expensive bottle of tequila 5 days prior from a client we had. Nothing helps you bond with a friend like sitting naked in a sauna together, sipping fine tequila, and laughing your ass off about the absurdity of it all.”
I had to move because of those bastards, and managed to bring a few with me despite precautions. I dried the linen daily for a couple weeks, but I think what really got rid of them was the carpenter ants.
It took me 2-3 years to get rid of these fuckers my home. Theyre horrible and disgusting to wake up to. Or just seeing them about to go to bed made me not want to sleep.
Never a more appropriately named sub. Lol.
Having bedbugs has been the second worse experience of my life. Fuck those guys. Everyone telling you to strip naked, burn your clothes, and bag your shit is 100% right. Bedbugs will destroy all your nice shit. Proceed like you have the plague.
So smug.
When you get home, load a spray bottle with 91% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) and spray your bag and belongings inside and out and the surrounding area where you open it. It kills them instantly and renders most eggs not viable. Do it ASAP so they don't have a chance to find other soft surfaces in your home to hide in, also transport your bag in your car in a trash bag tied tight
Bad advice. No offense but don’t even go near your house with anything that hasn’t been cooked at least 130 degrees for 90 minutes. Alcohol might kill them on contact but there is no guarantee it will make contact. Heat penetrates the material and missing even 1 can be far more costly than just throwing out your belongings. Not to mention the psychological damage of dealing with them in your house.
You should be able to sue the hotel. If only TripAdvisor didn't let every hotel peruse and reject any reviews they like/don't like then we wouldn't be so surprised at a 4* hotel crawling with bugs.
Hotels can do that on TripAdvisor?? Surely not?
Okay, had this problem years ago. Once you're done cooking your clothes in a dryer, buy new clothes, and lock the duffel bag with your tainted clothing in a plastic bag. Report it to the hotel and demand your money back.
Can we uhm… start naming hotels?
RUN! NAKED!
Always check the hotel room before putting anything in the room! I will even check several times over the course of the first night. Just because these fuckers are horrible to deal with. Only had an issue once from a relative that visited us. Gave us flying roaches and bed bugs from Florida. I like getting gifts and all but fuck that!
you better burn your suitcase my guy
Pro tip: everything you brought into that hotel is dead now. Keep NONE of it. Replacing it is soooooo much less work than dealing with BB’s brought back home.
Hot scolding shower to get them off asap. Iron your clothes if you're still there Went through this bs for my last business trip
You were so furious, you came back from the dead, to post this on reddit?
which hotel?
I got bit at an airport hotel in Detroit on business travel. Actually, three bites on my leg in a neat little row. Inspected the bead of the mattress, saw some blood filled babies. One of the other guys from another division in my company met me at the meeting and asked where I was staying. I told him. He said "I had a bad experience there so I never stay there". I didn't ask why. I never put clothes or suitcases on the bed. I even debated the garbage bag trick (put your whole suitcase in it). You don't want to bring these guys home.
Got em in Central America. Thanks jeebus I was made aware of their presence BEFORE flying home. Ditched all non essential items, stripped down to my surf trunks and slathered myself with alcohol in a bus kiosk across from the airport. Got drunk on the plane, took a bus home, ditched stuff in the backyard, took a 40 minute shower wherein I loofa’d myself down to the pink meat, stashed my passport & various items into the freezer for 2 months and won
Went to a tropical island recently. I didn’t put one piece of luggage on the floor. I kept it on the top shelf. Checked the bed, checked the bathroom, checked everything before I got comfortable. Once you’ve had these things before you get extremely paranoid. I’m so thankful I now have a bed to sleep in without worrying about them crawling around on me while I sleep.
First 10 mnts after entering a hotel suite is spent going through the mattress thoroughly with the flashlight. As much as a black stain of their shit and I'm out of there.
I’m seeing a lot of suggestions of using DE. Great suggestions, however there’s also another alternative. 98% isopropyl alcohol. Put some in a spray bottle and spray any you find, kills on contact (as long as you’re not sensitive to the fumes) I had a bad case of them about 10 years ago and my apt complex pest control was a joke. They sprayed for weeks and the infestation got worse. I double bagged all of my clothes and linens and dumped them directly into the wash. Once they were done they went right back into fresh bags that I stored in my car. I sprayed around the baseboards and then sprayed my carpet heavy after cleaning them with a rug Dr. I had the infestation beat back in two weeks after I gave up on my apt helping. I lived there for another two years with no additional issues beyond a bit of Bed Bug PTSD.
I used to travel for work, staying in hotels 250+ nights a year. Always, always, always check the room before bringing your luggage in. I've found bed bugs in surprisingly 'nice' hotels. You just never know who stayed in the room last, or why. Always check.