By Dr. Elinor Garely, eTN | Sep 09, 2010
Shut the doors, they’re coming in the windows - actually they are being carried in by hotel guests. They are not “little ladies of the night,” and they do not stop at the check-in counter. They are tiny monsters that dine on human blood and procreate faster than rabbits. They cannot be seduced by food or drugs and unlike other insects, they are extremely expensive to eradicate (and never totally eliminated).

They cause hotel executive housekeepers to have nightmares, while customer service employees and public relations executives lose their cool. They are, of course, the notorious bed bug and belong to the family of pests known as Cimex lectularius (insects that feed on human and animal blood to survive). Wingless, they move from place to place by attaching themselves to human beings, luggage, shopping bags, car and airplane seats, and just about anything else that has dark nooks and crannies for them to crawl into and hide.

According to Dr. Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky, bed bugs have been feasting on humans since “…the beginning of recorded time.” Dr. Potter believes that the bugs started in the Mediterranean region as parasites on bats and then moved along to the humans who were sharing the same caves. At the time, hunters and herdsmen moved frequently, and the bed bug problem did not escalate. About 3,500 years ago, as nomads discarded their wandering ways and set up permanent homes, the bugs started to proliferate.

Bed bugs have not always been despised. The Egyptians drank bed bug cocktails as a cure for snakebites; the Greeks and Romans burned them to make leeches loosen their hold and some ancient civilizations, believing they cured diseases, feasted on them with wine, beans, and eggs.

From Disney hotels and cruise ships, to Hiltons and Holiday Inns, bed bugs have been feasting on travelers for years; however, it appears that the problem is growing, and there is little that can be done about it. The Daily News-Marist polls found that 1 in 10 New Yorkers has experienced home invasions from bed bugs, twice as many as in 2009. Bedbugs have made headlines in Winnipeg, and the officials in Toronto are mounting a bedbug summit to review ways to approach the problem. David Letterman has added bedbugs to his list of things of joke about.

New York City recently allocated US$500,000 to combat the problem and is considering naming a bedbug czar. Cincinnati, Ohio, has been identified as the bedbug capital of the USA in a Time Magazine article and to escape the problem, people are sleeping in the streets. The problem is so huge that Ohio health officials are meeting with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies in order to combat the problem.

A client of Florida attorney, Howard Cintron, counted 700 bedbug bites after spending only one night at a luxury hotel. On bedbugregistry.com a Hilton NY guest (April 15, 2010) had many bites on arms and legs after spending 9 nights at the property. Another Hilton NY guest (August 14, 2010) describes her experience, “My husband was bitten by bed bugs numerous times on his torso and underarm.” They notified the property by email and telephone calls but were “ignored.”

Why do hoteliers and cruise ships try to deny their bedbug invasion? First of all, the pest control remedies are very expensive and reported to be (at a minimum) between US$900 and US$1,500 per inspection. However, if a heating or freezing treatment is required, the costs escalate to US$2,000 per treatment, and it takes several visits to destroy bugs and eggs. A full-blown invasion could cost in excess of US$50,000-US$60,000. Treatments include pyrethroid chemicals, cold/heat applications, steam, and vacuuming. Trained beagles are sometimes used at a cost of US$1,200 per unit. Additional expenditures include negative publicity, the erosion of brand value, keeping rooms out-of-inventory for weeks or months, a decline in room reservations, and a corresponding loss in restaurant and bar revenue.

In an attempt to deal with the problem, some hotels are installing heating/freezing units at the properties so that guests can have their clothing and suitcases heated or chilled rather than destroyed. As pilots and cabin crew employees add their complaints about being bitten by bed bugs to airline management, the companies are establishing new protocols to deal the problem, which seems to be significant on international/overnight flights.

“We encourage hotels to train housekeeping personnel to do thorough room inspections on a regular basis. When they pull off the sheets, they should inspect the top and bottom of the mattress and box spring,” Harrison commented. “He also suggests that all hoteliers consider the Japanese hotel style where rooms are cleaned and sanitized by heating each unit when the guest checks out. This room design would make it easier to keep rooms free of vermin and contain costs while creating a sanitary environment.”