Bed Bug Alert: How to Ensure Your NC Hotel Room is Bug-Free This Summer

WFCN – There’s a significant likelihood that you may encounter bed bugs if your summer trip involves lodging in a hotel.

Twenty percent of U.S. tourists reported seeing bed bugs in five-star hotels in the previous year, according to a recent poll by Sleep Doctor, a health organization that offers information on sleep education. One in seven passengers claimed having encountered bed bugs in the last year.

There is additional evidence that North Carolina has a high prevalence of bed bugs.

Charlotte was placed nineteenth, Greensboro was placed eighteenth, and Raleigh was placed twenty-fourth in Orkin’s 2024 rating of the top 50 worst cities for bed bugs. Orkin’s bed bug treatment counts in each metro region between December 1, 2022, and November 30, 2023 are the basis for the list.

The National Pest Management Association states that bed bugs, which are easy to spread and reproduce quickly, are frequently discovered in single-family houses and flats following travel.

This article explains where to search for clues that indicate bed bugs are present in your hotel room as well as how to remove them.

What hiding places do bed bugs have?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims that because bed bugs are as little as a credit card, they may get into tight spaces undercover.

As to the EPA, bed bugs can lurk in gaps in bed frames and headboards, on seams and tags of mattresses and box springs, and next to mattress piping.

In an extensively infested room, the EPA states that you might find bed bugs in:

-Between cushions, along the edges of couches and chairs, and in the creases of draperies

-Underneath wall hangings and unsecured wallpaper.

-Right where the ceiling and wall converge

Which indications point to the presence of bed bugs?

If you wake up with bites on your skin, you may assume you have bed bugs, but the EPA notes bites can mimic other insects, like mosquitoes or chiggers, and hence are not the best indicator of an infestation.

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To check for bed bugs in a room, the EPA suggests searching for the following indicators:

Bed bugs smashed into pieces that leave red stains on mattresses or bed linens

Spots that appear dark and could bleed over the cloth, similar to the appearance of bed bug excrement

The little, pale yellow skins that bed bugs shed as they become larger are called eggshells.

How bed bugs are removed

According to A-1 Pest Control, a North Carolina-based business, the following methods can be used to get rid of bed bugs if you return home to find them there:

Use hot water, preferably above 140 degrees, to wash your clothes, curtains, bedding, and any other type of fabric.

Mattresses, box springs, and furniture should all be thoroughly vacuumed. Capture the insects with a bed bug-proof cover.

You should get in touch with a qualified pest control business to use heat treatments and bed bug-targeting insecticides to manage the infestation if none of these approaches work.

Strategies to avoid bed bugs

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends washing and using the heat setting to dry all clothes you bring home from a trip in order to avoid getting bed bugs into your house. Additionally effective in eliminating bed bugs and their eggs from your luggage is using a hand steamer.

AAD notes that as bed bugs can live for up to a year without food, you should also avoid bringing used furniture into your home. In addition, bed bug indications can be difficult to identify.

Find out from the North Carolina Service Journalism Team.

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