How to Check a Hotel for Bed Bugs

BUGCO’s Darrell Mather explains how to check your hotel for bed bugs. If you suspect bed bugs in your home or business, please call BUGCO at 210-340-2847 in Metro San Antonio or 281-240-2157 in Metro Houston.

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Summary of the How to Check a Hotel for Bed Bugs Video

Hey everyone, it’s Darrell with BUGCO Pest Control again, and we’re in San Antonio today near the airport. We’re going to discuss some really key factors in regard to traveling and what we can do to help prevent bringing home things with us that we didn’t intend to.

So, how do I check a hotel for bed bugs? When you’ve had a long trip, and you’ve just gotten off the red-eye and the first thing you want to do is put your luggage on the bed. That’s a big mistake.

You can be in a five-star hotel, or you could be in a one-star motel — it doesn’t matter. Bed bugs are hitchhikers and travelers. Previous guests in your room could have brought in bed bugs. They carried it in from Sacramento, from New York, from Des Moines. It doesn’t matter. Or even just down the road.

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    So, what ends up happening is they come in, they’re carrying those bedbugs on their luggage, and they’re going to lay the luggage down on this bed, and then maybe the bed bugs get missed in the hotel’s routine pest control service.

    Then you come in, and you want to relax. Well, you’re going to take the bed bugs home with you if you put your luggage on the bed. Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They’re going to get in your luggage, they’re going to get in your clothing, purses, or whatever.

    So before you put your luggage on the bed and before you lay down on the bed, you should check the hotel for bed bugs. Go ahead and look for a few key indicators. Look along the seams of the mattress. Go ahead and lift up the sheet and blanket. Lift up the fitted sheet.

    You’ll see really big seams in just about every mattress out there. You’re going to have those two large seams here and here at the bottom. Just pull it up.

    What you’re going to be looking for is you’re going to be looking for black specks as well as obvious bed bug activity. They’re going to be anywhere from half the size to a quarter of the size of your pinky nail.

    So, go ahead and check here along the seams. Go up to the edge. Check all the way down it. Come to this side. Check the seams.

    If you do find activity, obviously you’re going to want to go up the office. Go ahead and let them know what you found. In the hospitality industry, they’re going to take care of you — no worries. As a traveler and as a guest in their hotel or motel, they want to ensure that you’re taken care of.

    That is how we’re going to know if we have bed bugs. You can also get bed bugs when someone comes into your home. They sit on the couch, or they stay in your guest room. The same steps apply to checking your home as they apply to check your hotel room for bed bugs.

    If you have any reason to believe that you had bed bugs and you want to find out how they were brought in or if you have reason to believe that someone introduced them, use those same tactics. Check the seams of your bed, sofas, and chairs periodically and see if there’s any activity.

    If you have questions, please call BUGCO Pest Control in San Antonio at 210-340-2847. Thanks, and I’ll see you next time.

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