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The resurgence of the population of bed bugs over the last fifteen years has been blamed on the higher number of people going on long-haul holidays and the enlarged amount of immigration from Asia and Africa. It is not that individuals carry the bed bugs back on their bodies, but bedbugs may have laid eggs in the travellers’ clothing or the bedbugs may have taken refuge in the suitcases.

In this manner they are transported home, and being very resilient to temperature change they thrive in their new home country. If the carriers are holiday makers, then the bedbugs could easily be brought into the hotel. This is how bed bugs can be distributed unknowingly by humans.

You see, bed bugs do not prosper in a dirty environment of necessity. Bed bugs do not mind whether you dropped a bit of potato on the floor last week and did not pick it up. They do not eat what we eat, even if they are starving. They only eat blood.

If you exist like this, then you will bring in the mice or rats, cockroaches and ants, but not bed bugs. It is a mistake to think that bedbugs like dirt and filth. They probably prefer it pretty clean to be honest, but they do have to have cracks and crevices to take cover in, but there are plenty of those in most rooms.

They like to wriggle behind the skirtings and other woodwork. They also like damaged plaster, loose wall paper and damaged mattresses. Because they are so flat, they can get into almost any crack. This means that any hotel can be infested with bedbugs, the Ritz, the Carlton, Holiday Inn – any of them.

This is the difficulty for us. If it was only run-down, shabby hotels that had bed bugs, we could avoid them, but you just cannot judge a book by its cover.

There are methods of checking your room though. Look out for small bugs that look a bit like an apple seed. Look in the seams of the chairs and inspect the mattress, if there are any rips in it, have it replaced.

You can also test by lying on the bed to warm it up and then throw back the bed clothes swiftly. You may spot a few fleet-footed insects running for cover. They are bedbugs.

Obviously, the first thing you have to do is warn the hotel manager. If you are not satisfied that he or she is taking you seriously, move or / and ring the environmental health department of the local authority.

Whether you find bedbugs or not, they still may be about to snag a ride home with you, so spray or dust your suitcase with a powerful insecticide before you fly home and to be really safe, have your clothes boil washed, because bedbugs cannot endure temperatures above 45c.

If you cannot arrange this on the last day of your vacation, make certain you do it when you get home, but make certain that you do not give anything you have brought with you a chance to get away and multiply.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with bed bugs extermination. If you are interested in this, please visit our website now at Picture Of Bed Bugs for more information.

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