December 1, 2005
Bedded and Bugged
On the heels of this past weekend's stomach turning report that, yes, bedbugs are on the rise all over the city, two Swiss businesswomen are suing the Hotel Pennsylvania and Vornado Realty Trust over the bedbug-infested stay they had in September. Their lawyer says that when the women complained to a hotel employee about being bitten by something, the employee immediately said, "Bedbugs!" showing that there was knowledge of the pest at the Penn Station-area hotel. The women were treated at a local hospital and also have "gruesome" photographs to show their wounds on their face, necks, torsos, arms and legs. Since travelers tend to carry bedbugs, this is yet another story in a long line of "the hotel's bedbugs bit me" - we remember a case at the Helmsley Hotel in 2003. Gothamist wonders if we should travel with disposable plastic sheets to sleep in the next time we stay in a hotel.
Ask Gothamist on how to deal with bedbugs in your home - namely, bug your landlord. And check out the Health Department's information and suggestions on how to handle bed bugs.
Image from WNBC, which has a really gross slideshow of bedbugs
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The lawsuit should be thrown out. Everyone, including foreigners, should know that when you stay at the Pennsylvania, chances are you will be bitten by something.
You forget that’s where the dogs stay when they have the dogshow in town.
i had them for months and months. Exterminators unfortunately dont really help, b/c you have to keep spraying, and they only come and deal with it intermittently. The ways I got rid of them (finally)
1) cover mattress and box spring with mattress covers (thats where they sleep)
2) spray, once every two weeks (get the spray from home depot)
3) there is a power that you have, and put it all around the bed and the floors.
4) check all around the room every 2 weeks to see if they have found a new spot (they are tricky)
they are hell to deal with (i even found some on my clothes at work). But they are manageable.
Am I the only person completely obsessed with bedbugs now? The media has certainly worked its magic on me. I've been looking under my mattress like crazy and investigating any and all itchiness.
I know, you guys are freaking me out!!
Hey, if you guys are "freaked out" try living with the bastards. No one in my infested apt has slept well in a long time.
Kojak is partially right...you can't blame out-of-towners, but EVERYONE living here should know this and tell their loved ones to stay away from the Pennsylvania. Two true stories:
1. Years ago I was filming a Bow Wow Wow interview there, and the band said some of them had to change their room because one of the guys awoke in the middle of the night with a rat on his shoulder.
2. Years later, my mom stayed there (I had totally forgotten it was the location of the first incident), and we were speaking to an English woman in the lobby who was horrified; there were roaches teeming from the headboard, and her feet were trapped in the bottom of the tucked sheet with MORE ROACHES. Lots of them! They had refused her room request change. Luckily, my mom had no incidents.
damn right you dont sleep well with bedbugs. someone in my building in soho carried them into the building which ended up infesting all the apts.
it WAS hell to get rid of, and in addition a great fix came from my grandmother of all people (i suppose they were commonplace in the depression) and you also can use a cloth to rub ammonia around the floor boards, the mattress and box spring (including underneath and headboard) sure enough, that was the last straw for those awful bedbugs.
i was so embarassed to have them three years ago--who knew i was on the front edge of a trend?
Any reason they are not all over the upholstery on airplanes? People sit there for hours, with their nasty infested clothes on. What about taxi seats? I have the itchies just thinking about this. At least with viruses you can wash your hands.
Come to think of it, my parents had a bad Hotel PA (nee the "Pinta") experience within the past five years - I think they showed up and their room hadn't been cleaned, so they had to hang out while it got cleaned. Little did we know the shit wasn't getting cleaned *at all.* That rat story is unreal - thought something about the detail of it being perched on his shoulder is amusing.
i just got rid of bedbugs over the summer....it was only in one room thank god...i got bit all over and one day checked under the mattress and found eggs!!! they looked like snot caramelized over!!...::shudder:: ...i immediately did my own exterminating by buying a gallon of drione dust and spray with concentrated amounts of permethrin (thats the only thing that works), then i used a fogger with permethrin as well.. you have to repeat this process for weeks..wash everything in HOT water and cover your matress and seal with hardcore duct tape...plus, make sure everythings clean because you dont want to give them hiding spots!
I have to go to Las Vegas for a wedding two weeks from now. Las Vegas is supposedly a hot zone for bedbugs because of the high turnover rate of visitors.
I am going (mostly) all-disposable. First, I am vacuum-bagging a change of "getaway" clothes and shoes. Then I am buying a cheap duffel bag to fill with one change of H&M clothing for wearing around the town during non-wedding hours. I will wear my H&M clothes on the plane and to the hotel.
I am going to carry the suit I'll wear to the wedding in the plastic suit bag it came in from the haberdashery. I will wear a pair of shoes that will work "good enough" with the suit but which I was going to replace anyway. That way, I can throw them out with my H&M clothes and duffel bag after the weekend is over.
I will make sure to HANG UP my suit after getting it pressed so that it does not touch the floor (This is a tip to peopel. Hang up your luggage if it has a means to hang it. Do not place it on the floor.)
I will bring Steri-Fab solution with me to spray things. And a flashlight to check for bugs on the mattress and the headboard (They are rumored to hide most often in headboards at hotels)
I am bringing more plastic bags to wrap my suit in when I am done. (It is not disposable because it was $$$). Then, when it is time to leave, I will quickly change in the bathroom into my previously-vacuum-bagged clothes, and run out of the hotel as fast as possible and dump the duffel bag in a dumpsters like it's a body on C.S.I.
That is my plan. You are encouraged to borrow it and adapt to fit your needs!
B.A.T. - I will follow your advice solely because you used "haberdashery" in your post. I'm going to LV in March and wasn't paranoid until now.
By the way, I have never had bedbugs. And I do not plan on getting them. Because I have a PLAN.
I am only knowledgable about them and VERY PARANOD about them because my girlfirend just got rid of hers after long months of bedbuggery nonsense. They are a living hell and they are not welcome in my house.
Samantha: Sorry to make you paranoid. Everyone should know about bedbugs. Knowledge is bedbug-killing power.
Anyone thinking of traveling anywhere should Google the name of the city they are going to plus the word "bedbugs" or, better yet, the name of the hotel you are planning on staying in and "bedbugs."
The girlfriend came up with this the other night when I asked her to go to Vegas for the wedding. You don't even want to Google "bedbugs Las Vegas" There are like A TON of hits. (She is understandably declining to go with me. I don't blame her. I am fearing it myself. Guess I will have to drink lots of comped cocktails in the casinos.)
By theway, it does not matter if you stay in a fleabag shithole or a pricy high-class place. They can be anywhere.
Soon the whole country will have them and they will have to bring back DDT. (Hooray for DDTS)
xoxo
Hi all. Thanks for your comments. We are currently suffering a bed bug crisis at our home in Paris. Our 2000 sq ft flat is infested in at least two rooms. The bedroom and the main family room. I pray that the salon is clear since we spend little time in there and have found no bed bugs either live or dead yet. We traveled for five weeks backpacking in India and came back uninfested and then spent a week in a million dollar chalet in Chamonix (friends of ours) and Hello bedbugs. Unfortunately, France doesn't seem to carry Drione dust, one of the recommended treatments for the buggers. From the USA I ordered (at HUGE expense thanks to intl shipping, taxes, customs, etc) the mattress and box spring covers so hopefully that will help. We bombed the flat with some bug fogger. I think the bombing might have killed the live ones, but then the eggs just hatch and its deja vu! We read above about the Amonia treatment recommmended by Grandma. Thanks Grandma, we intend to try it as soon as the shops open on Monday. My husband is taking 6 months off of work. Yesterday while we were spraying and vacuuming our sofas, beds etc. He looked up and said "somehow, this isn't how I imagined my sabbatical".
Good luck to the rest of you. Oh, FYI, Tea tree oil (the 100% pure stuff) is great for treating those nasty itchy bites our friends leave on us.
YOU WILL NEVER GET RID OF BEDBUGS UNLESS YOU STERILIZE THEM WITH GENTROL ie, (HYDORPRENE)! IF YOU GO WITH INSECTICIDES ALONE YOU WILL PROABLY KILL MANY OF THE BUGS BUT THE EGGS WILL HATCH IN ONE OR TWO WEEKS AND YOU ARE BACK TO SQUARE ONE. INCIDENTALLY, I BOUGHT TEA TREE CONCOCTION FROM INTERNET CO BY THE NAME OF THWART (VERY EXPENSIVE) AND I'VE FOUND IT TOTALLY INEFECTIVE. MEANWHILE I AM DOWN TO JUST A FEW BITES PER NIGHT. HOPEFULLY WHEN I GET MY ALL METAL BEDFRAME FROM JC PENNY, I'LL BE RID OF THEM.