One of the easiest ways to tell if a room is infested with bedbugs is to do a thorough inspection. Every time you visit a hotel room, this is recommended to avoid falling prey as these tiny insects can make your vacation miserable. Bed bugs come out when it’s dark, making it difficult to detect their presence. There are various ways to tell whether a room is infested or not. Whenever you find any of these signs, ask to be transferred to a different room and, if possible, on a different floor level. If you are looking for experts to handle a bedbug menace in Myrtle Beach and its environs, the best pest control is Team Veterans Pest Control.
Below we look at the tell signs that your hotel room could be infested with bedbugs and what to look out for.
Look Out For Bugs In Dark And Moist Areas, Cracks And Crevices
Bed bugs are tiny, reddish crawling insects that mainly feed on human blood. If a hotel room is infested, you can easily find them if you look at the right places. The insects do not necessarily inhabit dirty places as most people assume but mostly hide in dark warm places. Your hotel room may be crisp, clean, but still infested.
The first place to check is the bed area. This includes the mattress seams, bed frame, and headboard. They also hide under electrical outlets, upholstered furniture seams, and on loose wallpaper. Other areas include electric sockets and cluttered areas. Always remember to do a thorough check on any cracks and crevices, as these two areas are generally dark and warm most of the time.
Insect Skin
Bed bugs live in clusters, making it easy to detect with their shed skin hounded together. The insects occasionally shed the brown skin as they move from one stage to another. This happens approximately five times as they transition through the five immature nymph stages and eventually to the mature adult stage. Beware of the colorless newly hatched nymphs which acquire color as they mature.
Smell And Excrement
The bugs have a unique smell akin to that of rotting raspberries. The smell is easy to detect in areas infested in large numbers and has been described as sweet and pungent. Specially trained dogs can easily detect their presence. Look out for tiny dark spots in the room which indicate the presence of excrement. These may be spread across or concentrated in one area.
Bites
If you arrive at a hotel room with no bites to later discover itchy bites on parts of your body, they are most likely from bed bugs. The bites are mostly found on the body’s exposed parts, such as the neck, face, and arms. Bedbug bites are reddish and sometimes look blistered. Other symptoms to watch out for include allergies, skin infection, and asthma attacks.
Eggs And Blood
The insects lay thousands of sticky, whitish eggs, and these are easily found on cracks and edges where mature bugs harbor in clusters together with newly hatched nymphs and eggs. The bugs only come out to feed, which means they spend a very short time on the host. Look out for bloody or rust stains on clothes, sheets and walls.
Bed Bug Detectors
There are various detectors in the market that help identify the presence of bedbugs. Using lactic acid and carbon monoxide attractants forces the bugs to come out as these two are associated with the presence of a human body. You can also use pheromones to attract the bugs as they get attracted to the smell. This method also makes it easier to trap them in a container. If you are a frequent traveler, you may want to look more into these options.
Bed bugs can make your vacation unbearable and, in extreme cases, lead to serious conditions such as asthma attacks and anemia. Always inspect a new room as there is a possibility all the hotel rooms could be infested due to proximity to each other. The rule of thumb is never to unpack your luggage before inspecting the room. If you are a victim, wash the package you had carried for vacation in hot soapy water to avoid carrying the bugs to your home.