Fishing Frenzy

There is a growing likelihood that the rooms you take in hotels will have bed bugs. I am not talking about a cheap room in a doss-house, but rooms in any hotel in the world. Costly suites and first-class hotels are just as likely to have bed bugs as the flop-house.

This is of course very bad news for the traveller and tourist. It is ghastly enough being bitten when you are paying for a room in a hotel, but if there are bed bugs, you could end up bringing them home and creating your very own infestation as well.

So, basically, you need to know how to discover whether your room has bed bugs or not and what you can do about it.

Bite marks are palpable signs, but they are not infallible because not everyone reacts to bed bug spittle, which causes the bump and itchiness. Not only that, but some individuals do not feel any reaction for a few days, so you might have been bitten in the last hotel you stayed.

If you do see bite marks, bed bug bites are normally round, red-pink marks that look like the end of the rubber on a pencil. They will also lie in a line or crooked line, but not random like mosquito bites. More like flea bites, but larger.

If lots of bed bugs bite you in one night, and that is common, because when a bed bug finds a victim, it sends out pheromones to inform its friends that you are there, you may gt a rash. The rash can become large and deep red and might link all the patches of bites, say on your chest or back.

However, if you have been bitten it is already too late. When you go into your room, take a deep sniff. This almost certainly will not help either as hotel staff know to spray air freshener in a room moments before a guest goes to look at it.

Bed bugs give off a, sickly, musty, 'dirty' odour, which, people say, once smelled, is never forgotten. The more bed bugs, the stronger the smell. It may take a couple of hours before the air freshener wears off and reveals the odour of bed bugs. You could attempt sniffing around the skirtings.

If this does not reveal bed bugs, place a bar of soap in a little water and lie on the bed for 30 minutes. Then, get up quickly, grab the soap and whip the bedclothes back. if you see any bed bugs, dab them up with the wet soap and you have proof to show the hotel manager.

Whatever the results of your due diligence, before you leave the hotel on the last day, unpack your suitcase and look for bed bugs; then put all your used clothes in sealable plastic bags. In that way , you reduce the likelihood of taking any on your trip onwards.