Bed bugs in my hotel room...HELP!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just ditch the luggage. It’s a lot cheaper than big treatment.

But what about our overflowing landfills?

[Anonymous]

To counter some misinformation. . .

Bed bugs can live longer than a year without a meal, so putting stuff in plastic for 6 months is inadequate.

Bed bugs don’t only live in carpeting and upholstery. They are perfectly happy to take up residence in the crevices of wood furniture, your lamp, the picture frame on the wall, and any electronics. They will crawl from your kitchen floor up to your bedrooms. It may take them several days, but they will follow the carbon dioxide you breathe out while you sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First world problem, OP.

Disagree strongly.

Bedbugs are really an all-world problem. No one wants them. I’ve taught low income immigrant kids who tell horror stories about bedbugs in their apartments.

actually the first pp's statement that this is first-world problem is ironic because it's even worse in poor countries.

[Anonymous]

I had bedbugs show up in my house when I allowed a family to stay with me temporarily, happened after their kid stayed with a friend for a week. Vacuumed, put down diatomaceous earth, cleaned bedding, got zipper covers for the mattresses and box springs. Wood floors but got rid of rugs they had brought with them. I saw a few bugs several weeks after they left and vacuumed them up. The interesting thing was that not a single bedbug ever crossed the hallway to my room, which I was worried about when they left and were no longer available as meals. I still check my mattress and box spring regularly (it's almost a year since they first appeared in the other rooms) but so far so good.

[Anonymous]

If you want to avoid artificial chemicals, I think tea-tree oil and/or a fine-tooth comb can be effective.

[Anonymous]

This is why I always check the bed when I first come into a hotel room. It drives my family crazy but I did find bed bugs once and we moved to a new room immediately. Now they put up with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I always check the bed when I first come into a hotel room. It drives my family crazy but I did find bed bugs once and we moved to a new room immediately. Now they put up with me.

How do you do your check? Where did you find them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why I always check the bed when I first come into a hotel room. It drives my family crazy but I did find bed bugs once and we moved to a new room immediately. Now they put up with me.

How do you do your check? Where did you find them?

Lift the sheet and check the side of the mattress. If you see markings like this



Run!

[Anonymous]

And to warn others, it would only be right to share your experience on Yelp or another review site.

You could save many travelers a ton of grief.

So sorry your vacation was ruined!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And to warn others, it would only be right to share your experience on Yelp or another review site.

You could save many travelers a ton of grief.

So sorry your vacation was ruined!!

Unfortunately, that's not really helpful. Any hotel room is only as bug-free as its most recent occupant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why I always check the bed when I first come into a hotel room. It drives my family crazy but I did find bed bugs once and we moved to a new room immediately. Now they put up with me.

How do you do your check? Where did you find them?

Lift the sheet and check the side of the mattress. If you see markings like this



Run!

Do you check the entire perimeter of the mattress seams - and both top and bottom seams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to warn others, it would only be right to share your experience on Yelp or another review site.

You could save many travelers a ton of grief.

So sorry your vacation was ruined!!

Unfortunately, that's not really helpful. Any hotel room is only as bug-free as its most recent occupant.

This. All hotels deal with bed bugs. Just relax, we had a similar experience once and now after each trip we assume we've picked up bed bugs. You are in a good position because you won't take them home unknowingly.

Take the hotel up on the offer to wash and dry all your clothes and switch rooms. Enjoy the rest of your trip. When you get home, pretty much strip off before entering your house. Put your clothes in trash bags, bring them to your laundry room and each and dry them. Dry on hot. For items that can't be washed, like luggage, books, etc, leave them in a hot car parked in the full sun for a few days. If you don't want to do this, you can buy a Zapp bug, but I felt it was overpriced after I got mine.

Have fun on the rest of your trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Move rooms and have their laundry team hot wash and dry everything before you get on that plane. Have them seal clean laundry in plastic bags.

2. Order this and have it 1 day Prime delivered to your house. I have this thing, it works. There are multiple sizes, get one that fits your stroller or largest suitcase. Ask Disney to reimburse: ZappBug Heater https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F6EV306/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GFhjDbCPN653H

3. When checking bags, tell the airline. They will seal your luggage in plastic. This is to prevent spread of bed bugs to other airline passengers’ luggage. Please be thoughtful of other people.

4. Do not bring ANY luggage in the house. Setup BugZapp in the garage or patio, you’ll heat treat all your bags and belongings. No shoes into the house, you’ll heat zap those too. All belongings from the trip should be placed in plastic garbage bags outside as soon as you get home. You want to prevent any hitchhiking bug from escaping.

5. The clothing you wear on the plane? Strip down as soon as you get in the house. Hot wash then into the dryer. You and DH should physically check each other to ensure there are no bugs in your hair.

6. Heat zap everything. It will probably take a full day to do all your luggage, shoes, bags, etc. Give the machine the proper time to warm up every item to 120 degrees for at least 20 minutes.


You’ll be fine, OP. You are so lucky that you caught it now. If you are diligent and follow the steps, you’ll survive this.

In terms of compensation, I think Disney should refund you the full cost of your stay. They probably won’t give you anything for your flight. You may be able to make a travel insurance claim with your credit card company- read the fine print carefully.

Good luck.

OP here. Thank you so much! I’ll do all of these things. I’m so disgusted and upset at this whole situation.

This happened to us last year at a Disney hotel and above is what we did and it prevented the bugs from getting into our house. The important thing is to not bring anything into the house until it is bagged tightly into trash bags. And the zappbug heater comes quickly from amazon so you should order and have it waiting for you when you arrive home. We use it now after every hotel stay because the experience freaked us out.

We also had a service (based in Baltimore) come to our house with a dog to inspect after we did the above and the dog didn’t find any bedbugs. We saved all the lint from our dryer vent in a ziploc and the man with the dog service inspected and found a dead juvenile bedbug so I’m glad we followed the same advice as above!

Disney compensated us 1/2 our hotel charge (which included our food charges and ticket charges), reimbursed us for the zappbug and dog inspection (so save receipts) and $1000 (if I remember correctly) for “pain and suffering.”

[Anonymous]

PP 09:17 here:

Also bag and dryclean clothes that can’t be washed/dried in dryer. You can also put things in ziplocks and into the deep freezer (0 degrees F or colder) for 4 days - for small things that can’t be put in dryer or zappbug.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the link to the Baltimore inspection service:

https://americank9.com/k9-bed-bug-detection/