How Do You Check If Your Holiday Hotel Has Bed Bugs?

You arrive at your holiday hotel at 3.0am, tired and frayed after a long and arduous journey, flight delays, airport security, fractious children and surly passport control and now all you want to do is fall into bed and look forward to the morning and the first day of your vacation.

That could be most costly mistake you’ll make this holiday!

The bed bug (Cimex lectularious) is back with a vengeance and its food is you!

Bed bugs are small haematophagic insects about the size of an apple-pip.

They feed on the blood of warm blooded creatures and their favourite meal is human blood.

Having been virtually eradicated in the 20^th century they are back and spreading like wildfire, all over the world reports of massive increases in bed bug infestations are being made.

Some cite increased economic migration, availability of cheap travel and resistance to insecticides but whatever the reason, they are thriving and they love holiday makers!

They feed on human blood every 5 -10 days, emerging from their hiding places in the small hours when the tourist is likely to be in a deep sleep, perhaps aided by copious quantities of the local sangria.

They sense the presence of a host initially by tasting the carbon dioxide in exhaled breath but switch to infra-red sensing of body heat when closing in on the target.

They pierce the body of their target with a needle containing two tubes, with one they insert saliva which contains both an anaesthetic and an anti-coagulant and with the other they draw blood.

In a heavily infested room it is possible to receive up to 500 bites per night.

So how do you check if your room is infested?

Start by stripping the bed down to the mattress, turn the mattress over if possible and concentrate on the end nearest the headboard.

Look for dark coloured smears, live or dead insects and spots of congealed blood.

Look in the stitching around the edges of the mattress, under the edges of the carpet near the bed and pull out and invert any bed-side drawers.

Bed bugs are quite easy to see and move very rapidly when exposed. You can see photos of the bugs and their smear marks at

If you find or suspect bed bugs on no account stay in that room, or even that hotel, not even for one night or you will regret it, and certainly don’t unpack your cases in that room.

Get hold of your tour company representative immediately and insist on being moved to another hotel.

If you stay in a bug infested room you are very likely to transport them back to your own home as contrary to urban myth they can survive the flight home in your suitcase very easily indeed.

If you have problems with bedbugs call 0800 019 8382 or visit Manchester Environmental Services

That concludes this aticle entitled How Do You Check If Your Holiday Hotel Has Bed Bugs?

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