Ever Wonder if Your Hotel Room is Bugged?

 

I remember staying in a hotel in Bangkok as a boy and walking by a room under a staircase. The door was ajar, and I saw several uniformed officers with headsets and tape recorders, obviously recording guests’ rooms and perhaps telephone conversations. When I visited the Soviet Union during Perestroika as Gorbachev was instituting reforms, I was put up at a state hotel; I was sure I was being recorded. But those bugs did not bother me as much as a hotel in Hartford, Connecticut a decade ago. Those bugs were awful, leaving little red marks on my wife and me… and then following me home in my luggage where they invaded my abode. Bed bugs. Tiny little blood suckers who don’t carry any dangerous diseases, but they are thoroughly disgusting. They know how to hide… and they can live up to a year without feeding.

It cost us $1200 for a pest control company to get rid of them, cheap it turned out, as they heated our home to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (120 minimum), and you have to get rid of all kinds of stuff – like the plastic covers dry cleaners put on clothes. A big mess. But when we first flipped the mattress, we were totally grossed out. And no, the bugs spray cans you can buy at the local hardware store do not work. If you aren’t able to get rid of 100% of those tiny critters, they will return.

According to a report issued in January by Orkin, a major American pest control company, here are their top ten bed bug hotel infested cities in the United States, in order: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland-Akron (Ohio), Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Charlotte and Champaign (Illinois). I suspect that Las Vegas must have been jealous being left off that top 10 list; with all those new major league sports teams and shiny new stadia, they are competitive. Well, Las Vegans, do not fret. You are on your way.

As Nathan Solis writes in the February 22nd Los Angeles Times: “What happens in Las Vegas doesn’t always stay in Las Vegas. That applies to bedbugs that may hitch a ride with you back to your home… At least four guests staying in popular hotels on the Las Vegas Strip encountered the pests in their rooms between September and January, according to Las Vegas-based KLAS-TV, which cited reports from the local health department.

“Health inspectors from the Southern Nevada Health District confirmed bedbug sightings at the Encore, Venetian, Excalibur Hotel & Casino and Mirage. A bedbug-sniffing dog deployed by the Encore found a live bedbug on Dec. 5 after a guest complained, according to the news station. The hotel closed that room for service…” But if they get into one room, chances are pretty good they are spreading fast. Vegas accommodated about 450 thousand visitors for the recent Super Bowl. And frankly, those little critters are so small and know how to hide so well, who knows how many visitors do not know they have permanent roommates.

In India, where the Jain Hindus do not kill anything that moves as a basic part of their faith, there is a nasty practice of having an impoverished member of a lower class lie in bed before sleep time to feed the bugs before the master and family bed down for the night. Ugh! Vegas tells the world that bed bugs are a rarity in Sin City, but who knows? Vegas is very good at marketing. Orkin tells us: “Known for rapid population growth, female bed bugs can deposit one to five eggs a day and may lay 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime. They can survive for several months while waiting for their next blood meal, so they’re likely to emerge the moment a food source, e.g., humans or animals, becomes available.” Bed bugs must love Jains! And Vegas is so tempting.

But Vegas hates bad PR; tourism is their main industry. “The Southern Nevada Health District said it provided inspection reports to the station in response to a public records request over ‘bed complaints for public accommodations’ over a six-month period… ‘We understand that people find the topic of interest, and bedbugs are a nuisance; however, we are not conducting any ongoing investigations,’ communications officer Jennifer Sizemore of the Southern Nevada Health District wrote in an email.

“The Nevada Resort Assn., a gaming and resort advocacy group, said the health and safety of guests is the highest priority for the resort industry… ‘The minute number of incidents reflects the comprehensive and proactive health and safety measures and pest-control procedures Las Vegas resorts have in place to prevent and address issues.’.. The association added that when hotels encounter bedbugs, guests are relocated and exterminators are called, in accordance with health and safety guidelines. But the association cautions that bedbugs can be transported just about anywhere in luggage or on clothing.” LAT.

Major hotels the world over have a big issue as well. Paris is notorious, and the CBC (October 23rd) noted: “Bedbug infestations found in Paris during Fashion Week have prompted fears of travellers spreading the insects around, but exterminators in Canada say they're already enough of a problem here that people bringing them home from France isn't a concern.” Vancouver and Toronto lead the pack.

If you live in a searingly hot city, put your suitcases in the car and leave it in the sun for a full day. Take your travel clothes off in your shower stall and clean them immediately. You can also isolate your luggage in your tub, opened partially, and watch for the microdot pests. Ask your hardware store what might work in that situation. Hey, once you’ve got them, it is mess. And if you live in an apartment building and your neighbors have an issue…

I’m Peter Dekom, and with so much going wrong all over the world, at least there is one small problem (unless you have it) you actually can do something effective to combat.