When the Rolling Stones made that song, bedbugs were a minor problem…now they are showing up in 5-star hotels!
Recently, exterminators are being called to exclusive neighborhoods-husbands on business trips are bringing the bugs home.
I was planning a Fall trip to NYC-should I cancel it?
I don’t want to get these monsters in my house-is thee a way to protect yourself when travelling?:eek:
Evidently they’re all over the place and in your offices and libraries too, so I don’t see the point of cancelling.
Moved, via subway, from Cafe Society to IMHO.
Yes, you should cancel the trip, but not just because of the bedbugs–NYC just sucks in general.
NYC is awesome but just like anywhere else you have to be careful about bedbugs. When I went to Vegas we put all of our stuff in the bathroom while we stripped the sheets off the mattress and checked for signs of bedbugs when we checked into our hotel room. I would suggest you do the same anywhere you stay (in NYC or anywhere else in the world) and when you are looking at a hotel google reviews online and find out if anyone reviewing it mentioned bedbugs. You should be perfectly safe if you take precautions.
It’s not like the whole city is infested with them. Roaches and rats maybe, but not bedbugs!
No seriously, I’m sure there are problems in spots but NYC is well worth visiting.
Back in 2005, my weeklong visit to NYC included bedbugs. I survived. It’s just like getting mysterious mosquito bites in your sleep. Unless you have any weird skin or bug allergies, it shouldn’t be a big deal if you encounter them.
Except they’re hardy little fuckers and it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. I live in NYC and in fear of getting bedbugs every day.
Plus, for me, mosquito bites are a pretty huge deal–I swell up and get horribly allergic, so I know that bedbugs would be a lot more serious than for most.
This week I heard on public radio that people are also getting them from theater seats. Apparently they are everywhere.
Fortunately they don’t seem to carry disease.
One piece of advice I’ve used is to keep your suitcase closed. Putting it in the bathroom also seems like a good idea.
There are two types of travelers: Those who go in spite of risk and those who don’t go because of risk. Depends on which kind you are.
Take Diogenes the Cynic with you on your trip.
He can hold your hand while you sleep and you can hold his hand on the subway. Problem solved.
Don’t cancel your trip. The hotels are hot on getting the problem under control and NYC hasn’t been better. Enjoy!
A possible site of interest:
http://bedbugregistry.com/metro/ny
When Mick Jagger sang those words 35+ years ago, bedbugs were an oddity of the past. Now you read about them everywhere-have these horribles evolved resistance against insecticides?
I also recall reading that most states had stringent laws about used furniture and mattresses-in MA, all used mattresses had to be fumigated in a special chamber, before they could be resold.
The really scarey thing is-you check in to a upscale hotel, and come home with them!
According to CNN you’re supposed to open your suitcase in NY, get what you want out of it, and snap it shut again; don’t use the drawers or the luggage-case/holder things, and double check your sheets and towels. It’s not so much that you’ll have a problem while you’re there; it’s that you’ll take them home with you. They spread by hitching rides. You don’t want your shit to be the ride they take. Cuz they’re apparently a nightmare to get rid of…one of the Dopers posted an awful comment about surrounding the bed with anti-bedbug crap and so they crawled up the walls and were falling off the ceiling on top of him. Just thinking of it makes me shivery.
You can leave New York. Just make sure you can leave ALL of it. 
IIRC the pesticide they were using against bedbugs turned out to be harmful to children so they couldn’t use it any longer. The problem is that by the time they figured this out the bedbugs were mostly under control so people stopped taking the steps for prevention and such that used to be standard so that now people have no idea how to deal with them except to nuke them from orbit.
I see it turning up in many places that bedbug resurgence is due to the banning of DDT, and that if we brought back DDT we could handle the problem. The truth is much scarier than that. Every study I have seen has said that these bugs are EXTREMELY resistant to DDT. Most likely, they evolved resistance in other countries (Southeast Asia comes to mind) before being introduced to North America.
This is bad because it was DDT that eliminated bedbugs in the US in the 1960’s. We don’t have that many compounds these days that are as effective, and none that are as safe to humans and pets.
And to the OP, when you enter your hotel room, put your bags in the tub and check the room - strip the beds, check mattresses, boxsprings, behind pictures, remove the headboard and check there (this is a FAVORITE place). Take a bedbug kit - at minimum, a flashlight, and magnifying lens or hand lens. A pocketknife is good to for inserting into cracks etc… Take a baggie of food-grade diatomaceous earth as well (more on this below).
I travel with a plain canvas bag. I keep my clothes in this and keep it hung on the bathroom door hook. If I have to hang clothes I use my own hangers and hang them on the shower rod. When you leave, sprinkle the diatomaceous earth liberally in your bag, including the pockets.
When you get home, put everything in the dryer, including the luggage - this is where a canvas bag is much better than a suitcase. Dry on high for at least 45 minutes. Then you can wash etc…
I wonder if boric acid works on bed bugs like it does on cockroaches?
I’d say dont cancel the trip - do as others suggested and check the hotel ahead of time for reviews, and take solace in the fact that it’s widely known, so places are trying to stay on top of it.
Maybe its also worth bringing only old or otherwise disposable clothes with you. When you get back home, take em out back and have a bonfire.
How big are they? If their in your hotel bedsheets, can you see them with the naked eye?
Thanks for the link, JRDelirious. We’re going to Chicago in a few weeks and so far our hotel is not listed there.
If you can catch them in the open, they are visible, but, like cockroaches, they avoid the light, and only come out at night to feed. About the size of an apple seed (4–5 mm in length and 1.5–3 mm wide.)