Well that's just great.

February 3, 2014 8:19 PM

Just found a bedbug in my hotel room. What's next?

Getting ready for bed, I found a bedbug crawling across my bedspread in my hotel room tonight. What are my next steps? I had left some clothes on the floor after going for a run earlier, and I left my luggage on a table in the other room in the suite. What do I need to do to make sure that I don't bring one of these bad boys home?

The hotel manager has already transferred me to another room, but I'm worried about what I should be doing to ensure I don't bring any with me to my new room.

posted by thecaddy to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

Best answer: If your luggage wasn't on or near your bed, you're probably okay. But to be safe, when you get home take your luggage immediately to your laundry room and wash and dry all your clothes on hot and thoroughly vaccuum your luggage inside and out before your bag or any of its contents go anywhere near your bedroom.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:40 PM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]

Going through bedbugs now. I'd do all that washing before I leave the hotel, honestly, if I could. Then I would transfer everything into big garbage bags and keep your suitcase in a garbage bag. Then wash everything, clean luggage again before it entered your house.

If you want to be prepared for bed bugs, look into diatomacious earth. The stuff if awesome and well known to work.
posted by eq21 at 9:20 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

On your way home could you go straight to a laundromat, stopping only to get some trash bags… unload the suitcase into the bags in the parking lot and take your stuff in and wash on hot, and maybe throw the suitcase away?
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:21 PM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: The other concern I have is my laptop...I'm on a business trip (and so have lots of stuff that can't just go in the wash, naturally), but the laptop is probably the biggest issue, right?
posted by thecaddy at 9:31 PM on February 3, 2014

Best answer: I'd guess that the laptop running heat would kill any bedbugs that might get inside. They die at 120 F and initial light Googling suggests that typical internal temperatures for laptops are higher than that.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:11 PM on February 3, 2014

The bedbugs would just crawl out of the laptop.

I'd pack it in rice for a day to dry it out, (if it was humid), and then chill it in a freezer that is at or below 00F (-18oC) for 4 days.
http://www.bedbugs.umn.edu/bed-bug-control-in-residences/using-freezing-temperatures-for-bedbug-control/

As long as it has an LED screen. You don't want to chill LCD screens.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:26 PM on February 3, 2014

I would ask the hotel to wash your clothes, gratis.
posted by MuffinMan at 12:35 AM on February 4, 2014 [5 favorites]

As long as it has an LED screen. You don't want to chill LCD screens

All laptops use LCD screens. "LED" screens use LED's for the backlight.

You can also use heat to kill them -- you can try running your CPU hot (running a benchmark suite, or something) for a few hours, but that risks damaging your laptop. I wouldn't really worry about bedbugs in your laptop unless the place is absolutely infested with them.
posted by empath at 1:33 AM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Do not have the hotel wash your clothes - don't want cross contamination!!

Do a bed bug check of your new hotel room.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:54 AM on February 4, 2014

Response by poster: Yep...I did a pretty thorough check of the new room--also had done one of the previous room and didn't see anything, so my new thought is that I picked one up on the train that was packed with lots of post super bowl folks yesterday. I didn't have any bites last night (no signs on the sheets this morning) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
posted by thecaddy at 6:11 AM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]