First Encounter with Bedbugs or a Free Night the Hard Way

[NW-Bound]

The version I heard involved a biker riding in the cold with a louse on his mustache, but I think the gist is the same.

 

[Alan]

My! It will not be long now until passengers boarding cruise ships must go through delousing to prevent infestation.

Good grief! Airplanes next?

On our first trip to Australia there must have been a bug or fruit fly issue of some kind because as our flight from Honolulu was on final approach to Sydney, the cabin crew walked through and sprayed everywhere, warning us to cover our eyes as they did so.

It made us feel very welcome

 

[youbet]

On our first trip to Australia there must have been a bug or fruit fly issue of some kind because as our flight from Honolulu was on final approach to Sydney, the cabin crew walked through and sprayed everywhere, warning us to cover our eyes as they did so.

It made us feel very welcome

During my last few yrs of employment, I flew into Beijing fairly frequently, sometimes from Tokyo and sometimes from Singapore. Same routine. Just before it was time to buckle up for landing, the flight attendents came down the aisle spraying aerosol cans over our heads so that we were "misted" with something. It was alarming the first time. I assumed we passengers were the pests they were looking to eradicate.......

 

[EveryLady]

We travel a lot. Generally try to stay in what I hope are lower-risk family run B&Bs or small hotels. Still, I diligently rip bed linens off, lift mattresses, and use a flashlight to check behind headboards and in bedside tables.

Keep all clothes in the large zip lock bags (bought online) they are packed in. Also keep pajamas and other bed-stuff in a separate plastic bag as we move from place to place.

Use lightweight collapsible luggage with minimal inserts that I can hang high in a hotel closet then vacuum and wash in the tub once home. Backpacks, if used, can go to a commercial laundry for drying. After returning, bag odd items (electronics, shoes) for a bit and dry clothes in high heat.

We had one scare where I found a series of mysterious bites after returning from Guatemala. Although there was reason to think they were from outside plant mites that could have found their way into to some bedding placed by the door I didn't want to play the odds. Spent $150 on a bedbug dog to check our place. We're in a condo and were about to leave for a month-long trip. Had visions of blood-hungry bugs deprived of us as a meal departing to latch onto our next-door neighbor. Obviously, this is a bit obsessive but being in a condo my main concern is actually not bringing them home but becoming the source of a condo-to-condo migration - particularly to neighbors who wouldn't commit to the work involved to eradicate.

Too, we sometimes end trips with visits to friends. Although initially puzzled I don't drag our luggage into their guest room, here I earn *lots* of guest brownie points ... Doing this is more appreciated than bringing wine.

Unfortunately I now have a teen daughter who fears to travel to New York City on an upcoming class trip. I tell her not to worry. She and her stuff will be met at the front door and get all nicely sanitized. Not a problem ... go and enjoy.

 

[Meadbh]

Not bedbugs, but bugs in general, seem to be everywhere, even in high end hotels.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-dirty-hotels.html

 

[NW-Bound]

Interesting! An excerpt follows.

Warriner was also surprised that high-end hotels were no cleaner than budget ones. Budget hotel Super 8 had among the cleanest bathrooms in the study, Warriner said.​

The truth is that our home, bathrooms, TV remote controls, etc... may harbor the same bacterial counts as these hotels. Heck, might be even higher, except that they are the same bacteria that we already carry.

Now, I'd like to see them do the same tests in hospitals.

 

[Meadbh]

Now, I'd like to see them do the same tests in hospitals.

I don't think you want to know!

 

[NW-Bound]

A colleague many years my senior once told me to avoid surgeries unless absolutely necessary. He said the chance of getting infected and dying from it was fairly high. Then, he added that in several occasions when doctors went on strike and the hospitals suspended elective surgeries, death rates dropped!

Just now, I remembered to surf the Web for the three keywords, "doctor strike fatality", and found several references to past incidences confirming the above statistics. Hah!