How to Find Bed Bugs in Hotels & Motels
No matter how clean the room, bed bugs sometimes infest hotels and motels around the world. The small, flattened bodies of bed bugs fit easily into small spaces and the folds of linens, carpet and upholstered chairs, making them difficult to detect, and most people are unaware of an infestation until waking up with small, irritating bites all over their bodies. However, avoiding hotel and motel rooms with bed bugs is easy to do since bed bugs always leave signs of their presence that are easy to spot if you know where to look.
Set your bags on a luggage rack inside the bathroom upon entering an unfamiliar hotel or motel room. Avoid placing your bags on the carpet, furniture or bed until after inspecting the room for bed bugs.Look around the baseboards along the bottom of the walls for signs of bed bugs.
Look for black or rusty red smears on the wallpaper or plaster.Shine a small flashlight into the crevices between the baseboards and the wall to see if the insects are visible. Look for tiny, reddish-brown insects resembling ticks with a length no greater than 1/5 inch.
Pull back the corners of the bed linens to reveal the mattress. Pay close attention to any brown, black or rusty-red splatter-like discolorations on the mattress, as well as the characteristic sweet, mildew-like scent of bed bugs' excrement.Look under the mattress for signs of bed bugs including the signature dark-brown or blacks spots, insect casings or living bugs.
Pay attention to any sweet or musty smells emanating from the mattress.Lift the cushions on the chairs or look in the crevices of the fabric for spots or live bugs. Shine a small flashlight into the crevices since the light will prompt the bed bugs to emerge from hiding and scatter.
Samantha McMullen began writing professionally in 2001. Her nearly 20 years of experience in horticulture informs her work, which has appeared in publications such as Mother Earth News.
