Updated: 6 minutes agoHottel talks through a mock hotel room inspection at the Orkin training center in Atlanta. Photo for The Washington Post by Kevin D. Liles
Although reports of bedbugs declined during the coronavirus pandemic, Hottel said the resurgence in travel has fueled an uptick in infestations. Bedbugs need people to move, and now that travelers are mobile again, the pests are proliferating. In addition, when faced with a shortage of blood, the bugs will fall into a dormant state, waiting to revive once they sense that food has entered the room. Keep this in mind when you step inside a recently reopened seasonal rental.
Bedbugs thrive in temperatures in the 65- to 85-degree range. They are partial to rougher surfaces and malleable materials with dark hiding places, such as mattress seams, headboard cracks and box spring crevices. Similar to vampires, they abhor light and feed at night. He removed the pillows and sheets but said to not dedicate too much time on the bedding, because housekeeping frequently changes and washes the linens. He then checked the mattress’s top and bottom seam, slowly walking around the perimeter and lifting up the thick ribbon of material to examine both sides.
If the mattress is sealed in plastic, he said to not unzip it. The cover is a defense against bedbugs. “If you are not finding anything within this general zone area, probably doesn’t have bedbugs,” he said.If you uncover bedbugs, snap photos of the evidence or collect the specimen in a cup. But don’t bring the live bug to the front desk, in the off-chance it escapes.
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