Bedbugs in hotels: a plague difficult to eradicate

How to recognise them

For those who like to travel and stay in hotels, bedbugs are a problem that everyone wants to avoid so as not to have their holidays ruined. Their annoying stings are an experience that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

These pesky little beasts are small bugs that like to hide and proliferate in environments where humans or any other warm-blooded animal is present. In a bed in a hotel room they can be found between the folds of the mattress, in the wood of the bed slats and even in clothes.

The stings are easily recognisable, initially looking very much like those of a common mosquito, except that they are often in groups of three, all in a line, because adult bedbugs sting three times and move very little.

Why hotels in particular

Bed bugs travel from one place to another by means of a human transporter, which moves them through objects in which they can take refuge. The cimex lectularius is therefore an insect that can be present in any type of building, from the five-star hotel to the hostel. All it takes is for someone to bring it in.

It is often assumed that the reasons for the presence of a pest in a given environment are purely hygienic. Dirt and uncleanliness can indeed encourage pests such as cockroaches and mice, but bedbugs are a different matter.

The reason bedbugs prefer establishments such as hotels is because of the large number of people who frequent them. These insects feed on blood and humans are their main target. A hotel room is an ideal location to strike, as people mainly stay there at night to rest and bedbugs become active during the night hours.

Mistakes to avoid and a solution to eradicate them

In the fight against bedbugs, the use of insecticides that act by 'ingestion/contact' is discouraged because they are not very effective and are toxic to humans.

The use of heat, on the other hand, requires a great deal of attention and the use of special equipment capable of producing very high temperatures to obtain an effective heat treatment. For this reason, it is neither an easy nor a cost-effective solution.

A good solution is a vacuum cleaner. Using it can eliminate some of the bed bugs by carefully vacuuming the carpet, the floor, upholstered furniture, the bed frame, under the bed, around the bed legs and through any cracks in the room.

Vacuuming will not be able to remove all the bugs, let alone their larvae and eggs (which are enveloped in an adhesive substance that makes them adhere tenaciously to the crevices where they have been laid), but, as well as significantly reducing the possible colony, it eliminates much of the debris and residues of various kinds that could hinder the action of subsequent pest control interventions.

A central vacuum system, in particular, avoids having to change the bag frequently, an obligatory action when using a traditional vacuum cleaner to prevent bed bugs from escaping.