Hello Travelers!

One of the unpleasant things about traveling and staying in all those exciting hostels / hotels is the increased risk of bedbugs. These creatures of the night have recently been making a strong comeback because DDT use has diminished and international travel has become more frequent; in fact, there has been a 500% increase in reported bedbug incidents since 1999. While bedbugs might be an unfortunate event in your travels, contact with them is not inevitable. With a few precautions you can greatly lessen your odds of becoming a host for these parasites and having them eat into your time, money and flesh.

Please note that bedbugs are very democratic about their victims and are NOT exclusive to hostels and budget accommodations. So don’t assume that because a hotel might have multiple stars that it’s immune from the bedbug threat.

Ways to determine the presence of bedbugs:

Budbugs look like little ¼ to 1/8 inch cockroaches, but chances are that you ever see them because they are nocturnal and protect themselves by hiding from the light in whatever little crevices will accommodate their flat little bodies. Therefore, don’t assume that just because you cannot see bedbugs that they are not there.

Tip 1: Research: Before booking your hotel you will want to look on the standard discussion boards, as you would, to look for comments about bedbug problems. If traveling in the US or Canada check The BedBug Registry which documents bedbug complaints and for a more comprehensive explanation of bedbugs try Bedbugger.com.

Tip 2: Looking for bedbug crap, literally. Bedbugs eat your blood, they fill up on it and then they leave their evidence on wherever they hid or on whoever they feed on. With this in mind, to check for budbug evidence do this three point bed check: 1) take off the pillow’s case; 2) pull back bottom sheet to expose the ticking (i.e. cord) around the mattress; 3) examine the mattress tag. If, in any of these places, you see little dark blood spots about the size of poppy seeds (i.e. bedbug waste) then your room may have bedbugs! Also look for bedbug shells in places where dust usually collects. If you see any examples of this evidence then bring it to the attention of the management and demand to be given a new room.

Tip 3: Bedbugs like wood and surfaces with lots of little hiding places: I worked in a hostel for a couple of years and I learned that wood is a favorite bedbug base camp and as such a fantastic indicator of their presence. If your room has a wooden headboard or other wooden furniture do yourself a favor and look at the unfinished parts (i.e. behind, under and inside drawers) for those tell tale little bloodspots. As a general rule of thumb, wood is a favorite hiding place so be particularly vigilant if there is any wooden furniture in your room, but this is not to say that that a check should not be made even if wood is not present.

The aforementioned advice will hopefully help you avoid any instances, however, it’s important to know what happens if you become a bedbug feast.

Bedbug bites are similar to mosquito bites, but they sometimes have very linear pattern, consistent with something crawling in a line and feeding along the way. You probably have never seen a mosquito create a linear bite pattern, so if you wake up with a line of bites you need to consider that bedbugs were the culprits. Moreover, a lot of the bites that I have seen are more like whelps and stings than like mosquito bite. If bitten then don’t freak too much because bedbugs are not known to spread disease in humans; however, with this said they can cause a great amount of anxiety and are a potent stressor, to me anyway.

Travelers want to blame the hotel at this point, but it’s possible that the bedbugs were imported with the traveler so don’t expect to be automatically compensated; however, before accusing your hotel make sure you do an extensive search mentioned to gather preexisting evidence and then they can say nothing. The word “bedbugs” strikes fear into the hearts of most hoteliers that I have ever met, and any serious owner / manager is anxious to make the problem go away as soon as possible.

Tip 4: What to do if it happens: Wash everything that you have in hot water and then dry it completely on high heat BEFORE changing rooms to prevent taking them with you to your next destination. This, in travel terms, is the most inconvenient because having to spend a few hours, and sometimes considerable cost, to launder every last thing that you have could be better used. As for your luggage, you have to basically go over it with a fine tooth comb to get rid of any stragglers. If you cannot wash your baggage in a machine then leave it in the hot sun, flipping it like a pancake to make sure that all surfaces get a lot of light and get very hot. If the sun is not an option then use a hair dryer to bring the heat.

No doubt, bedbugs are disgusting and unfortunately instances involving them are more frequent and no longer contained to flea bag hotels. By spotting the evidence of their existence in your hotel room you’re saving yourself distress and you will be helping your selected hotel to avert a problem that could cost $10,000s in repairs and diminished reputation. No matter where you stay get in the habit of looking out for these bloodsucking insects and you will save time, money and will sleep peacefully without a creepy crawly feeling.

Happy Travels,

Chris

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