Posted on 04/21/2005 2:37:50 PM PDT by NCjim
John Schulz, Marriott International's director of quality control, had something to discuss last November at one of the hotel industry's biggest conventions -- something that really makes people squirm.
At the International Hotel/Motel and Restaurant trade show in New York, Mr. Schulz spoke at a symposium called "Stop the Spread of Bedbugs." The pamphlet advertising the event, printed by pest-control company Ecolab, promised a discussion of "the reasons behind the resurgence of these unwelcome pests."
Mr. Schulz declined to comment on his presentation, and Marriott said it doesn't have a bedbug problem. But people in the hotel industry are waking up to the fact that they are playing host to some particularly nasty guests. In the past few years, Cimex lectularius -- the common bedbug -- has been making a small but alarming comeback, in part because some of the pesticides that had kept them at bay have been phased out.
Hotels are particularly vulnerable to infestations because the bugs travel in luggage and clothing and because hotels have so many different people sleeping in their beds.
A survey of insect-control companies in 2004 by Pest Control Technology magazine found that hotels accounted for the biggest proportion of all reported bedbug infestations. Respondents said 37% of bedbug calls came from hotels and motels. That was up from 31% the year before. Orkin Inc., the pest-control company, reports a substantial increase in its bedbug calls in the past year.
Bedbugs nest on or near mattresses and feed at night by biting and sucking the blood of people as they sleep. They can cause itchy red welts and considerable, lingering anxiety. They're nearly impossible to get rid of without treating bedding and furniture with powerful pesticides. (Throwing everything away works, too.)
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
This is sort of related.
My family got lice after a vacation to Disneyland. We don't know if we got it at Disneyland or at the hotel we were staying at.
It was very disgusting, and took lots of effort to get rid of them.
Ewwwwwwwwwwww.
Yuck. I do everything I can to avoid flying and now I don't think I can stay in a hotel.
Third world migrants!
Multiculturalism is wonderful!
Trust me, you do not want to know who was in that hotel bed before you.
We were at a convention in Indianapolis where the Convention & Visitors Bureau assigned us rooms at the Days Inn Airport. Never again! Bed-bug infested!!!!!!!!!
I think you're onto something unfortunately..........
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ecl
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh37537_2005-04-21_12-38-33_wen9476_newsml
I've always wondered how often major chain hotels change their comforters on the beds? Ever since I watch an Oprah show entitled "how clean are the hotels" or something like that, it has given me the willies and reluctant to stay at hotels...yuck!
The gators in My yard are likely to have west nile virus, and none of them have been to Egypt. Tribalism and insularity are defense mechanisms against disease, We ain't seen anything, yet!
Not just hotels...
What to stop the spread of bedbugs? Simply require customers to demonstrate they are here legally.
Uh huh. You have got to be kidding. So you think only immigrants have bedbugs?
One thing my family learned the hard way when I was a kid: Never allow swallows to build nests under the eaves of your house! They carry the critters!
It took some serious fumigatin' to get rid of them.
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