Sure, why not? Taxpayers are paying billions a week for a pointless war in Iraq, so why not spend a few million to fight bed bugs.

Posted By david b on July 21, 2008, 6:23 PM

Hey Emily - Maybe you should do a little more research. Bed bug infestations have been documentd in ALL 50 states recently.
They are everywhere!!! Take some time to read some of the tramatic tales in bedbugger.com.
No - I do not agree this is something our government (we) should pay for, ...BUT the TRAVEL industry is denial about this pandemic. (Of course they have a lot at stake here
All of the major hotel flags have had a problem. Why don't you check the rental furniture industry out and see what they have been dealing with. Apartment complexes are being besieged by this pest.
Several university dorms have had problems.
I live in Florida and yes I am an exterminator with 25 years in the business. Up until 5 years ago I never saw a bed bug. This year so far, we have treated over 50 units/structures in the Tampa area alone. The problem is we have almost NOTHING that will kill, let alone prevent bed bugs.
Check with Dr. Potter from the University of Kentucky or Dr Koehler from the University of Florida. Ask them if only a few areas in this country are having or will have a problem.
Check out some of the travel sites and search bed bug and see if you still feel the same way.

Posted By HB on July 21, 2008, 9:08 PM

I think there is a growing threat from "bedbugs." The way this administration is going, I might soon have to check UNDER my bed every night for "bugs" . . .of the electronic variety!

Posted By con on July 21, 2008, 11:55 PM

This is a huge problem! I had my first, and so far only, encounter in Milwaukee, WI of all places! If nothing is done, it will have a major impact on people's willingness to travel and stay in hotels. I am very careful when I check in, I ask the clerks directly if they have had a problem and I check the beds repeatedly.

Posted By Andrea on July 24, 2008, 12:27 PM

Shouldn't this burden be the responsibilty of the hotels as a cost of doing business?
Trusting yet another gov't agency to provide accurate, honest assessments is a huge, mirthful laugh!
Just ask the unfortunate ground zero workers who trusted Bush appointee Christie Todd Whitman who advised that air and water conditions were perfectly safe. Just one more sad example in a plethora of gov't misteps, negligence and abuse.

Posted By Annie B on July 24, 2008, 12:35 PM

No am not in favor of funding for bedbugs, let each state or household take care of their own needs.

Posted By John M on July 24, 2008, 12:38 PM

I experienced an attack in a very nice hotel in New York. It was frightening to think that I might have brought them home with me in my suitcase. I called an exterminator to thoroughly check my furniture at home to be sure they hadn't spread. What can travelers do to protect themselves from being bitten while in the hotel or taking them home in a suitcase? I would really appreciate more information on this wide spread problem.
Thanks.

Posted By Renee on July 24, 2008, 1:59 PM

Kill bedbugs?! Why can't we all just get along?

Posted By Wolf on July 24, 2008, 2:05 PM

It makes sense. It will be much more efficient and less costly to fight bedbugs centrally and prevent many infestations than to leave it up to stricken individuals. However, each state should also make its prevention and inspection services available to individuals who need help and maintain an approved registry of exterminators who have a proven track record. One of the biggest problems for the stricken is knowing where to go.

FromNewYorkNewYorkaHotSpotTown

Posted By afa on July 24, 2008, 2:27 PM

My daughter just returned from a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio, with too many bedbugs to count! I am appalled that the hotel industry does not take care of this ever increasing problem! If they don't, they are going to lose business because I can tell you right now that I am telling everyone I know not to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio! I had to wash all her clothes in hot, hot water and I threw out two expensive pillows, an $80 suitcase, and a personalized toiletry bag, along with many souvenirs. The hotel industry should be ashamed!

Posted By Marcia Fletcher on July 24, 2008, 2:27 PM

Maybe each states board of health should take charge of this problem, rather than the federal gov't.

Posted By ChrisR on July 24, 2008, 3:53 PM

I have experienced a extreme infestation myself in Covington, Kentucky not less. What people really cannot grasp is that this is actually very psychologically damaging. I can relay my story to others and they begin to itch. It is very tramatic and I also do not understand why the hotels are not addressing this immediately. Infestations are not hard to spot check the mattress on the edge where it is bound together. That little seam is a favorite spot. You will notice their defication which looks like urine and/or blood. Housekeepers need educated and rewarded or reprimanded dependant on the case. The government does not belong in this issue. Who are these people that are infesting the hotels? How nasty do you have to be?

Posted By Cherie on July 24, 2008, 5:24 PM

Maybe the government can fund schools to teach people to read. Then they can read the information already out there to learn how to get rid of the bed bugs at their workplace. Hotels should train their staff to address the problem (at $250+ a night I think they can afford to be sure someone is doing their job...)

Posted By Joanne on July 24, 2008, 6:16 PM

This is a major problem!! We brought some home in our luggage from a Quality Inn. It took us more than a year to get rid of them. And we had to buy some really nasty stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily allow in the house. This is a cost of doing business and the hotels/motels should take care of it. Government can mess things up faster than a bed bug can bite.

Posted By itchy traveler on July 24, 2008, 7:54 PM

With a vacation to Montreal and Quebec coming up soon, I am wondering if any readers have some sure fire tips for checking to see whether the little critters are, in fact, taking up residence between the sheets. Also, what can/should a traveler do if they find evidence of an infestation. Can a traveler assume that the entire facility is infested? is a refund in order? should the local health department be contacted?

Posted By Judi on July 24, 2008, 10:39 PM

Each state's Board of Health SHOULD inspect hotels and motels for bedbugs. We end up taking them home in our suitcases and they get into our homes and infest them. Hotels and motels should use preventive measures by educating their staff and checking to make sure they clean properly and examine beds and furniture for bugs. I have noticed in some places, housing staff just don't take their jobs seriously. When we checked into one motel at 3:00 p.m, we found cleaning staff sitting on the floor in the hall seemingly having a good time and our room was a mess with dirty sheets on the floor and no clean sheets or towels. Apparently no one checks on quality of service.

Posted By Carol on July 25, 2008, 12:00 AM

Ask the following question. Why are bed bugs a problem now when they weren't 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. They're a problem for the same reason that Malaria is on the rise. We've banned DDT. If millions of people dying in subtropic countries from Malaria doesn't get the ban lifted why should a few bedbugs?

Government shouldn't get involved. Government created the problem to begin with when they totally banned DDT.

Posted By Lifeline on July 25, 2008, 12:31 AM

Good Lord! Just when you think you've heard it all! Man, my trashy relatives had bed-bugs when I was just a little-shaver back in the 40's. They got rid of them super-quick by laundering the bedding, taking the mattresses outside, shooting them with insecticide, & then letting them air out for a day and scrubbing the floors with laundry-soap & iodine. Voila! Took a little elbow-grease, not much money!!Didn't even have to hire a SERVANT!

Posted By IndyMo on July 26, 2008, 3:19 PM

what a stupid government you have... can't give you health but can find money to kill bugs!!! jojo Toronto Canada

Posted By jpjo on July 26, 2008, 6:53 PM

They need to do whatever it takes to get rid of bedbugs. i NEVER had this problem until recently and it was the worst experience in my life.

Posted By mslinh210 on July 26, 2008, 8:22 PM

I totally agree with you jpjo! And I live here!

Posted By tnk on July 27, 2008, 10:16 AM

I've been lucky enough that I've never encountered this problem during my travels. I feel that the hotels, not the government, should be responsible for battling these infestations. I know the company I work for has a monthly pest control treatment (organic) in place to target the common pests for our area. I would think this is one of the regular costs of doing business and a clean inspection would be a requirement for whatever licensing the state requires for the hotel to do business with the public (I'm assuming hotels are required to pass some health & safety inspections like restaurants and other public-service industries).

Posted By Neverwill on July 28, 2008, 4:40 PM

Wow so many different points of view on this subject. A couple thing to mention. The bed bugs of today ARE NOT the bed bugs of yesterday. They have developed resistance to many chemicals including DDT (hence the resurgence in reported infestations). Having bed bugs has nothing to do with social status or how clean one is. They can and do infest a clean house as well as a not so clean house. The only difference is the clean house may be a bit easier to treat than a cluttered one. It is also not so simple to get rid of them. I went through a six month period with a landlord who did not seem to care much about it. I finally moved had my things fumigated (vikane gassed) in a u haul and am now finally rid of them. I had not stayed at a hotel since I had moved into that place.

The government needs to get on board before this problem becomes even larger. It's not just the hotel industry that should be helped though. Individuals will also need help. Treatments are not cheap and at this point nothing is 100% guaranteed to work.

The biggest mistake the hotel industry is making to me is denying that there is even a problem going on or saying it isn't that big of a problem.

Posted By tony on July 30, 2008, 12:20 PM

It's amazing what we put up with in the travel industry... how is this any different than seeing a roach at a restaurant. Equally threatening to health and safety of the consumers, but yet, the government steps in and closes the restaurant with the violation, but you don't see the government stepping in and closing the hotel. I'm more amazed at how the travel industry is constantly allowed to get away with not meeting the consumer's basic needs and rights.

Posted By Lisa on July 31, 2008, 12:10 AM

You obviously never had experienced 10000s of bites from bedbugs and if you had you ALL would be throwing money at the government to do something.

You can't SEE bedbugs so an underpaid inspector would say there aren't any when they are. They hide in the wooden frames and slats and in the rugs and blankets which rarely ever get washed.

I've traveled throughout the world and the new tread for hostels that they give you clean, washed sheets and then when you leave you return them to the management and they get washed.

Let me know if you want pictures of my bed bugs bites....They WIll ruin YOUR vacation for those of you who are not attuned to the realities of the critters.

Posted By kathy Jackson on July 31, 2008, 12:59 PM

IndyMo – wait ‘til you get ‘em.

Some scrubbing, liberal insecticide, a lotta elbow grease, and Voila! you’ve still got bedbugs. THAT’s the reality for most sufferers.

Posted By Barbara on August 2, 2008, 1:11 AM

YES!!! The longer we wait to do something about this infestation the worse it's going to get and the harder it will be to eliminate. A hit-or-miss approach will not solve the problem. We love to travel and that means this vermin hitchhikes with us from one hotel to the next. No extermination program is going to work unless every lodging does it and that won't happen unless it's required by law and backed up by inspections. As for bedbugs not being a health risk, I don't believe it! Mosquitos are proven to carry disease and bedbugs suck blood from multiple sources just as they do. I have read that bedbugs have been reintroduced to the US by travel to infected countries. Perhaps we should consider fumigation of luggage. Hotels that have vermin should have their license revoked until they can prove the infestation is eliminated. Bedbugs are a disgrace and if we don't eliminate them from our hotels we WILL have them in our homes.

Posted By Nancy on August 2, 2008, 11:14 PM

Bed bugs migrate with travelers & do not respect state boundaries.

Public lodging facilities like Hotels & Dormitories are a major vector for the transmission for these nightmare parasites.

Do you have friends, neighbors, relatives or co-workers that travel? If so you are at personal risk of hosting bed bugs in your bed.

If one family gets infested these little parasites can travel throughout a multiple unit building to your bed.

Bed bugs were gone for almost sixty years, but they are back in the US now & spreading at an exponential rate.

This legislation will only slow the rate at which the infestation spreads through Hotels & Motels to your household.

Recently, a United Airlines flight was grounded because of a parasite infestation.

The Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act will jumps start the enactment of regulations & control efforts at the state level.

I traveled to Orlando for a conference last year & found three dead bed bugs in my hotel bed in a "name brand" establishment on International Drive.

Write & call your Congressional Rep and ask them to support this bill today.

Posted By Doug Summers MS on August 3, 2008, 12:04 PM

Leave the federal & state government out of it. They have messed up enough already. They have a lot more important things to do that they are not doing. The city or county health dept should handle the problem just like they do for cockroaches & vermin etc
I am going on a trip in a week and I will be inspecting the beds with a magnifying glass, very carefully, before I move into the hotel room.

Posted By Shirley on August 4, 2008, 12:03 PM

I am currently dealing with a bedbug infestation in my building, along with my neighbors. This is the second infestation that has plagued our building in the last 2 ½ years. Last time I had to be given a prescription the itching was so bad, this time I am luckier but you should see the 30 plus scars on my poor neighbor’s legs. I have spent at least 30 hours cleaning thus far, and thrown out thousands of dollars of my belongings, not to mention the hundreds on dry cleaning/washing. I consider myself to be a strong person but I have been an emotional wreck. Going through and bagging and vacuuming all your belongings is extremely traumatic. Add to that the paranoia that it could come back, travel with you, you can get it from anywhere, spread it to work, your friends.

It is ridiculous how these creatures can take over our lives in a moment’s notice. We need to invest real time and money into solutions that actually work—and can prevent the problem—before it gets worse. Imagine if they did carry disease (I’ve only read it one place that it carries them)? We’d all be dead.

If they were gone before, they can be gone again. I can’t imagine having to live through this one more time. We also need to invest in services that properly clean the apartment and the clothes. I feel awful taking my clothes to the Laundromat—wondering if I am spreading it and karma will bring it back. There should be specialized places that pick up and clean your clothes properly. Even having them help vacuum your goods and have special plastic bags. I have to double bag everything because I am so paranoid a bug with sneak in. I think a fire would be easier to deal with, and this is almost worse that gut-wrenching Identify Theft which I also experienced.

Is this the way to live? With all the advances in modern technology, can’t we find a way to zap thee bastards?

I don’t really care if it comes from Federal or State, because the problem can easily spread through travel, I think this is a national issue that very seriously needs to be addressed soon.

Posted By LCH on August 5, 2008, 2:15 PM

I am not sure how I feel about the bed bug problem and if the government should be responsible or not.

If anyone is interested in learning more about bed bugs, please visit www.bedbugcentral.com. The majority of tje content is written by Richard Cooper, the current #1 bed bug industry expert in the country.

Posted By Stephanie on August 12, 2008, 3:34 PM

Recently my home was invaded by bed bugs. At first i started getting bites on my arms and legs but couldn't figure out where they were coming from. My first guess would never have been bed bugs, i never heard about anyone getting those.

Until they showed up at my door one day.

Now it's a literal nightmare. I'll try to read a book and i can ACTUALLY see the little monsters come after me. So i kill those. Then i try to sleep, so i check the bed and it seems fine. I start to fall asleep, and they show up like im the main event of the nite. So now im awake again killing little bugs....

The bites are terrible, the bugs don't just leave one or two bites.... No they FEAST on you while u least expect it. And they can track you by the CO2 u emit while breathing. Wonderful, now you can't hide.

After getting the little monsters i started to do some research and found out that many many people in the country are having problems with bed bugs. In fact i found out that my state, Maryland, is a hotspot for the monsters. However I've never seen anything on the news, or heard/seen information about them.

I believe the government is responsible for the at least letting people know about this growing bug threat.

The state should hold hotel chains and the like responsible for the damage they can cause.

If the little monsters invade a person's residence, then they should be able to get some sort of assistance since the bugs dont just go away. They take weeks and weeks of aggrevation to 'potentially' get rid of them

Posted By AJ on August 20, 2008, 10:12 PM

If the Government does not get involved... this will be a BUG we will all have to learn to live with. It only takes 1 bug to get the disgusting cycle going.

I am a Resort manager, and I had two rooms with bed bugs and we are talking $20,000 in treating, buying new mattresses, moving the people, the room has to be on quarantine, rental fees returned. The financial cost associated with the bed bug is staggering.

The problem is the bug is everywhere, theatres, busses, rental furniture, dry cleaners, uhaul trucks. The exterminators that treated our place had a call that week to go to a Chinese Restraunt. He said it was INFESTED, so you order take out food and the darn bugs could have crawled in the brown bag or the food containers. The list goes on and on. Unless we all want to live with this bug something drastic is going to have to happen on a government level. EDUCATION at all levels of business.

Checking for Bugs:

I can tell you that if the room is infested it very very easy to see them. Just pull the sheets and bed spread off of the bed and push the mattress up. If it is a bad infestation, you will see it immediately. If they have just started multiplying they LOVE to live in the box springs! Yes, you must get two people to life the box springs up and take a good look. If that mesh material is still on the box springs RIP IT OFF AND LOOK. The horrible thing is if there are only a couple of bugs that have just been brought in....it it almost impossible to find them until they come out to feed. Just a fact.

I will not stay in hotels anymore, even though I work at a resort.

We have decided to get rid of all of the box spring and we are going with a plain plat form bed (no head board) with a mattress on top. Trying to stream line everything so there is no where for them to hide.... and an infestation can never get bad.

We no longer take walk ins off the street, because if they are leaving a hotel/motel in the middle of a vacation, Bed bugs are probably the reason!!!!This bug is VERY COSTLY and devastating. I try not think about it but I am always fearful about bringing one to my home. They should bring DDT to be used only for the purpose of wiping out this bug.

The BED BUG has made us rethink everything we do now.

Posted By Monique on December 24, 2008, 8:07 PM

F&*^% the hotels!

this is wasting a lot of money on treatments that don't work.

BB's are becoming resistant to chemical sprays and we don't know how to kill them properly! This bill is a joke and will only throw money into a useless pest control industry.

WE NEED MONEY FOR RESEARCH, on killing the bugs and to find out if they actually do transmit disease!

Posted By bedbuggery on January 7, 2009, 8:39 PM

Hi, I am a US soldier in the Army. I am currently stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. I never have seen any bed bugs before my deployment, but rather I have only heard the stories about them. I must say that the stories make these insects seem a little nicer than they actually are. The building that I sleep in on our (FOB) is infested with these blood sucking creatures. I am constantly tormented each and every night by bed bugs. I have spent countless dollars on new sheets, blankets, and pillows but none of these things have worked. I have actually killed many of them and the problem only comes back to haunt me. I have notified my chain of command about this issue, so has many other soldiers who are being bit, but no one has any answers. Its very hard over here dealing with these bugs and trying to perform out in the city, from a lack of sleep. Your comments will be appreciated

Posted By JOHN HOBBS on February 3, 2009, 1:28 PM

Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your information about bedbugs. And thank you for your service to your country.
--Sean

Posted By Blog editor on February 3, 2009, 2:06 PM

Let's have the government pay for everything and no one will have to take any responsibility for anything. This is quickly becoming the American motto and it makes me sick. Invest in bedding protection for your home, it is not that expensive!

Posted By Shelly on April 9, 2009, 10:35 PM