in hotel now and found a bug please please help! « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Detection / Identification of bed bugs

in hotel now and found a bug please please help!

(12 posts)

Tags:

freakingout2010

newbite
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 13
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 4:07:31
#

Login to Send PM

Hello everyone I am so freaking out right now. We are traveling and have found a bug I am pretty sure is a bed bug. It is smashed flat but I took a photo it is here http://img163.imageshack.us/i/img0108lu.jpg/

We have been here for a week and our sheets were changed this morning, I found the bug tonight in between the sheets. I did notice a bump on my neck in my hair a few days ago that itched for a few minutes and then stopped (I get bitten by any bugs around they like me for some reason and I usually swell like crazy) I didn't think much of it at the time because it didn't bother me for long.

I am scared and don't know what to do now, we are supposed to go home on Friday (it's tuesday morning now) I don't want to take this pest into my home. Of course I and my husband have new expensive shoes and new luggage and laptops with us that are our livelyhood. Can't be without the computers because of our work.

What should I do. We are at a b and b and I will need to contact the owner in a few hours. Please help us any advice will be so very appreciated. We are traveling for work and I have a deadline tomorrow that I need to try and finish now.

I am of course itching like crazy now even though I don't see anything. This is messing with my head big time

My hope is someone will tell me it's not a bb but I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

Liz
BuggedOutBabe

junior member
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 37
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 4:25:44
#

Login to Send PM

Oh man. If I could have done it again... I probably wouldve thrown almost all of whati was traveling with away except for the most important items that you can wash before you return home. Before I threw away my luggage, i sorted the clothes outside and put straight in washer and dryer on hot (Which did not kill them all because I caught one crawling out of the clean laundry basket at 1:30 am), double bagged stuff to go to drycleaner and kept outside until I could get there and we STILL got them and has been a nightmare for the past few weeks. Costing us at least $1,200. You caught it early and it's not too late. Just one slight error and they can come home with you. I hope they do not and you have better luck than I.
BuggedOutBabe

junior member
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 37
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 4:28:50
#

Login to Send PM

I can't tell with the pic. I'm not an expert but I'm sure someone will let you know what they think soon.
Richard56

senior member
Joined: Jul '10
Posts: 636
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 7:17:04
#

Login to Send PM

I would make the time and effort now because if you bring them home that time and effort will be ten fold.

A number of ways you could go about this, but here's one possible way that hopefully will give you a sense of what you might need to do.

First, I would buy a cheap new set of "exit" clothes, including shoes and bag them in the store. Then change into your exit clothes in the bathroom right before leaving room. Upon exiting room, a good spray with a strong solution of rubbing alcohol (or Sterifab) on the soles of the shoes should take care of any possible hitchhikers.

All of your clothes, shoes and belongings (including your computers) should be double-bagged in bathroom before exiting. The luggage itself should also be double-bagged. Personal items (like your wallet) also should also be bagged except for bare essentials -- keys, credit cards, etc., which could be wiped down with the alcohol or Sterifab. Personally, I'd take out my SIM card and bag my cell phone, then buy a cheap phone upon exit and reinsert SIM.

Next step is to decontaminate everything in the bags before bringing them into your home. Various methods include heat treatment (dryer on "hot" for 30 minutes after clothes are completely dry); PakTite; Vikane gas; DDVP Strips. Some methods may be better than others depending on what you are decontaminating. If there is a convenient Vikane gas facility, that might be my first option as you can decontaminate everything at once including your computers. You might buy a cheap USB drive and back up important files needed while your computers are being decontaminated.

Some may argue overkill (and I'm sure some might say underkill) but the above really doesn't involve more than a few hours of time and very minimum expense compared to what would be required if you brought any bugs home.

As to the picture, not sure if even an expert can be 100 percent certain as the bug is squished, but my opinion (and I'm not one of the experts here you should rely on for identification) is that it looks enough like a bed bug to be concerned.

Good luck.

Richard
toledo

member
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 298
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 7:51:36
#

Login to Send PM

Is that bug on the top of a drink cover or glass cover? That thing is huge! It doesn't look like my bed bugs. Anyone else look at the picture?
Ilovepink1908

junior member
Joined: Jul '10
Posts: 51
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 9:57:20
#

Login to Send PM

Could you retake the picture with a penny beside it for scale? I'm not an expert either, but it will certainly help when our experts do chime in.
loubugs

old timer
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 1,695
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 11:33:51
#

Login to Send PM

It's hard to say 100%, a picture of its underside would help. My first inclination is to say cockroach nymph. The pronotum looks quite wide to be a bed bug.
DougSummersMS

oldtimer
Joined: May '07
Posts: 1,970
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 12:00:35
#

Login to Send PM

Vikane gas is your best option, if it is available and affordable in your area... It can be used to treat your belongings including your laptops without damage

Isolate your belongings and utilize a thorough decon procedure before you enter your residence.

Some of the actions in Richard's protocol are overkill, but I fully agree with his sentiment that it is much easier and cheaper to decon your luggage and clothing than deal with an infestation at home.

I am unable to confirm the identification of the bug with the picture that you posted.

How long is the insect?... It should be about 5mm or less, if it is a bed bug... There should be six legs with lateral bands only across the abdomen.

How many segments do you see on the antenna?

Can you post a shot of the underside of the bug?

If you can get your hands on a good magnifying glass 5 - 10x and shoot a picture of the bug under magnification.. We can be more helpful with the ID question
freakingout2010

newbite
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 13
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 17:22:03
#

Login to Send PM

hello everyone. Thank you all for the advice. My host has been really great and called pest control right away.

They just left. The pest control guy identified the squashed bug as a roach nymph. Hurray!!!! He also showed us a bunch of bedbug samples he brought with him and our bug was the wrong shape even squished you could tell and the wrong color.

This is such a crazy thing. We have to travel for work and when we travel it tends to be for weeks rather then days. Also we have a lot of electronics that come with us. I try to scan the room best I can before unpacking anything but these buggers can be so hard to detect.
MyWorstFear

senior member
Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 610
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 18:31:02
#

Login to Send PM

Freaking out, some of the suggestions for avoiding bringing back bed bugs to your home/apt should be followed anyway, not only for this trip but for any future trips too. Lots of people don't realize that there are bed bugs while they are away. It's only after they've been home a couple of weeks that they rear their ugly signs, and by then, they've had lots of babies. Also, if there are roaches in the B and B, you want to make sure you don't bring any of those back with you as well!
cherrystone64

newbite
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 4
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 19:18:07
#

Login to Send PM

I just went through and still treating bedroom for bed bugs and that does not look like a bed bug..I think of all the reading and research and the flash light becoming my best friend I could teach a class on bed bugs. But I would still bag your clothes and wash in hot water and then put in hot dryer.
cilecto

oldtimer
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 3,869
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 12 2010 20:09:09
#

Login to Send PM

I caretake my parents at their house on weekends and this is how I operate. I would treat every hotel room as suspect and operate this way.
- Everything -- your bag, your shoes, your papers, your laptop, etc. -- stays in a tied or ziplocked bag unless it's in use.
- Any clothes slept in or sat in are bagged until washed or left behind.
- be careful with conference materials and swag. They were in someone's room before they came into your hands.

You were (hopefully) lucky this time. It's an important lesson that not every bug in bed is a bed bug. That said, I'd hate to be a B&B operator in this enviromment. If I were a 100 room hotel, 2 rooms with BB is a PITA. If I'm a B&B with 2 rooms with BB, I'm out of business.