Wise travelers search their hotel rooms for bed bugs before settling in.  (Our Travel FAQs are a good place to start learning how.)

However, it’s worth noting you may find things besides bed bugs lurking in the room.

Friday night Michigan resident Frank Escamilla rolled in to town to look into buying a house in cheerful Stumptown. He stayed at the most budget-conscious place he could find: the Thriftlodge on East Burnside and SE 9th.

“The whole building smelled like urine, especially in the rooms. It was pretty gross,” says Escamilla. Things quickly got worse. Just to play it safe, Escamilla decided to check under his mattress for signs of bedbugs. No bugs droppings in sight, but wedged between the two boxsprings supporting the mattresses he spotted a black plastic bag. Gingerly, Escamilla picked up the bag and dumped it out on the bedside table—out rolled a cotton swab and three hypodermic needles.

(Emphasis mine.)

Yikes!  A helpful reminder to be cautious while doing your inspections!

The Thriftlodge claims to lift up the bed mattresses for inspections once every three months; they might want to re-think that one!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve found in a hotel room?

See  Thriftlodge Guest Finds Three Needles Under Bed | Blogtown, PDX | Portland Mercury.Similar Posts:

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Orkin in Vancouver has just acquired a bed bug sniffing dog.

Vancouver, meet Frankie!

Frankie was rescued from a shelter and trained for 600 hours at Florida Canine Academy (run by Bill Whitstine).

An Orkin employee wrote to Bedbugger,

For a VERY limited time our company will be offering free inspections to those in the Vancouver area that fear they have bed bugs but professionals have not been able to turn up any evidence.

It is important to note that we will not be doing inspections for people that have not yet had any pest control professionals do an inspection first.

They will need to provide proof that the pest professionals are stating that they did not find evidence. We will also only be able to do this free of charge for a limited number of people.

Just to repeat, you must have already been told by a pest control operator that you do not have bed bugs, based on an inspection.

This will surely be a good offer for some in the area. Thanks to Orkin for sharing it with us.

If you’re in Vancouver and qualify, please call the Burnaby manager at (604) 434-6641 and tell them Bedbugger sent you.Similar Posts:

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It’s a pretty unlucky scenario when patients who checked into the Edmonton General Hospital sleep disorder clinic in order to find the cause of their sleep disturbances are woken in the middle of the night and sent home due to bed bugs.  This article from the Edmonton Journal describes just such a situation.

Sleep disorder clinic patient Dawn Blue was sent home in the middle of the night after another clinic patient saw bed bugs climbing up the wall of the next room.

The clinic had been closed after bed bugs were first discovered on December 17th:

When staff members first noticed bedbugs Dec. 17, they immediately closed the clinic, contacting both a public health inspector and a pest extermination company.

The mattresses and furniture were sprayed and the rooms were fumigated.

The clinic remained closed for its annual Christmas hiatus, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5, during which time it was sprayed again.

The public health inspector and the exterminator returned before it reopened, and, following a thorough examination, gave the clinic a clean bill of health.

It resumed normal operations, until Monday, that is, when Blue was sent home and the clinic closed once more to allow for more fumigation.

The article states that Dawn Blue discovered the itchy effects of bed bug bites on various parts of her body the next morning.

The time-line is this: bed bugs were spotted 12/17, there were two spray treatments in less than three weeks, and the public health inspector and exterminator then declared the facility bed bug-free on 1/5.  The next bed bugs were found two weeks later on 1/19.

It is not surprising that the clinic would become infested with bed bugs in the first place, since guests were allowed to bring their own pyjamas, pillows, and other items (on order to simulate a comfortable, home-like environment).

What is surprising, however, is that according to the article, the Alberta Health Services spokesperson Rob Stevenson appears to believe that the reappearance of bed bugs in January was “a terrible coincidence.”

He says,

“In the most unfortunate of coincidences and, despite the fact that every day all of the material in the clinic goes through a specific laundering process, between Jan. 5 and Jan. 19, one of the participants brought bedbugs in with their belongings,” Stevenson said.

He appears to be claiming that this is a new infestation, not the re-surfacing of an existing problem that was not 100% eliminated as they had thought.  I am really not sure how someone can make this claim with any certainty, given the circumstances.

In my mind, the appearance of bed bugs one month after their first discovery, and after two spray treatments, does not necessarily mean the facility was “coincidentally” infested a second time by a new patient, as Stevenson seems to think, even if inspectors were able to find no signs of bed bugs in a visual inspection.

Many cases of bed bugs take more than two treatments.  There is no way of being sure the facility did not harbor some bed bugs after being pronounced “clear.”  We’re told even very experienced professionals cannot be 100% sure a space is bed bug-free. Human visual inspections are imperfect, and even well-trained bed bug sniffing dogs — which have a much better success record — are not 100% effective in detecting bed bugs.

Although a new patient can certainly bring in bed bugs at any time (and many Edmonton residents are, sadly, well-acquainted with Mr. Cimex Lectularius), it seems like the odds are also good that some bed bugs and/or eggs remained after the second treatment and simply were not spotted by the inspectors.

Anyway, the good news is that patients will no longer be able to bring items from home into their beds.

Other hospitals take note: we’ve heard complaints from people who believed they brought bed bugs home from maternity wards and sleep disorder clinics.

Steps need to be taken to reduce the spread of bed bugs, and as much as people need to be comforted while in the hospital, it is of the utmost importance that they do not suffer from bed bug bites there; it’s even more important they don’t bring bed bugs home.

You can read the full article here.Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs bite Edmonton
• Ohio County, WV Health Dept. official: bed bugs “public health nuisance” and “psychological disaster”
• Woman says she suffered bed bug bites at Bally’s in Atlantic City
• Bed Bugs and Public Health
• More on bed bugs in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: again with the HAZMAT showers?!?

Dear Readers,

A Bedbugger has agreed to let me share this story of her recent treatment by a Pest Control Operator for bed bugs.

Reader “Miranda” wrote the epistle below (which she emailed me) and I took the liberty of changing names to protect the parties involved.

Sensitive readers, please be warned, the item below contains a small amount of “language” (Miranda’s, but not nearly as much as you might expect, given the scenario that unfolds), and an ignorant racist statement (heard by Miranda, certainly not made by her, or us).

Lots of tempest, no teacup.

Enjoy. And thanks to Miranda for the excellent reportage.

nobugs, your Editor

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Dear nobugs,

I scheduled my follow-up appointment with the PCO for today. Here’s how my day went today:

-woke up at 8:22 am to a phone call from the president and owner of PCO company, who informed me that his tech “Caliban” had searched my apartment “from top to bottom” when he was here the first time (mind you, the guy was here for a grand total of 35 minutes) and he didn’t find any bed bugs, so unless I could produce a specimen when they arrived this afternoon, they weren’t treating

-when I said that I would have a specimen ready and waiting, he said “So if I show up with my tech today, you’ll be able to show me a bed bug?” I said that I would.

-he then said that he couldn’t understand why I still had bed bugs after his tech had inspected and treated so thoroughly (once); he said that I must be “bringing them in on [my] shoes”

-I said that I assumed, considering that I’d seen and photographed four mattresses and box springs discarded beside our building dumpsters THIS WEEK, that they were probably in our building and spreading through the walls

-he said “Hummmmmmmmmmmmmph. I’ll see you at 1:00 then” and hung up on me

-at 1:00 PM, my phone rang, and a person identifying himself as a PCO from the company asked to be let in (not my original tech)

-I answered the door to find a man dressed in black dress pants, really expensive black dress shoes, and a half-buttoned black sweater that emphasized not only his chest hair but also several gold chains, wielding a single can of D-Force, who identified himself as “Ariel”

-Ariel proceeded to enter my apartment and ask what I wanted “sprayed”

-I took Ariel to my bedroom and told him I wanted the (encased) box springs and bottom of the mattress and the bed frame “sprayed”, along with the bedside table, all the baseboards, all the cracks and crevices in the walls and window pane, and all the baseboards, cracks, and crevices in the entire apartment. I also said that I’d like for him to apply some other pesticide, preferably a dust and preferably in cracks and outlets and such

-Ariel caved quickly. He said I really needed to either do this myself because he was not prepared, or he would call Caliban (the original tech) and have him do it on Monday.

-he then said that he couldn’t understand how such a pretty, clean girl could get bed bugs

-I started educating him, using my laptop and multiple documents I’d printed

-he mentioned that my original tech was busy treating sixty (SIXTY) infested condos on the other side of town, and when my jaw dropped, he said that “black people are filthy so it’s no surprise”

-I then took out my camera and proceeded to show him the pictures I’ve taken over the last two weeks of all the mattresses and box springs (some with visible feces and bugs) discarded in my neighborhood, which is predominantly white, and pointed this out to him

-he then caved even further. He sat on my couch (crazy!). He looked at the armed forces pest control guide; he looked at the San Fransisco and the Cincinnati documents; he looked at the armed forces resistance paper

-he listened when I told him that if he or one or two of his techs became really, really informed and became bed bug specialists and truly inspected and treated thoroughly and planned and budgeted and charged according to the demands of bed bug infestations, he could make a fortune

-he told me he’d pass this along to his boss; I said his boss seemed to be quite the idiot, considering he’d suggested I was bringing bed bugs in on my shoes

-he then called Caliban and told him to come here on Monday night at 6:00 PM and spend at least two or three hours, and then he told me he would have Caliban come back as often as necessary with no charge

-then he told me that Caliban wants to date me and I should do him even though he (Caliban) is married

-then he told me that he (Ariel) is gay and would do Caliban in a second

-he finally left, after talking for fifty minutes about his Madonna tickets (which cost nearly as much as one of those new Indian cars), his upcoming Halloween party, and Caliban’s chest hair

-shortly thereafter, Caliban called to confirm our appointment and to ask me if I wanted to “get together” later today

-I told him I do not date married men, ever

-he said he understood, and then asked me how I had gotten along with Ariel; he then informed me that Ariel has been dating their boss for the last ten years (if you’re still following, you’ll know that I just told Ariel that their boss [his boyfriend] was a complete idiot)

-and then I sat down to do some research on my alderman, my ward, my senator, my representatives, and my congressman, and got bit on the neck as I typed. My ear has swelled up to twice its normal size and is now throbbing and pulsating and shit. I took pictures.

Signed,
Miranda

Similar Posts:

• Miranda’s story: a visit from the PCO for bed bugs, part 2
• Bed bugs infest New Rochelle cell block and three police cars
• More bed bug treatments in Lexington’s Ballard Griffith senior apartments
• Mary-Louise Parker talks to Letterman about her current bed bug scare
• Soundbites from the EPA National Bed Bug Summit

Marsha Stoltz provided a typical regional bed bug news story in The Record Sunday:

Creepy crawly creatures have always been a predictable, if dreaded, part of multi-housing life because of the ease with which they move from unit to unit along shared pipes, wires and cable lines.

Landlords and buildings managers typically address these concerns with monthly inspections and treatments while urging tenants to adopt neater lifestyles and garbage disposal methods.

Now, say area pest control companies, bedbugs have replaced cockroaches and mice at the top of the creature list, and none of these treatments help.

“In New Jersey we’re seeing bedbugs in epidemic proportions,” says Tony Yochum, commercial sales manager for Viking Pest Control with offices in Saddle Brook and throughout northern New Jersey. “They are the cockroach of the new millennium.”

It seems obvious to us Bedbuggers that the problem is spreading rapidly and also that it can be difficult to get rid of bed bugs. But sometimes news articles are more reserved about saying so outright. Sometimes they even seem to state the opposite.

They also often do not mention how easily bed bugs can be transported from place to place:

“You can pick them up at college, a movie theater, in furniture,” [Abarb Pest Service's George] Forst said. “They spread like wildfire.”

For the general public, it is helpful to consider that bed bugs can come from a wide variety of sources, and travel in all directions.

That kind of talk can make some people paranoid, of course. It is not true that you will encounter bed bugs everywhere you go, nor is it true–having had bed bugs–that you will likely reinfest yourself again and again from random locations once your bed bugs are gone.

It is worth taking precautions against spreading them if you have them, and it’s worth being alert wherever you go, since picking up bed bugs is always a possibility.

Jim McCale, owner of J.P. McCale Pest Management in Boonton is quoted as saying

We also recommend inspecting the units above, below and diagonal to the infected unit, but this can be hard. Residents don’t want other tenants to know.

What I hear from Bedbugger readers is most often that the landlord does not want to inspect all adjacent units (because, after all, they may then have to pay to treat them). Another common complaint is that the landlord will inspect, but some tenants will refuse either inspection or treatment.

We almost never hear of tenants who themselves do not want the landlord to have neighbors’ units inspected. (And anyway, if all adjacent units are being inspected, why would the other tenants need to know which tenant made the original complaint, if the landlord is the one calling for inspections?)

It is true, however, that our readers are self-selecting–they’re the information-seekers and proactive ones. Often this comes of necessity–when people have a bad allergic response to bed bugs, they not only come looking for solutions, they also are willing to do almost anything to get rid of the problem. So I guess many of us Bedbuggers might not be typical clients.Similar Posts:

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