And Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite
An MSNBC.com horror story news article says bed bugs can live for months without food -- patiently waiting for the next hapless hotel guest to arrive so they can feast on him.
Even upscale hotels are not immune to litigation, and bug specialists say the pests can thrive even in a spotlessly clean room. In 2003, a Mexican businessmen sued the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York after he and a companion allegedly suffered numerous bedbug bites to their torsos, arms and necks while staying at the property, which overlooks Central Park.
Helmsley Enterprises Inc., the owner of the hotel, settled the suit quietly last year. Stopping short of confirming bed bugs had been a problem, Howard Rubenstein, a company spokesman, said the hotel had not had any problems with bed bugs since the lawsuit.
Oval-shaped and less than a quarter of an inch long, the brown-colored insects like to settle close to their food source, often hiding out under mattresses and bed frames, in crevices and behind picture frames.
Once attached to a sleeping human, they use a barbed proboscis to bore through the skin and suck their blood meal. They can go months without feeding, patiently awaiting a new host or travel companion.
One woman unknowingly brought home some of the bed bugs after a business trip; her home became infested in no time. And all we can say is "Ewwwww."
Even upscale hotels are not immune to litigation, and bug specialists say the pests can thrive even in a spotlessly clean room. In 2003, a Mexican businessmen sued the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York after he and a companion allegedly suffered numerous bedbug bites to their torsos, arms and necks while staying at the property, which overlooks Central Park.
Helmsley Enterprises Inc., the owner of the hotel, settled the suit quietly last year. Stopping short of confirming bed bugs had been a problem, Howard Rubenstein, a company spokesman, said the hotel had not had any problems with bed bugs since the lawsuit.
Oval-shaped and less than a quarter of an inch long, the brown-colored insects like to settle close to their food source, often hiding out under mattresses and bed frames, in crevices and behind picture frames.
Once attached to a sleeping human, they use a barbed proboscis to bore through the skin and suck their blood meal. They can go months without feeding, patiently awaiting a new host or travel companion.
One woman unknowingly brought home some of the bed bugs after a business trip; her home became infested in no time. And all we can say is "Ewwwww."
posted by Max Hartshorne at 10:52 PM
2 Comments:
The article can't emphasize enough how horrible it is to bring bed bugs into your home. It has cost us $1400 for an Exterminator (and we live in the nice clean countryside of rural NH) and many, many hours of emptying out our large bedroom of everything but the empty furniture, then everything had to be washed or frozen (2 weeks minimum) or throown out and now we are waiting to see if we got them all !! It's been nerve wracking and expensive !!! I am now trying to find out all the preventive measures I can take while traveling. Be very very careful...
Bed bugs are hell and they're taking over the nation
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