Bed bugs?!

[bethyylovee]

Do you guys usually check your bedding for bed bugs before you sleep i the beds? How exactly do you check?

 

[Girimama33]

Yes! Especially some place like Anaheim that will receive visitors from all over. Here is a link to tell you what to look for: http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/how-to-inspect-your-hotel-room-for-bed-bugs/

 

[disneegrl4eva]

somebody just posted the same question a couple hours before you did...I advised that I hadnt heard recently of any bugs in general except at Park Vue...however, there is a bedbug registry you can check as well..


www.bedbugregistry.com

 

[lizabu]

Even when I was a kid my Mom used to check for bed bugs. It doesn't matter if you're in the fanciest hotel or the cheapest one they can be there. You want to pull back blankets. Check cracks and crevices. Lift the mattress up a bit and peek under. You are looking for tiny black dots.

 

[marvel]

I was browsing tripadvisor and on the travellers photos, there was a photo of a bed bug on the Carousel Inn reviews. I know tripadvisor is hit and miss and has a lot of vexatious people putting fake stuff up, but thought i would mention it sinces the Carousel is one of the popular DIS haunts.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

I was browsing tripadvisor and on the travellers photos, there was a photo of a bed bug on the Carousel Inn reviews. I know tripadvisor is hit and miss and has a lot of vexatious people putting fake stuff up, but thought i would mention it sinces the Carousel is one of the popular DIS haunts.

yeah Im not sure I believe that..I use TA for a lot but unless it mostly has reviews one way or the other, I dont buy it ...and bedbug registry shows none...

 

[kimis]

Yes ALWAYS! No matter where we stay we check. My husband goes in first without any luggage. He pulls covers back on the bed and checks for brownish spots on sides and seams of mattress, he also checks drawers, chairs and curtains. It take a couple of minutes is all but i feel better when he does.

 

[disney4cam]

What do you do if you find bugs? Obviously switch hotels, but what about when you get home?

 

[Malcon10t]

yeah Im not sure I believe that..I use TA for a lot but unless it mostly has reviews one way or the other, I dont buy it ...and bedbug registry shows none...

Bedbug registry is only as accurate as those reporting to it... Add to that, bedbugs occur everywhere. What is more important than who has had bedbugs is how did they handle it. Every hotel, regardless of how expensive or how clean, can get bedbugs. They don't just grow in the room, they are brought in by travelers. I am more concerned with how the management responds. Not everything people claim are "bedbugs" are bedbugs.

 

[Rhonna]

bedbugs occur everywhere. They don't just grow in the room, they are brought in by travelers.

Also no one thinks to check their own luggage which may have picked some up during travel and contact in airplanes, bell services, taxis, trains, buses, other luggage, etc.

In Nov. at the DLH I did lift up one side of the bottom sheet and looked at the mattress seam without tearing the bed apart. Of course, I didn't look at both beds nor at the sofa/bed which is a dark color and would be really hard to see any stains. I kind of feel like it's hard to check everywhere or control all situations so I hope for the best and don't get overly worried about it.

 

[Rhonna]

but what about when you get home?

Google it -if you bring them home and they take over, it's NOT fun.

I think I read somewhere that you should wash ALL laundry when you get home in as hot of water as possible and seal the luggage up tightly in plastic bags for quite awhile so they die. Once the don't have access to a host (living creatures) they starve to death. I forgot how long it takes for the larvae to hatch and then die.

 

[lei8809]

DH and I always check for bedbugs as well when we first get to a hotel. I hadn't thought of what Rhonna said about picking up the bedbugs on luggage from the airport or somewhere before you even arrive in the room. We haven't been on a plane in years though but my mother will be arriving late on a plane so we'll definitely be checking her luggage when she gets there.

Another thing we do besides checking the sheets and sides of the furniture is actually take down the headboard. We saw it on a news special that you'll find more evidence of them there than on the sheets since you're supposed to have new sheets on the bed the day you check in (we actually pull the sheets off and check the mattress as well).

Anyway, you can actually lift up the headboard (two people on each side) and it will come off and it's really easy to slide them back into place. Also, you pretty much need a flashlight of some sort in order to actually see them since they're so small.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Rhonna's right -- wash all clothes that were in your suitcase, even those you didn't wear on the trip. You can pick up bedbugs in the hotel drawers or in your suitcase from the airplane cargo section. Before you put the clothes in the dryer, check them for what look like apple seeds. Most adult bugs will have washed down the washer drain, but some might be in your clothes. We found one once after returning from an international trip. So glad I washed everything anyway, even before I knew these tips. And when you get home, store your luggage in a separate area away from the bedrooms.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Wow. I have been traveling worldwide my entire life and have never checked for bed bugs once.

As for bedbug registry.com, if you are going to use it to make a judgement about any place listed on it, I think it's important to note that both the Disneyland Hotel and The Grand Californian are on the list. I would stay at either hotel eight nights a week.

- Dreams

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I have read that when you arrive to your room, keep your luggage off the floor. It is hard for them to live on wooden surfaces, and those luggage racks with metal legs deter them too. So we live out of our bags but keep them up off the floor. And as soon as we get home everything is washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer. I have never seen signs of bed bugs anywhere we have stayed, and wouldn't stay there if I saw anything suspicious. When we go to really humid places that may have other buggies (cockroaches particularly) I have been known to store clothes in ziploc bags to keep them fresh and keep bugs from crawling in.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

Rhonna's right -- wash all clothes that were in your suitcase, even those you didn't wear on the trip. You can pick up bedbugs in the hotel drawers or in your suitcase from the airplane cargo section. Before you put the clothes in the dryer, check them for what look like apple seeds. Most adult bugs will have washed down the washer drain, but some might be in your clothes. We found one once after returning from an international trip. So glad I washed everything anyway, even before I knew these tips. And when you get home, store your luggage in a separate area away from the bedrooms.

We leave all our luggage in the garage when we get home. Clothes from our luggage go straight to the washer. We leave the luggage in the garage at least two weeks just in case.

 

[disney4cam]

I did google it, but there us a lot of info! It's overwhelming. I did read 30 mins in a hot dryer should kill them. I hesitate to wash all clothes in hot water, because many of them will shrink. I will definitely do the dryer and if they shrink, so be it.

What about shoes? I read that the bugs can live a YEAR with no host! I don't think I can put all the shoes in a dryer.

One more thing, does length of time matter? We were only in our room for less than a day.

Thanks for the info. Obviously we found bedbugs on our trip. :-(

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I did google it, but there us a lot of info! It's overwhelming. I did read 30 mins in a hot dryer should kill them. I hesitate to wash all clothes in hot water, because many of them will shrink. I will definitely do the dryer and if they shrink, so be it.

What about shoes? I read that the bugs can live a YEAR with no host! I don't think I can put all the shoes in a dryer.

One more thing, does length of time matter? We were only in our room for less than a day.

Thanks for the info. Obviously we found bedbugs on our trip. :-(

I'd rather wash in hot water and dry in a hot dryer and risk shrinking something then risk bringing those bugs in my house. If your shoes aren't washable, leave them in an air tight bag for a couple weeks, it should kill them, we don't bring shoes inside anyway, so I never worried about it... They stay in the garage. I dont know if lysol kills them, but I'd be tempted to spray my shoes and suitcases with lysol and leave them outside for a couple weeks in the garage. Sorry you ran into the critters!

 

[blackjackdelta]

We had an issue with bedbugs and roaches at PVI(kids did), it was reported, management stated it was not. When I did speak with them they refused to accept the fact that one of there staff was not maintaining the problem list and would not discuss it any longer, not even to report the result of their investigation from the room they(kids) were staying in.
Every place can get bugs, its how they handle the complaint that shows me whether they care about your business or not.

Jack

 

[Malcon10t]

I'd rather wash in hot water and dry in a hot dryer and risk shrinking something then risk bringing those bugs in my house. If your shoes aren't washable, leave them in an air tight bag for a couple weeks, it should kill them, we don't bring shoes inside anyway, so I never worried about it... They stay in the garage. I dont know if lysol kills them, but I'd be tempted to spray my shoes and suitcases with lysol and leave them outside for a couple weeks in the garage. Sorry you ran into the critters!

Lysol, Raid, and most over the counter pesticides will not kill bedbugs. When hotels get bedbugs, what most do is take them out of service, strip the room of linens, then do a "heat kill" where they heat the room to high temp for so many hours (I had thought I was told 12.) If you get them in your home, usually Clark can come in with pesticides that will kill them, but you have to be out of your home for 48 hours. (My son had to do that when his apartment complex got invaded by a new neighbor.)