Bed bugs

[Evan Young]

I got bit by bed bugs last week in a nice Holiday Inn Express.
I'm posting the link to the wiki article about them. I would suggest reading it because if you get bit by them in a hotel you will want to take steps to make sure you don't bring any home with you in your luggage. When I got my bites I thought it was an allergic reaction at first, they popped up hours after we had left the hotel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bugs

and another one on scabies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabies

and staying in nice hotels doesn't help, they can and do infest even the best.

sweet dreams

[jeep caillouet]

bed bugs

I got those things 3 or 4 months ago and they are really hard to get rid of. And they start biting on ya about 4 in the morning. There allfull. I tried ever thing to get rid of them for weeks, nothing worked. Some one suggested that I go to a chemical supply store. 3 bottles and 3 days later they were gone and haven't come back.
I can get the name of the product if you need it.

[Evan Young]

I'm pretty sure I didn't bring them home with me (thank god).

[Devinthejuggler]

jeez, makes you want to sleep on the floor doesnt it...

[Steven Ragatz]

You can do a visual inspection of the room before you get settled. Lift up the sheets and look in the seams along the edge of the mattress and look for stains. They are usually dark brown and you can sometimes even see the bugs themselves (they're about a quarter inch.) Also look in the cracks and edges of the furniture, particularly the night stands or anything next to the bed. Check the baseboards as well.

If they get in your luggage, pitch it all!!! Start clean because they will wreak havoc! The little bastards are tenacious!

Sorry to hear that you are having to deal with this...

My wife, Lisa, always checks for them whenever we move to a new place.

Steven Ragatz

[martin ewen]

I was bitten last week in a 4 star right across from a prison, observation tower, our rooms overlooking the early morning calestetics and overhearing the late night interrogations, 'screaming is such sorrow'. A week I stayed there and a week those bugs gorged. Weird Chinese bedbugs these. Ancient, Opaque.

Hangzhou, performing in a park near a lake that is their grand canyon in awesome and transcendent and lakelike.

A place that incidentally began with an x.
I don't have it at hand, it's on a ticket, however as such it completes my alphabetical crusade. I have performed in towns or cities beginning with every letter of the alphabet. It took me 26 years,
and two drinks.
What can I possibly do but glance at my bedbug fading spots as my luggage poaches any within under 5 days now of Hawaiian sunlight.
I need a new reason to live.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

well, there's canolis.

[Kate Awesome]

Ouch. Yah, I had them once too, ironically, brought home by a couch-inhabiting roommate. I still wake up with night terrors, thinking they are in my (new) mattress (in a new apartment far away from the old roommate). I'm not even kidding.

Glad to hear you didn't bring 'em home! I always leave my road case outside on the balcony for 2 days whenever I come home from gigs now... and if I'm in a hotel room that has separate rooms, yah, I'm that guy who leaves their gear in the kitchen, away from anything upholstered.

[gav]

Wow, what's with American Hygiene ? I've traveled to about 30 Countries all over the world, most in Europe but some in '3rd world' countries and never had a problem with bed bugs anywhere.
One more reason not to do a US tour.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Our loss, doubtless.

[Steven Ragatz]

Actually, there is some speculation that the rise in bed bugs in the US and Europe is because exterminators are routinely using bait in lieu of sprays that leave a residue. The sprays are more toxic to people and pets, so the baits seem a better option. However, the baits don't affect bed bugs or fleas who feed on blood. Bed bugs can travel long distances, hang out in the cracks of walls and floors and live up to eighteen months without a meal!

According to the US Department of Defense, you can freeze them (4 days below 0C) or kill them with heat (49 C with steam for 20 minutes).

Yes, this gig that I'm doing at the moment is JUST that boring.

Steven Ragatz

- I see that most of this info is also in the wiki link in the first post. That will teach me to read more carefully!

[Kate Awesome]

I live in Toronto, and we're currently going through a major bed bug 'crisis'. There's even a registry online where apartment buildings can register if they have a confirmed outbreak, that is how severe it is here.

Ironically, after I moved out of the bed-bug infested apartment, I moved into the heart of "bed bug central" of Toronto (according to the registry) and I've not had a problem since.

Agreed with Steven: heat and freezing work, and, if you're like me and use tea-tree oil for everything, yes, even spraying a tincture of tea-tree oil and water can kill the superficial layer of bugs. But, if you've had the infestation for over say, a few weeks, you've got a million bugs to deal with, and I'd urge anybody to see the pest control dude and throw out all your furniture.
Even your wooden side table. Did you know that bed bugs can live in wooden furniture for UP TO SEVEN YEARS?

[Devinthejuggler]

shite... give me the african mosquito any day

[Stoned]

Yeah, oh... about 5 months ago I was staying in this Motel for a night after doing a show in Mass... And probably from sleeping in the bed I got scabies... Damn they suck... Haven't ever had the "pleasure" of being attacked by bed bugs... But the scabies are a pain in the ass! I'm alergic to the cream doctors give you for it... But I used this Tea Tree Oil I got from the drug store, it cleared it up in a lil less than a week...
Just thought I'd mention that

[Evan Young]

Wow, what's with American Hygiene ? I've traveled to about 30 Countries all over the world, most in Europe but some in '3rd world' countries and never had a problem with bed bugs anywhere.
One more reason not to do a US tour.

I had never really thought about them much until I got bit. In fact, I didn't really even believe they existed except in that saying "don't let the bed bugs bite". After I got bit I started talking to people about them and the stories came out, but most people haven't run across them personally. I'm sure they are in Europe too, it has nothing to do with hygiene, they don't live in dirt..... it's kinda like saying that Australia's spiders are a hygiene problem.

Wiki says that in some places (like India) you should look for red stains on the walls from where people have smashed the bugs with their thumbs.

Apparently hotels in some states are required to refund the hotel room and pay for you to replace all your luggage if you stay in a room infested by bed bugs.

They are also weird bugs. Jonathan was staying in the same room (different bed) and he didn't get bit at all. Even people staying in the same bed can have the same experience.