Close the curtains tightly and turn off the lights every time tourists enter their hotel rooms, advised hotel employee Haley, posting a corresponding video on her TikTok account. The reason is to establish the fact of the presence of bedbugs, but for entomological reasons, and the purposes of one’s safety.
According to hotel expert @haleewithaflair, travelers can check for unwanted guests themselves to avoid waking up bitten. “This is how I check my room before unpacking and settling into the room. The first thing you need to do is make sure your room is dark. Turn off the lights, close all the curtains, and use the flashlight on your phone. While everything is off, lift the blanket to reveal the mattress or mattress topper. You have to check all the folds,” she explained the algorithm of actions.
The girl demonstrated how tourists should look under the folds in the corners of their hotel beds. “Usually they (bedbugs) like to sit in corners and folds. Even if you don’t see insects, be sure to check for stains, such as blood stains, because that is also a bad sign,” she added.
The cleaning specialist recommended that tourists do not unpack until they are sure that the small bloodsuckers are not in the room, because there is a danger that the bugs can dive into the luggage and go with it to the tourist’s home after the holiday.
For this, there are the usual safety measures: do not put your luggage on the bed. It is best to leave it on the luggage rack or near the room door. The employee also recommended checking the ironing boards and curtains for the presence of small bugs. And as a preventive measure, some experts recommend that tourists wash all their vacation clothes as soon as they return home to kill all the “skids.”
Bed bugs are nocturnal, so turning off the lights can increase the likelihood that your search will be successful. The traces of bedbug bites are usually red, are often located in a line or a cluster, and are very itchy. Some people may have an allergic reaction to the stings.
How to recognize pests? They can be dark yellow, red, or brown and are usually only about 5 mm in length, while the eggs are usually white in color and tiny in appearance.
If tourists do not see insects, they can look for red or rusty spots on the mattress – these are traces of crushed insects. Dark spots are also a guide. It can be excrement of bedbugs. Bed bugs usually hide in the seams of furniture, including any chairs and sofas that may be in the room. They are incredibly hardy: they can survive at low temperatures but will die when their body reaches +45 degrees, so high-temperature washing of clothes brought home from vacation is important and extremely effective. Finally, the author of the video advised vacationers to immediately inform the hotel staff if they find any signs of bedbugs in their room.