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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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Anime Conventioneers Beware Of Bedbugs |
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Before booking a hotel room, you may want to read user reviews of the particular hotel and location — frequently, guests who’ve had bug problems report them online. Bear in mind that a report about one hotel does not mean the issue wasn’t isolated to one room, or that hotel management hasn’t since exterminated.
It’s important for anime conventioneers to know that because the last thing anyone wants is to bring those pesky bugs into their own home. Remember, bed bugs are a possibility at any hotel (even the world-renowned hotels), especially a big one with a lot of international travelers. Bed bugs like to travel around in suitcases and in your clothes, that’s how they’ll follow you.
I did some research and I want to share the information I gather. So that way you’ll know what to do to hopefully avoid getting a bedbug infested room/hotel and to prepare you should you come across them.
1. Don’t bring your suitcase into the room just yet. Leave it in the trunk of your car or on the balcony until you inspect the bed. If you need to bring it inside the room, then avoid putting it on the floor, bed or chairs. In case there is a problem, you don’t want to transport the bedbugs to your next location or back home. Keep the suitcase elevated until you’ve had a chance to inspect the room, maybe on a dresser or on a shelf in the closet.
2. Check the bed. Peel back the bed sheets and check the mattress, run your fingers along the upper and lower seams. Make sure to check the mattress tag too, bed bugs often like to hide there. What you’re looking for are dark spots, be it the bugs themselves, their shedding skins, dried blood, or their feces (which are smaller than poppy seeds). Also, it helps to check the headboard if possible and the bedside table. And again, look for signs of the bedbugs because those areas are less likely to be disturbed by cleaning staff and guests, so the bugs are more likely to be hiding in those areas.
If you find any signs, tell the hotel’s management immediately and request another room. If you still aren’t satisfied with the new room (do your inspection again), request a refund and try to find another place to stay.
3. Protect your luggage. If your own inspection of the room didn’t turn up anything, it doesn’t hurt to be safe then sorry. Make sure that your luggage is wrapped in a large plastic bag, more so when traveling around or spray your suitcase with an insect repellent.
If not, again make sure that your luggage is off the floor. Or you can keep them in the middle of the tiled bathroom floor. Bedbugs are least likely to be found in the bathroom because they don’t like the tile floors and there aren’t as many hiding places. They like to be closer to where people may be sleeping.
4. Don’t put your clothes in the drawers. Keep them in the suitcases.
5. Pack up all your dirty clothes in sealed plastic bags before putting them back in your luggage. When you get home, wash them in the hottest water possible. If using the dryer, set it on it’s highest possible setting as well. Only extreme heat or cold can kill bedbugs. Field research has shown 100% effectiveness in killing bed bugs and their eggs when exposed to high temperatures such as 113 degrees F.
6. Wash everything once you get home. Wash your clothes and your luggage. If you can’t throw your bag into the washer then hand wash it with soap and hot water, if the fabric permits hand washing. If you can’t wash your luggage, vacuum it. Then place the luggage in black plastic bags and set in a sunny spot so that the heat kills any bed bugs.
7. Before you sleep in your own bed, shower. It’s unusual for bed bugs to travel on people (we move too much for them to find a comfortable hiding place) but it’s not unheard of.
There are a lot of useful information to know about bedbugs and you can find it all online if you’re interested. I just wanted to point this out to anime conventioneers in hopes that they’ll be careful and realize, that bedbugs can happen to them too. It doesn’t matter how clean the hotel is, bed bugs can happen anywhere and at anytime. And it take only a night at a hotel for bedbugs to cause you problems, sometimes the person doesn’t know it until it’s too late.
 DamnBlackHeart · Sun Sep 02, 2012 @ 12:47am · 0 Comments |
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