Can You Sue Hotels For Bed Bugs?

Victims of bed bug bites can sue the hotel for ample compensation for their damages. You may be able to receive coverage for the following: Medical expenses from the past and future. Property damage for anything that was lost or needed to be repaired if the infestation spread to your home.

How common are bedbugs in hotels?

Bedbugs Are on the Rise in U.S. Hotels. Here’s How to Avoid Getting Bitten and Bringing Them Home with You. Any number of concerns are on our radar as we plan our next trip, from serious issues like how destinations are working to mitigate tourists’ environmental impact to inconveniences like months-long passport wait times.

In this column, we’ll be addressing your questions about how to navigate the world. The other day I read that bedbugs are now in all 50 states and turning up in more and more hotels, even nice ones. I travel regularly, so this makes me nervous. How can I avoid bedbugs, and what’s the worst that can happen if I am bit? Also, if by chance they hitchhike back to my own home and start an infestation, what do I do? Eeeek! That’s my nightmare.

—Bugged Out Your fears are totally valid. A few years ago, when I was hiking in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, I started experiencing a burning, itching sensation two hours into my five-hour trek. It was so intense that not even the surrounding snowcapped peaks could distract my urge to scratch.

• When my guide stopped to prepare mint tea, I finally yanked up the right sleeve of my puffy.
• A zigzag of tiny red bumps on my forearm confirmed my suspicion: bedbugs.
• Two weeks earlier, at a conference in Marrakech, several attendees showed up with pocked faces, the result of staying at a bedbug-infested hotel in the Atlas Mountains where I was scheduled to overnight post-conference before my trek.

Surely the owner would have taken care of the situation by then, I rationalized; plus, I’d only be there one night. The line of swollen, tingling bites on my arm were proof that the hotel owner had not exterminated. By the time my guide and I reached our cabin, my skin felt like I’d rolled around in poison ivy and then was attacked by no-see-ums.

It was unrelenting. Worse to me, though, was the horrifying thought of parasites crawling all over me as I slept. As fate would have it, the cabin and the previous hotel were both owned by the same proprietor; terrified of once again becoming a midnight snack, I opted to bunk in the bathtub for the next three nights.

Few bugs are as psychologically disturbing as bedbugs. By day, they lurk undetected, and by night, they emerge from the crevices of bed frames, seams of mattresses, and cracks of walls and floorboards to stick their beak into our skin and suck our blood for up to ten minutes.

• The bug’s saliva contains an anesthetic that numbs the skin, so you never feel the bite, and the resulting red, swollen bumps could take anywhere from one to several days to even appear.
• The good news is that bedbugs aren’t poisonous, nor are they known to carry diseases.
• In rare cases, bites can cause anaphylaxis, but most people simply experience itchiness like I did.

(Still others have no reaction at all.) When I got back to Marrakech, I was able to buy a skin cream with hydrocortisone to help calm the irritation, and upon return to the States, my dermatologist, who said I had an extreme reaction, suggested an oral antihistamine, like Benadryl. Linear or zigzag bite marks indicate bedbugs (Photo: Getty Images/Joel Carillet) If you have been bitten, however, there’s something else to worry about: any stowaways that have crawled into your belongings. If these are pesticide-resistant, they’re a true pain to get rid of if they make it to your home.

1. After my trip to Morocco, I planned to move into a new apartment.
2. The lease mentioned repercussions for any tenant found responsible for bringing in bedbugs, and at the time I remember thinking, Gross! What dirty person carries bedbugs? But equating dirt with bedbugs or unclean establishments is a myth.

They can be found in the cheapest hostels and the finest luxury resorts. “Unlike flies, bedbugs are not attracted to decay or the build-up of organic matter,” says Eric Braun, a board-certified entomologist and technical-service manager for Philadelphia-based Ehrlich Pest Control.

• Bedbugs can be found anywhere there’s a population of people available to feed on.” Not willing to risk a bedbug breakout in my new apartment, I made the tough choice of leaving my luggage, including Berber carpets I’d splurged on, in Morocco.
• I also swore I’d never lazily throw my luggage on, or at the bottom of, my hotel-room bed again.

Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist for the National Pest Management Association in Fairfax, Virginia, later explained to me that bedbugs are attracted to warmth and carbon dioxide. After a meal, they don’t always return to their original hiding place.

1. Sometimes they head to any crack or crevice close to the host—typically within five feet—and seams of backpacks and luggage are particularly inviting, especially if they’re nearby.
2. When I told friends about my traumatizing misadventure, many shared their own bedbug horror story.
3. As the media have reported in recent years, these insects, a terror to people for centuries, are on the rise yet again.

According to the National Pest Management Association, one in five Americans has either been affected by the parasites personally or knows someone who has. In France, bedbugs have become such a menace, they’re considered a, Hotels are particularly susceptible, due to the transient nature of their guests.

One of the most recent, released in 2017 and conducted by Atlanta-based pest-management company Orkin, found that eight of ten U.S. hotels had dealt with bedbugs during the previous year. (And more recently, as reported in, Chicago ranked as the number one city in the nation for bedbug problems last year, followed by New York and Philadelphia.) The pandemic has since highlighted a clear correlation between travel and bedbug occurrences, says Braun.

“As travel slowed, so did the number of bedbug sightings and reports,” he says. “As more people resume travel, we are noticing an uptick in bedbug reports for the hotel and hospitality industry.” According to an American Hotel and Lodging Association spokesperson, “Our members take the health and safety of their guests very seriously, and that includes ensuring pest-control procedures are in place to prevent and eradicate any pests, including bedbugs.” Can you avoid something that only comes out at night, is the size of an apple seed, and may or may not have chosen a new home in your belongings? The answer is: possibly, armed with the information below and diligence. Bedbugs like to hide out in bed frames, seams of mattresses, and the cracks of walls and floorboards. (Photo: iStock/Getty Images/Dzurag)

Do bed bugs wash off in the shower?

Bed Bugs: What Home Care Providers and Welfare Workers need to know

• Bed Bugs: What Home Care Providers and Welfare Workers need to know
• Oct 2019
• Authors: Shaku Nair Dawn H. Gouge Shujuan Li

About Bed Bugs Bed bugs are small, flat, reddish-brown insects (Fig.1), that feed on the blood of humans. Bed bugs do not transmit disease-causing pathogens. Adult bed bugs are about ¼ inch in length with a flat oval shape and are about the size of an apple seed. Anyone can acquire bed bugs Bed bugs are found everywhere people go. They hitchhike on clothing and personal items, and sometimes drop off, as people with bed bug infestations at home go about their daily life. Bed bugs introduced into new places in this way rarely survive, but may be found roving around an area looking for a protective crack or crevice.

Person-to-person transfer of bed bugs is unlikely in most instances. However, if your job involves visiting homes, or interacting physically with people, extra precautions should be taken to minimize the risk of accidentally picking up an unwanted hitchhiker. Where bed bugs are found Bed bugs are most likely to be found in and near beds, couches, or chairs in which people rest for multiple hours at a time.

Clusters of dark spots on mattresses and bedding, and bites on the skin may indicate the presence of bed bugs (Fig.2).

1. Preparing to visit a home
2. When you arrive at a location
3. After you leave the location
4. Upon returning home (if you do not have laundering and changing facilities at work):

▪ Have a spare set of clothes and shoes at the office or in your car. Large plastic bags to cover car seats after a visit are also helpful. ▪ Wear simple, light-colored clothing and shoes, without lots of pockets, cuffs, seams or folds. Choose materials that can be washed and dried in a clothes dryer.

• Avoid accessories such as scarves, hats and handbags.
• Carry minimal items (preferably only as much as you can easily carry around with one arm) into the residence.
• If you need to carry paperwork, and equipment use zipper style bags that can be discarded or carrier bags that can be laundered and dried in a clothes dryer.

▪ Carry a flashlight to use when making observations about living conditions. ▪ Use white bed sheets or foldout play mats to kneel on if your job entails interacting with children at floorlevel. Avoid reusing these items in multiple homes without laundering them between visits.

If an infestation has been previously confirmed or is anticipated, consider wearing disposable shoe covers to avoid collecting bed bugs on the undersides of shoes and relocating them to other homes. ▪ If possible avoid sitting on upholstered furniture or beds. Try to sit on a hard surface chair, or carry your own foldable chair.

▪ If you observe bed bugs during your visit, do not panic. Make a note, so you can be prepared next time. Encourage residents to talk openly about pest infestations, bites, and pesticide use. ▪ Remove disposable shoe covers and place them in a sealable plastic bag for later disposal in an external garbage receptacle.

1. Inspect yourself thoroughly, looking for any bed bugs or other pests on yourself.
2. Carefully check your clothes, under your shoes, and items taken inside.
3. Use a hand mirror to inspect the back of your pants or under your shoes if shoe covers were not worn.
4. If you find an insect on yourself, use a tissue or lint roller to pick it up, and place it in a sealable plastic bag.

Discard or save it for identification confirmation. ▪ If you have observed bed bugs in a resident’s home, notify your supervisor. ▪ If you suspect you may have bed bugs on yourself after an in-home visit, avoid subsequent home visits before changing clothes and shoes.

• Return home, or to your office if it is equipped with a shower, washer and dryer.
• The provision of laundry facilities, showering and changing rooms in offices where employees regularly visit bed bug infested environments enables employees to launder work clothes at the office and return to their duties with minimal interruption.

▪ Remove your footwear, bags, and leave them outside the home, or in the garage. ▪ Undress directly into a clothes washer if possible, or into plastic bags in a bathroom area. Double bag clothing until you can launder and dry the items as soon as possible.

1. Avoid bringing worn items into bedrooms or placing items on furniture.
2. Showering using soap and water is sufficient to remove bed bugs from your person.
3. Wash your work clothes and dry them completely in a clothes dryer.
4. Once dry, run the clothes on high heat for an additional 30 minutes to make certain that any bed bugs transferred from the washing machine are dead.

Heat kills all life stages of bed bugs. Washing alone will not kill them. Dry-cleaning is also effective. ▪ Inspect shoes, bags, and other items carefully before unpacking items in your home. Some shoes can be heated in a clothes dryer by hanging laces over the dryer door and leaving the shoes hung inside (Fig.3). If you find bed bugs at home Try not to panic; bed bugs do not transmit diseasecausing pathogens. The sooner you seek pest control assistance, the easier, faster, and cheaper it will be to eradicate them from your home. Find out your employer’s policy regarding helping employees with bed bugs, some may provide financial help.

Find out what your lease agreement is if you are a renter, you may or may not be responsible for the costs. Find an experienced pest management company to exterminate the pest. Bed bugs are challenging insects to control, and require specialized products, equipment, and knowledge to eradicate. FurtherInformation https://extension.arizona.edu/ sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1625-2014.

pdf https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension. arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1642-2019.pdf : Bed Bugs: What Home Care Providers and Welfare Workers need to know

How do I return from a trip with bed bugs?

Follow these important steps if you encounter bed bugs in your travels. When traveling for spring break, summer vacation or business, it’s important to check for bed bugs anytime you stay in a hotel, motel, resort or other place that has lots of visitors.

• If you find bed bugs or signs of bed bugs after conducting an inspection or after sleeping in the room, let the management know.
• Ask for another room – One that doesn’t share a wall with the room you just vacated.
• If you encounter bed bugs while traveling, then you will need to take some immediate precautions to avoid potentially bringing them home with you.

It is a good idea to put all of your belongings into sealed plastic bags. It is possible that bed bugs may have crawled into your belongings or luggage if they were stored near the bed; placing the items in bags will keep the bed bugs from dropping out where you don’t want them.

• If you can, place items that can be laundered through a dryer on medium or high-heat for at least 30 minutes.
• This will kill any bugs or eggs in those items.
• Place them back in clean, sealed plastic bags.
• When arriving home, unpack your bags in some location other than the bedroom, such as the garage, mud room, laundry room, or foyer, for example.

Any non-clothing items that may have come in contact with bed bugs should not be brought into the house at all. Depending on the item, it can be treated with heat or cold. You may be tempted to throw away your luggage and/or clothing after discovering a bed bug infestation, but that isn’t necessary.

Heat treatments are effective at killing bed bugs. More information about heat treatments is included later in this article. Unpack suitcases on a hard surface under bright light so you can see any bed bugs. Clothing should be placed directly from the sealed plastic bags into the laundry. Wash on the highest heat setting that the clothing can handle.

Ideally the water temperature should be 100 degrees Fahrenheit to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Dry on medium or high heat as well, and keep the items in the dryer at that setting for at least 30 minutes, Items that can’t be laundered can be put directly into the dryer at medium to high heat for 30 minutes,

If you have items that need to be dry cleaned, put them in a sealed plastic bag, and tell your dry cleaner that the items may have bed bugs. The items can be kept in the plastic bags until just before being loaded into the dry cleaning machines, Once the items inside your suitcase have been taken care of, it’s time to inspect your luggage.

Use a flashlight to check seams, folds and pockets for bugs or eggs. Vacuum the suitcase using a brush and crevice tool attachment. Once finished, enclose the vacuum bag or the dirt into a plastic bag sealed with tape. The suitcase can then be washed with hot soapy water or other common household cleaners.

1. Use a scrub brush along the seams and folds.
2. You may also wish to use a household or industrial steamer to heat-treat the luggage.
3. Commercial products are also available for frequent travelers that heat-treat the luggage and contents.
4. If you encounter bed bugs in your travels there is no need to panic! Just follow these steps to keep them from moving in to your home with you when you return.

Michigan State University Extension has partnered with the Michigan Department of Community Health to address the bed bug issue. For information on how to prevent or treat bed bug infestations, visit the Michigan Department of Community Health website, www.michigan.gov/bedbugs,

Do hotels ever give refunds?

Nonrefundable or “prepaid” hotel rooms are becoming more common even during the pandemic. There are a few circumstances where you could get your money back but it all depends on the hotel. Nonrefundable, or “prepaid” hotel rooms are becoming more common, even during the pandemic.

1. There are a few circumstances where you could get your money back – but it all depends on the hotel.
2. If you are sick, particularly if it’s with COVID-19, you can snag a full refund.
3. You can also argue for your money back if the hotel isn’t as advertised.
4. If that happens, take as many pictures as possible and appeal to the highest level.

You can even argue the charges with your credit card company. Another excuse for a refund is if there is a death in the family. Some guests have reported a harder time with this, though – saying they had to give documentation to prove they weren’t lying.

1. No matter why you are canceling, talk to your hotel and give it as much warning as possible.
2. Experts say most places will offer you a refund if you have a reasonable excuse.
3. If you are stuck with a nonrefundable room, try changing the date of your reservation.
4. Some hotels will let you move the date of your stay if you ask.

You can also resell your room and get your money back that way. Some hotels will let you change the main guest’s name under the reservation. Reservation sites, including Booking.com and Expedia, also let you make name changes. Overall, the best move is to avoid a nonrefundable room altogether.

Can bed bugs stay on your clothes all day?

So, in response to the question, ‘will bed bugs stay in clothes all day?’ The answer is that they can’t live on clothes that you’re wearing. The parasites can and will stay on clothes stored away all day and even longer. Address the infestation as quickly as possible.

Do bed bugs bite every night?

Bed Bug Feeding – Bed bugs are mostly nocturnal, but their feeding habits can become a matter of convenience. People that work a night shift can be bitten during the day when the insects are near. The bugs can bite several times in a night to become full but only feed about once every one or two weeks.

• People that have only small numbers of the bugs in their homes may not experience new bites every night.
• The bed bug finds a host through body heat as they are attracted to warmth as well as to the carbon dioxide found in exhaled air.
• Carbon dioxide is an indicator of a living creature, so it attracts any parasitic insects looking for a fresh meal.

The insect finds a host, positions itself on bare skin and stabs through the skin with its beak. It will feed for approximately 3-12 minutes. If the host moves or otherwise disturbs the feeding the bug will stop, move slightly and begin to feed again. This is one of the reasons why the bites are often in rows.

How long can you have bed bugs before noticing?

How do I know if I’ve been bitten by a bed bug? – It is hard to tell if you’ve been bitten by a bed bug unless you find bed bugs or signs of infestation. When bed bugs bite, they inject an anesthetic and an anticoagulant that prevents a person from realizing they are being bitten.

Most people do not realize they have been bitten until bite marks appear anywhere from one to several days after the initial bite. The bite marks are similar to that of a mosquito or a flea — a slightly swollen and red area that may itch and be irritating. The bite marks may be random or appear in a straight line.

Other symptoms of bed bug bites include insomnia, anxiety, and skin problems that arise from profuse scratching of the bites. Because bed bug bites affect everyone differently, some people may have no reaction and will not develop bite marks or any other visible signs of being bitten.

How long can it take for bed bug bites to show up?

How do I know if I’ve been bitten by a bed bug? – It is hard to tell if you’ve been bitten by a bed bug unless you find bed bugs or signs of infestation. When bed bugs bite, they inject an anesthetic and an anticoagulant that prevents a person from realizing they are being bitten.

• Most people do not realize they have been bitten until bite marks appear anywhere from one to several days after the initial bite.
• The bite marks are similar to that of a mosquito or a flea — a slightly swollen and red area that may itch and be irritating.
• The bite marks may be random or appear in a straight line.

Other symptoms of bed bug bites include insomnia, anxiety, and skin problems that arise from profuse scratching of the bites. Because bed bug bites affect everyone differently, some people may have no reaction and will not develop bite marks or any other visible signs of being bitten.