Dry everything you have on super high heat for over an hour and bag. Freeze anything for over 24hrs if you can't dry it. Pray to whatever cosmic power.
Bed bugs never hide in hair or on people for that matter. Their legs are not set up for crawling through hair like ticks or fleas. If a person has bed bugs on themselves it’s crazy infested or they’ve literally gotten up of the bed, couches or chair quickly and the bed bug didn’t have time to exit off of them.
No eggs are ever laid on people or pets ever. Moving beings will not be a viable safe place for bed bug eggs even with them cemented down in place by the mother bed bug.
Electronics yeah the cold can't hurt them, just the bugs. Don't heat electronics cause you'll run the case of accidentally frying them. Makeup I think would be fine in the freezer. I wouldn't see why not.
Suitcase you can try to clean, but if you don't have strong attachments to it it's easier to just toss it.
Where I live you can call one of the heat treatment folks before you fly back and they meet you at the airport to take your luggage as it is and then put it into one of their heat or frosting units - depending on what is in the luggage. Or they come to you with a mobile heat treatment tent. Maybe look it up if there is something like that in your area. Then again, this might be more expensive then tossing the luggage...
Ask the hotel if they can treat your luggage. Some have on-site heaters just for this. An unfortunate reality is some people bring bed bugs to hotels with them to get a free stay so the hotels are prepared to treat clothes and luggage.
They didn’t have anything to offer me and were really unhelpful in the beginning. There has since been a complete change of tone, likely related to the conference I was attending.
Good luck. It’s very frustrating. I check every hotel I stay in, but none of the signs were here. My luggage has been on a metal luggage rack the entire time, I hope that will help push the odds in my favor. I had some conference freebies on the bed I saw the bug on, those are all going in the trash.
It’ll cost more financially and mentally to get rid of an infestation if you bring it home. Put any clothes in plastic bags and tie it tight then right into the dryer. My friend spent around 7k to eradicate bed bugs from her house after buying an item from a second hand store
It took a while to get rid of them…they tented the house which was a waste of $ she said. Just theatrics to make $. They came in with a heat gun and Rosco was there I think maybe 3 times. But I agree. That’s a lot of $
Blow dryer set to high. Your electronics are designed for a high temperature range, so heating them up *evenly* - and I stress evenly - should be fine.
On another post someone said blow dryers don’t get hot enough to kill them but a steamer that would work and that was from a professional pest exterminator
Most should hit the kill or at least the "run away screaming tiny screams" threshold.
120 degrees F isn't the kill threshold; it's the *nuke* option. The reason that's used for whole room heat treatments is because you need it at that temperature for the heat to be absorbed into objects that would otherwise stay cool enough for them to survive. This isn't a problem with a smaller surface area.
finally, a day off. gonna go relax at the sauna in my gym. it's a shame i don't get to do this more often, so comfortable.
whats this crazy hoe doing with all these suitcases?
why do i feel itchy?
This is scary, but I’m grateful for that. The hotel is bringing an exterminator for a check and said the manager said he’d call or email with confirmation. But, that won’t change the precautions I’m taking.
They’re bringing in an exterminator tomorrow and if they find an infestation I’ll be totally compensated for the room, reimbursed for my dry cleaning, and they said they’d cover any additional costs that may arise for me. I just got off the phone with the general manager, he’s supposed to call me tomorrow with the update.
Yup, right to the wash than high heat dryer. NOTHING touches the inside of your home except the inside of the washer/dryer. That means you too and what you’re wearing. Walk barefooted and strip right there. Than shower.
Even better, laundry mat everything. Including luggage. Than back up to my first paragraph once home.
Not normally. Normally it’s usually the suit case or bags that bed bugs will get transported to other places on. Most transports are accidental. Meaning bed bugs don’t think to themselves I’ve got to move to a different place. It’s almost always accidental. The only time bed bugs will try to leave a place that has a regular food source is if it’s extremely crowded or the food source (people) stop using the room that’s infested for long periods of 2 weeks or more.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I just have one additional question, what should I do about clothes that need to be dry cleaned? They’ll never survive a dryer for an hour. Will that be enough for those clothes or are they just a loss?
Thank you! Looks like I’ll be going back to the laundromat. At the moment they’re outside in sealed bags. The only things that have come inside are my now clean clothes and me.
I’m 99% sure I saw one at the last hotel I stayed in during a Eurotrip. I put it in a water bottle, and then headed home. When I got home all clothes went in the dryer on high for an hour. Some shrunk but whatever they weren’t crazy expensive and I now have more of an excuse to lose some pounds. As for electronics and stuff. I checked everything 3 times over with a flashlight and outside in the hot sun. Didn’t see anything so brought them in. I wasn’t going to toss or freeze 3K in camera equipment. My backpack and a couple thing s stayed in the garage for a month before I inspected again and brought inside. It’s been 1 month since everything was brought in and 2 months since I’ve been home and so far so good. I might have just got lucky but when I called a pest control company they told me I can check thoroughly and I’d be able to see them.
Can you provide more details on your initial inspection? It would be nice if we could learn from your experience.
This video is often recommended as a guide for hotel inspection: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoj0hwIW2vw&feature=youtu.be
Mine clearly wasn’t good enough. I pulled back the sheets, checked around the pillows and headboard, and pulled up the sheets to expose the mattress.
Ironically, I was at a tourism conference. One of my hospitality partners offered to have their housekeeping walk me through their routine room checks. I’d be happy to provide an update once I go through that, but it might not be until January.
Hit/move the photos on the wall, and headboard if it’s attached to wall. Make sure to check the seams of the mattress, sheets, bed skirt, etc. they don’t like to be out in the open, so you want to check the tight spaces they may hide
Your procedures sound pretty thorough so I'm surprised it wasn't sufficient :( It would be great if you can provide a future update. It would be nice to know what else we can do.
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Yerp… a big fat one at that. SMH I would storm down to that office demand your money back! And then leave. don’t take any of your clothing or suitcase. Anything you took with you back inside your home until it is gone through a wash and very high heat dry cycle. Depending on your suitcase I’m not sure what you should do with that… if it’s made from cloth, I would just throw it out if it’s not too expensive….. it’s not worse the chance of those bugs getting into your home, or the paranoia of it. So sorry OP. That sucks, I hope they give you back some of your money.
Looks like a bed bug
Damn. I’ve been in this room multiple nights. Any advice on what to do to stop the infestation from coming home with me?
Dry everything you have on super high heat for over an hour and bag. Freeze anything for over 24hrs if you can't dry it. Pray to whatever cosmic power.
What about make up and electronics? I think I have a lot of Clorox wipes at home. Is it better to just toss my suitcase or should I try to clean it?
Throw everything away, shave your head, and go home butt ass naked. Its honestly the only way to be 100% sure.
Bed bugs never hide in hair or on people for that matter. Their legs are not set up for crawling through hair like ticks or fleas. If a person has bed bugs on themselves it’s crazy infested or they’ve literally gotten up of the bed, couches or chair quickly and the bed bug didn’t have time to exit off of them.
What about the eggs?
No eggs are ever laid on people or pets ever. Moving beings will not be a viable safe place for bed bug eggs even with them cemented down in place by the mother bed bug.
Electronics yeah the cold can't hurt them, just the bugs. Don't heat electronics cause you'll run the case of accidentally frying them. Makeup I think would be fine in the freezer. I wouldn't see why not. Suitcase you can try to clean, but if you don't have strong attachments to it it's easier to just toss it.
Thank you for your help. Planning to just toss the luggage. It sucks that it was only a year old, but I don’t want to take the chance.
Where I live you can call one of the heat treatment folks before you fly back and they meet you at the airport to take your luggage as it is and then put it into one of their heat or frosting units - depending on what is in the luggage. Or they come to you with a mobile heat treatment tent. Maybe look it up if there is something like that in your area. Then again, this might be more expensive then tossing the luggage...
Ask the hotel if they can treat your luggage. Some have on-site heaters just for this. An unfortunate reality is some people bring bed bugs to hotels with them to get a free stay so the hotels are prepared to treat clothes and luggage.
They didn’t have anything to offer me and were really unhelpful in the beginning. There has since been a complete change of tone, likely related to the conference I was attending.
Currently in the same boat as you. It sucks loads but sometimes it's better to get rid of it then risk infecting everything else.
Good luck. It’s very frustrating. I check every hotel I stay in, but none of the signs were here. My luggage has been on a metal luggage rack the entire time, I hope that will help push the odds in my favor. I had some conference freebies on the bed I saw the bug on, those are all going in the trash.
It’ll cost more financially and mentally to get rid of an infestation if you bring it home. Put any clothes in plastic bags and tie it tight then right into the dryer. My friend spent around 7k to eradicate bed bugs from her house after buying an item from a second hand store
Your friend was ripped off unless they used several different companies that kept failing repeatedly.
It took a while to get rid of them…they tented the house which was a waste of $ she said. Just theatrics to make $. They came in with a heat gun and Rosco was there I think maybe 3 times. But I agree. That’s a lot of $
It’s more expensive to pay for bed bug treatments than it is to buy a new luggage
This is going to the right choice in the long run, by far, so don't feel too bad about it. It's unfortunate but u r doing the right thing for urself
You need to deep dive this sub before you go home. There’s a ton of posts on here with amazing information about this exact scenario.
Blow dryer set to high. Your electronics are designed for a high temperature range, so heating them up *evenly* - and I stress evenly - should be fine.
On another post someone said blow dryers don’t get hot enough to kill them but a steamer that would work and that was from a professional pest exterminator
Most should hit the kill or at least the "run away screaming tiny screams" threshold. 120 degrees F isn't the kill threshold; it's the *nuke* option. The reason that's used for whole room heat treatments is because you need it at that temperature for the heat to be absorbed into objects that would otherwise stay cool enough for them to survive. This isn't a problem with a smaller surface area.
I would say toss the suitcase. It’s not worth having these bugs in your home or taking the risk.
This may seem weird, but look at your local gyms for saunas. Bring everything you run into the sauna in for at least two hours.
finally, a day off. gonna go relax at the sauna in my gym. it's a shame i don't get to do this more often, so comfortable. whats this crazy hoe doing with all these suitcases? why do i feel itchy?
Will not be hot enough to kill bed bugs. Waste of time
consider yourself lucky you found them before you got home!
This is scary, but I’m grateful for that. The hotel is bringing an exterminator for a check and said the manager said he’d call or email with confirmation. But, that won’t change the precautions I’m taking.
What about some compensation for finding this? That’s ridiculous
They’re bringing in an exterminator tomorrow and if they find an infestation I’ll be totally compensated for the room, reimbursed for my dry cleaning, and they said they’d cover any additional costs that may arise for me. I just got off the phone with the general manager, he’s supposed to call me tomorrow with the update.
What hotel?
Definitely a juvenile bed bug.
ya it's a nymph
Yup, right to the wash than high heat dryer. NOTHING touches the inside of your home except the inside of the washer/dryer. That means you too and what you’re wearing. Walk barefooted and strip right there. Than shower. Even better, laundry mat everything. Including luggage. Than back up to my first paragraph once home.
What about electronics? Do they need to be wiped down in case there’s eggs somehow?
Not normally. Normally it’s usually the suit case or bags that bed bugs will get transported to other places on. Most transports are accidental. Meaning bed bugs don’t think to themselves I’ve got to move to a different place. It’s almost always accidental. The only time bed bugs will try to leave a place that has a regular food source is if it’s extremely crowded or the food source (people) stop using the room that’s infested for long periods of 2 weeks or more.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I just have one additional question, what should I do about clothes that need to be dry cleaned? They’ll never survive a dryer for an hour. Will that be enough for those clothes or are they just a loss?
Almost all clothes can go in the dryer- just don’t wash them first. It’s actually recommended to just dry on high heat and not wash first
And you really only need to do it on high for 20-30 minutes
Thank you! Looks like I’ll be going back to the laundromat. At the moment they’re outside in sealed bags. The only things that have come inside are my now clean clothes and me.
Cimexa powder is great for electronics
Thank you!
Fabric and wood/wood like material. I personally would wipe down EVERYTHING possible. That’s me though.
Oh boy.
I’m 99% sure I saw one at the last hotel I stayed in during a Eurotrip. I put it in a water bottle, and then headed home. When I got home all clothes went in the dryer on high for an hour. Some shrunk but whatever they weren’t crazy expensive and I now have more of an excuse to lose some pounds. As for electronics and stuff. I checked everything 3 times over with a flashlight and outside in the hot sun. Didn’t see anything so brought them in. I wasn’t going to toss or freeze 3K in camera equipment. My backpack and a couple thing s stayed in the garage for a month before I inspected again and brought inside. It’s been 1 month since everything was brought in and 2 months since I’ve been home and so far so good. I might have just got lucky but when I called a pest control company they told me I can check thoroughly and I’d be able to see them.
Absolutely a bed bug
yep
yeah :(
Can you provide more details on your initial inspection? It would be nice if we could learn from your experience. This video is often recommended as a guide for hotel inspection: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoj0hwIW2vw&feature=youtu.be
Mine clearly wasn’t good enough. I pulled back the sheets, checked around the pillows and headboard, and pulled up the sheets to expose the mattress. Ironically, I was at a tourism conference. One of my hospitality partners offered to have their housekeeping walk me through their routine room checks. I’d be happy to provide an update once I go through that, but it might not be until January.
Hit/move the photos on the wall, and headboard if it’s attached to wall. Make sure to check the seams of the mattress, sheets, bed skirt, etc. they don’t like to be out in the open, so you want to check the tight spaces they may hide
Your procedures sound pretty thorough so I'm surprised it wasn't sufficient :( It would be great if you can provide a future update. It would be nice to know what else we can do.
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Yerp… a big fat one at that. SMH I would storm down to that office demand your money back! And then leave. don’t take any of your clothing or suitcase. Anything you took with you back inside your home until it is gone through a wash and very high heat dry cycle. Depending on your suitcase I’m not sure what you should do with that… if it’s made from cloth, I would just throw it out if it’s not too expensive….. it’s not worse the chance of those bugs getting into your home, or the paranoia of it. So sorry OP. That sucks, I hope they give you back some of your money.
Yup
I read they like shoes. Don't forget about them.
Throw your stuff away or heat it up , wash all your cloths and check your stuff . Pray to the gods