First, learn a little bit about the enemy. Read the Bed Bugs 101 FAQs on this site, and use the links to bed bug photos to learn what bed bugs look like at different life stages.

Click to download this PDF of this comprehensive article by entomologists Steven Kells and Jeff Hahn of the University of Minnesota, which describes the steps you should take if you’ve been exposed to bed bugs. Remember you have the most chance of avoiding bringing bed bugs home if you take the necessary steps before getting in your car or going to your home or anyone else’s home. It is possible to spread bed bugs to your car as well as to other locations. Following the steps in the PDF carefully as soon as you realize the exposure to bed bugs means you probably won’t bring any with you.

If you already are home before you realize the problem, do follow the same steps listed in the PDF regarding inspecting luggage (do it over the bathtub so you can see the bugs and kill them easily) and cleaning luggage, clothing, and other items. If you are home before you realize the problem, and you brought possibly infested items in (including the clothing you’re wearing as well as any luggage), then you should quickly do some major cleaning where the luggage has been brought in and where you sleep (vacuuming, steaming, etc). If you brought home a bed bug or two and have not found them, it is sometimes possible to get rid of them before they take root. Even if you don’t find any bed bugs, and you’ve done all the cleaning and followed all the other steps in the PDF, you might consider taking some time to declutter, so that if you do have any bed bugs, the signs will be more visible. You should be on the alert for several months.

Once home, if you do find bed bugs or signs of bed bugs in your luggage, clothing or in any rooms, call a PCO right away (we have a FAQ on choosing a good one who knows bed bugs). Save any samples to show them.

Finally, if you got your bed bugs in a hotel, hostel, or other accommodations, please do leave a review on Tripadvisor.com, to warn others of your experience.

A note about using freezing temperatures to kill bed bugs: Kells and Hahn and Michael Potter have slightly different ideas about the temperatures and length of time needed to kill bed bugs. According to Michael Potter’s article from the January 2007 PCTOnline, Steven Kells is apparently researching the method of “leaving things out in cold weather,” with the inevitable fluctuations in temperature. For now, until we have definitive data, I’d err on the side of caution and go for colder temperatures and longer time frames wherever possible.

• FAQ: How can I avoid bedbugs while traveling?
• More bed bug research: Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota
• FAQ: Leaving stuff out to freeze, walk-in freezers, etc: how cold and how long?
• Possible travel solution for bed bugs?

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“In summer the risks of infestation are much greater because of the heat. As a result we’ve stepped up our cleaning routine for the sleeping compartments,” an official said.

Well, now that bed bugs are an epidemic everywhere, we should expect bed bug infestations year round, anywhere. And not just on overnight services, either. Cleaning routines need to be altered and stepped up in all areas where bed bugs can take root, including normal seats on trains and other transportation modes.

Pest control experts should be helping organizations of all kinds plan protocols to prevent bed bugs, and protocols for dealing with bed bugs should an infestation occur. Train, bus, and airline personnel should be trained to clean preventively, and taught to recognize the more subtle signs of bed bugs.

By “subtle signs of bed bugs,” I mean more subtle than, for example, people running, screaming, from a train overnight compartment, screaming “Mon Dieu!”

Update (8/4):

Apparently Reuters offered another take on the same story, as shown in the Scotsman, here. I think you’ll find it interesting:

Bed bugs were a rare occurrence, [an unnamed SNCF official] added.

“It’s the kind of little animal that unfortunately you’ll only notice when they bite. There’s no other way to detect them. They are so small.”

Contrasting with the promises to step up cleaning procedures (as per the AFP story), this statement about the impossibility of detection is only somewhat accurate. It is difficult to find actual bed bugs, but not because they are small. Yes, 1st instar nyphs are only 1/32″ or 1 mm long, but adults are 1/6″ or 6 mm long. If they sat around in plain view, you’d have no trouble seeing them. They’re extremely stealthy and can hide in the thinnest cracks–instead of letting SNCF off the hook for not finding bed bugs, this speaks to the need for more careful searching and more thorough cleaning to detect and prevent them.

And it is not impossible to see their signs; housekeeping staff, porters, repair workers, and ticket collectors, and others who work in hotels, hostels, sleeper cars, other train cars, planes, and buses can and should be trained to look for subtler signs of bed bugs: fecal stains, fecal specks, and bloodstains (tiny, thin, or larger) on the seat, bed, or bedsheets, and bed bug cast shells, can all be watched for, as can bed bugs. Staff not trained in this way will often assume they’re seeing something innocuous (carpet beetles, roaches, whatever), when they do actually encounter a bed bug.

What’s more, bed bugs are no longer a “rare occurrence,” neither where I live in NYC, nor in France. They’re growing to epidemic proportions worldwide. Click on the Cluster Map on the inner right sidebar (at the top) if you want to see where this site’s visitors have come from since June 2nd, 2007. This SNCF official needs to be brought up to speed.

• Bed bugs infest Thai trains, Bangkok Post reports
• Abbey the Bed Bug Dog: news report
• Hotel housekeeping staff offered $25 bounty per head on bed bugs
• Nova Scotia home help nurses stop visiting client with bed bugs

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This week he published a follow-up, which focuses largely on the many ideas people suggest (besides PCOs) for fighting the bugs. Hmm, Barbra Streisand albums. Now there’s an idea we hadn’t heard before. Cats? Barry’s right–not only do they sleep all the time, but unless they’re staring at your face at 5 am, they’re unlikely to catch and nosh on your bed bug friends.

He also mentions Bedbugger.com. Thanks Barry! Hope your bugs are long gone soon.

• Just a week after I posted “Another journalist gets bed bugs,” here’s a third
• bed bug news for 2007-11-09
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Apartmenttherapy.com: Amanda update (#7)

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APilot writes:

This is from a letter I’m writing for my union publication. Any feedback?

What do wheals and papules have to do with my career in Aviation? “Nothing,” I thought until I came for from a trip with an overnight in my “home away from home” layover hotel in Orlando with three strange red spots on my body. The next day I went to the doctor. My computer savvy husband headed off to the Internet.

My doctor (in Colorado) identified them a “some kind of insect” bites. Puzzled as to why I was bitten more than once, he subscribed an antibiotic and wished me luck. My husband had a more successful afternoon. He discovered that there is a pandemic of bed bugs in hotels in NY and most Border States. My marks resembled the bites and later two of those became aggravated into very worse form- an infected papule.
A wheal is simply a term for a raised up mark on the sick, a papule is described as “a small inflamed elevation of skin that is nonsuppurative as in chicken pox.” Nonsuppurative means not filled with fluid (i.e. pus). This development occurs to those who are allergic-, allergies that can develop if a person is bitten on a regular basis.

One of the first sets of bites, which were treated with only antibiotics, grew to the size of a half dollar and was about a half an inch thick. The center turned dark black and grew to the size of a match head; finally it oozed a little clear pus before starting to heal. It was three full weeks before the swelling was gone and a large scar remains.

One month later I was back in the Orlando hotel (management had “assured” me the problem was handled and my room was clean). Unfortunately I had not really searched a hotel room thoroughly before. Unsure whither the 12 or so specks of black and brown stuff I picked out of the mattress pad and box spring were normal, I slept there again. This time I wore full pajamas, tucked in at my socks and waist. I was rewarded for my experimentation with a bite just under my armpit that showed up the very next day. (The bugs probably crawled in through the neck hole.)

For those who are squeamish- skip on ahead, because the following paragraph may contain more than you really want to read. Over the next two weeks, ten much smaller bites could be identified. The prominent bite swelled up painfully. In spite of treatment with ice and over the counter pain medicine, it grew to the point were I couldn’t sleep and needed to call off a trip to see the doctor. This time I took with me an Internet recommended treatment- the steroid cream Mizaondoec, which purportedly helps by constricting capillaries and reducing the spreading of the toxins. The cream on the papule caused it to flow about teaspoons of yellow puss, beginning its recovery. However its effect on the lesser bites was to seal off the bites from the surface of the skin. A week later, two of these had swollen to a very painful half dollar size. Ultimately they had to be treated with both antibiotics and lancing. Surgical scissors were needed to break up the congealed areas for drainage. Then they were packed with sterile tape to keep them from closing off before the infection could be healed.

But my nightmare didn’t end there. A ten-day stretch of time off confirmed my worse fears. I was now getting bitten on a regular basis in my own bed. These bites were small and not very numerous but consistent, leading me to suspect may a lone hitch hiking egg had hatched. The eggs of a bed bug are the size of a dust mote, white and sticky, and the female lays about three a night. Although it would be possible to inadvertently trap a beg in some early show predawn packing, it is more likely end up carrying an egg

To get rid of our new houseguest we laundered all the bedding in hot water. We sealed the box spring and mattress in covers. And purchased a new comforter and pillows. We put bed bug powder poison on the frame and around the foot of the bed. This took two tries but finally the nibbling stopped.

During this time my husband never noticed any bites. Although the Internet said that bed bugs are equal opportunity bitters, our personal experience didn’t reflex this. Even if you believe you are not allergic or at risk there are few simple things you can do to protect your family. I now shut my suitcase at night never put any of my things between the hotel walls and the beds. Also I wash my layover clothing separately, and store my flight bag in the laundry when not in use.

On the road I check the bed by lifting up the bottom sheet and any box spring cover. I collect any black specks found on white paper. Thanks to another bed bug experience in the Tampa, if there are more than four specks, a new room is requested. The majority of the beds will not have a single speck. Lately, if there are more than two specks I use Off insecticide on my clothes and exposed skin, which seems to be working.

• Bed bugs in Patagonia, can’t use dryer, with backpack: what to do?
• Barona Resort and Casino bed bug lawsuit
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• FAQ: What are bed bugs? Do I have them? What else could be causing this?

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On YouTube.

(Note: there’s a minute and 17 seconds of fluff at the beginning before the Fox news report kicks in.  But the report it is well worth watching.)

• Riding the bed bug wave
• Brooklyn woman suing, apparently because of half-a$$ed treatment for bed bugs
• new, good Bed bug videos
• Mary-Kate and Ashley conquer the bed bugs

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I have the same hunch about Toronto and Vancouver. In 2003, when NYC claimed to have 16 bed bug violations (as per this 2005 NYTimes article) and the local and national press was still reporting bed bugs as a bizarre anomaly suffered by mattress-foraging Greenpoint hipsters, , the Canadian media outlets were writing much more about bed bugs. More to the point, Toronto was already surveying the incidence of bed bug infestations, of which PCOs treated 847 that year in that city; a whopping 70% were in single-family dwellings. (The study notes that Toronto Public Health, in contrast, had only 46 complaints by comparison: this is why I keep insisting that NYC is likely to have many more than the recorded number of complaints filed to 311.)

The US CDC published the Toronto study on their website, but to my knowledge no similar survey of the incidence of bed bugs as reported by PCOs in a US city in one year has been undertaken. But if this were done now in NYC, as I argue it should be, Mayor Bloomberg would have to admit we have a very serious bed bug problem here, indeed. (Denial ain’t just a river in Africa.)

As far as Australia goes, This article from The Age, an esteemed Australian news outlet, speculates about the origins of the Aussie bed bug epidemic, and dates it to the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, when people from all over the world descended on Sydney. The article states that

. . . Australia is in the grips of a bedbug resurgence. There was a 5000 per cent increase in the treatment of bedbugs between 2000 and 2005 - with Victoria one of the worst affected states, according to Westmead Hospital scientist Stephen Doggett.

I do find the Sydney Olympics theory (which I’ve also seen elsewhere) slightly less offensive than the “immigrants brought bed bugs to Astoria” theory of the origins of NYC’s bed bugs. It’s more probable, to me: Foreign tourists from countries where bed bugs were, at the time, more common, visiting hotels which are later visited by Australian business people and domestic travelers = bed bugs! The Olympics theory is even more probable if the rise in Australian bed bugs spiked in a way NYC’s and Toronto’s bed bug cases didn’t. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

Stephen Doggett is the fabulous bed bug scientist who gave us permission to post his Bed Bug Life Cycle, which allows us to see all stages of the bed bug life cycle side by side. He’s also the principle author or the Code of Practice for the Control of Bed Bug Infestations in Australia (June 2005), which can be downloaded here. Anyway, there’s a point to all that digressing, besides expressing our gratitude to Stephen Doggett once again, which is that the fact that the Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association has had time to build up a Code of Practice for the Control of Bed Bug Infestations which is now almost two years old, reinforces my view that they were slightly ahead of us in suffering the bites. (Again, possibly because they had a spike, brought on by this Olympic influx, whereas we in NYC have had a slower arc?)

In this interesting article by Doggett, (clicking there will get you a PDF —>) “Bed bugs: the Unwanted Guest” from a 2006 edition of Executive Housekeeper (for those in the Australian hospitality industry), the author claims that from 1999-2006 the US has suffered a “ten-fold increase” in bed bugs, while in Australia there’s a 1000% rise in infestations treated from 2001-2006. (This number really conflicts with the 5000% increase also citing Doggett as a source, but I suspect it relates to the context from which the figures emerged.) Since statistics are tied to years when data was taken, it’s impossible to settle the US vs. Australia bedbug-chronology question based on this. (By the way, you can read other articles by Doggett here.)

What’s being done to stop bed bugs in Australia, besides the sharing of best practices? Australia is a favorite destination of young travelers (both native and international), who often stay in the country’s extensive assortment of backpacker hostels. This article, from the Sydney Morning Herald, details a new law passed in the city to protect those who stay in backpackers hostels:

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, has a plan to stop bed bugs biting Australia’s most lucrative tourists: backpackers. Under the plan, all new hostels will have to provide washed mattress protectors and pillow covers to reduce the extent of bug infestations. The rules will make every hostel use dense foam in its beds “designed to eliminate potential harbourage of vermin including bed bugs” while providing coverings for mattresses and pillows, washed after each backpacker.

I do hope those are sealed, not just washable, mattress and pillow protectors. (In fact, I am hoping they’re washed on the mattress, since removing them seems like a dangerous thing to do, bedbug-wise.)

The City of Sydney has no power to apply the rules to existing hostels, as they are applied during the development approval process in the conditions attached to a hostel’s consent.

Not only do the laws not apply to existing hostels, as one hostel association spokesperson pointed out, many hostels are operating illegally, and they also obviously won’t have the rule enforced. It’s a start though, and budget travelers who are aware of bed bugs and the laws and which hostels are covered can vote with their feet.

Besides adding mattress covers and using foam mattresses (I’d love to see documentation on what those do):

The rules . . . ban triple bunks and discourage carpets, also to cut down on the spread of bed bugs.

Last year the Herald reported council findings that almost eight out of 10 eastern [Sydney] suburbs backpacker hostels had infestations.

The bottom line is that some things can only be legislated so far; mattress pads rip and will need to be checked and kept in good repair or replaced. (As an aside, I visited a YMCA retreat center that had cheap vinyl covers on the beds which were full of rips, and therefore pointless.) For this to be helpful, hostel managers need to care. (And what about hotels? Some do have zippered covers. They all should, and they should be of the sturdiest type, and checked often. Even the best-made ones can get torn.)

The article from Executive Housekeeping had one other tidbit I forgot to mention. (This is a post of asides, but there’s just so much in these sources and I want to get it all in.) In emphasizing the need for hotels to use experienced PCOs who know how to deal with bed bugs, Doggett mentions the case in one Sydney hospital where an employee residence was infested; a small infestation that would have cost AU$500 to treat, ended up costing AU$50,000, all because the infestation was handled poorly by an inexperienced PCO. I just thought that was a fascinating case study, but I bet it happens all the time, and I know similar things, on a smaller scale, have happened to many of you. College dorms are another prime example, since most news reports we get to see detailing dorms being treated (with the exception of Stanford) appear to be mismanaged, if the news reports are accurate.

I hope we can continue to record what’s being done to fight bed bugs in various places. And I hope some of our readers from down under will drop us a comment and say hello!

I almost said, “G’day,” but I know you were dreading it coming from me, as much as I dread, but await nevertheless, the “sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” crap that gets trotted out by the end of 80% of media reports on bed bugs.

Down with bed bugs, and down with cliches, Dear Reader.

• Bed bug infestations on the increase in Australia, says The Age
• Stephen L. Doggett’s A code of practice for the control of bed bug infestations in Australia (2nd Ed.)
• bed bug life cycle photo
• bed bugs: incidence studies needed in NYC and elsewhere

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I have to preface this by saying that lots of people who don’t suffer from bed bugs might write off the concern Mike’s going to describe as irrational paranoia. Yes, it is a kind of paranoia, and to some degree it’s irrational (in the sense that its out of proportion to the threat). But those of us who have (or had) bed bugs would probably understand it in a way that people cannot understand if they did not suffer months of itchy anguish, alienation from friends and family, the loss of some or all personal effects and furnishings, the great financial loss of that coupled with extermination bills and/or supplies, and perhaps even moving home. (This is why the Village Voice article was so un-helpful; it painted bed bug sufferers as a bunch of crazy paranoid people, without giving the details to account for that degree of paranoia.) In short, when I say Mike is describing a kind of paranoia, I think all Bedbuggers would agree that it’s one that is understandable in this situation. And one I’m sure many of us share, and some have mentioned here before. Mike’s questions get to the heart of the matter: statistically, to what degree is this anxiety rational, to what degree is it not a real concern? Emotionally and logistically, how do we go about traveling (and other activities) once we’ve been burned by bed bugs.

Here’s his letter:

I moved into a new apartment after my old apartment was sprayed in
September 2005. Since then, I’ve not seen bedbugs in my current apartment,
thank goodness; I only hope that trend continues. The thought of
bedbugs invading this new “safe” space — a space that I’ve really grown to
like — prompts feelings of deep horror in me.

Since my original infestation, I’ve not needed to travel — my job is
local, and my holiday trips have been on local commuter rail to family
in northeastern Indiana. However, I may find myself visiting western
New York State (about 54 miles east of Buffalo — nearly 330 miles away
from NYC’s bedbug epidemic) in early August 2007, and this brings up the
spectre of domestic travel and hotel stays.

Most people nowadays seem to contract their infestations from hotel and
motel stays. As you might guess, this has made me absolutely dread the
thought of staying in any hotel or motel. However, I know that even if
I don’t end up traveling this August (I may end up having a conflict),
someday I will have to do just that: stay in a motel or hotel room. So
I need to figure out how I’m going to deal with this — from an
emotional, logistical, and statistical perspective.

While there is a good Ask Metafilter page about avoiding bedbugs while
in hotels (http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/44029), what’s presented
there isn’t enough information for me, and so I ask my fellow bedbug
sufferers and survivors …

(1) Emotionally, how have you dealt with the anxiety surrounding
possible re-infestation? How do you stop that from ruining your enjoyment of
whatever reason you have for your trip? How do you deal with being
concerned, post-trip, that you might have brought something back?

(2) Logistically:

(2a) What steps have you taken to minimize the possibility of bringing
bedbugs home with you from a hotel stay — both in terms of (i)
research beforehand (I’m aware of the TripAdvisor and HotelChatter sidebar
links), (ii) conversation (if any) with the hotel or motel itself, (iii)
room examination upon arrival, and (iv) post-trip luggage examination?
Given that baby bedbugs can be almost invisible
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou_bugs_pix/324802634/), how can you have
confidence in self-examinations?

(2b) Are hotels the only “hot zones,” or are other places associated
with domestic travel troublesome (airports, airplanes, trains, etc.)?
(My inclination is to say that airports, airplanes, and trains are *not*
potential places to be infested, but I wonder.)

(2c) I’ve wondered whether or not actually being bitten in the room is
a litmus test for potential infestation. On one hand, it seems like
bedbugs would not pass up a meal (namely, us) in order to latch onto
luggage — which would mean that yes, if you wake up not having being
bitten, it’s safe to say your room wouldn’t be infested. On the other hand,
that almost seems like it might be too good to be true.

(3) Statistically, has anyone ever run across a statistic *from a
reliable source* such as “every 1 in 500 motel rooms is infested,” etc.?
Knowing what sort of odds I’m playing with would help out a great deal.
If I knew I only had a 0.2% chance of coming back with an infestation,
I could play those odds.

If my fellow bedbug sufferers and survivors have any input as to these
questions — either direct answers, or linkage to columns or sites
addressing the above — I would very much appreciate them.

My deep thanks
in advance,

Mike

• Gaston County, N.C. health officials to hotel: bed bugs not a serious violation
• Bed bugs in hotels: how to report (and check up on) bed bug infestations
• Alton, Illinois, motel: blaming the bedbug victim
• 25% of hotel rooms have bed bugs? I don’t think so.

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Now, ironically, lorry (truck) drivers in Northern Ireland are suffering from a bedbug problem, according to this article in the Belfast Telegraph Wednesday. They believe the bedbugs infested their trucks while they were on P&O line ferries crossing the Irish Sea:

The news first came to light after a Portadown haulier contacted the Stephen Nolan Show to complain about a problem he claimed originated on a P&O [ferry] crossing.

The ferry company, however, yesterday defended its actions, saying the problem was nipped in the bud.

“I started to scratch and I couldn’t stop. My God, the bites were itchy,” the lorry driver said.

“Then some of the boys started to find insects in their lorries - they’re wee flat bronze coloured things with a black spot and they only come out when it’s dark.

“Everyone has been talking about it for some time now. A friend of mine was eaten alive after his lorry was swarmed with them.”

The 29-year-old, who asked not to be named, said he believed he caught the bugs on a P&O crossing between Larne and Cairnryan.

“I make that journey up to six times each week. In July, P&O said there was a ’small problem’, so the commercial drivers lounge was closed - and completely refurbished,” he said.

So P&O treated some kind of bug problem and claimed it was “nipped in the bud.” Meanwhile, one driver claimed he had had to have his lorry fumigated three times, at 500 pounds a pop (about $900 US). Since he pays this expense, it is taking a huge cut of his wages.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries yesterday said there was a “possible pest control issue” on the Larne-Cairnyran route at the end of July.

“This area was immediately closed and treated and we then took the added precaution of completely refitting all fittings and furnishings in the Commercial Drivers Lounge. This area was subsequently reopened to commercial drivers in late August.”

He added that there had been an inspection on Monday.

“Once again both external experts, Rentokill Initial and Environmental Health Officials from Larne Borough Council, gave the European Highlander and the European Causeway vessels a complete clean bill of health,” he said.

Two things are interesting here: one, this illustrates the wide-ranging effect of an infestation. If bugs on the P&O ferries are indeed getting into lorries (or possibly into lorry driver’s coats and bags?) then they are going wherever those drivers go, including pubs, restaurants, and homes. Maybe even shops their freight is destined for.

Another point is that P&O carries travelers on foot and with cars, as well as frieght and drivers. They connect rail and bus lines in Scotland and Northern Ireland. So people who’ve been in trains or cars can presumably carry the bugs too.

What many readers might find to be an innocuous story about people in one line of work getting a raw deal is actually a story about how bedbugs travel. This story is about P&O’s Scotland to Northern Ireland line, but the trains connect with trains and buses all over those countries; P&O also runs ferries to the Continent. Travelers visit hotels, hostels and homes.

Th public health authorities in Larne, and the Rentokill Pest Control may as yet not have extensive experience with bedbugs, but we here at Bedbugger can tell them it is not always easy to spot bedbugs in their earlier stages of development. And even if you eradicate them, they can come back, swiftly.

What do Northern Irish lorry drivers and Ralph Lauren’s New York design office employees have in common? Bed bugs at work. And you know that long after the office / trucks are clean, those monsters are spreading around the homes of the employees. And, if they’re not super careful, the homes of everyone they know. And their neighbors.
Are you starting to get worried about these lorry drivers and their problem now? I sure am.

• The Times (UK) on bed bug epidemic in the USA
• Bed bug hotel claim in Isle of Wight; study/travel abroad and bed bugs
• FAQ: Are bedbugs a health issue?
• Rockford, IL: half of Red Roof Inn shut down due to bed bugs

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