Bedbugs aren’t something most people want to think about, but the uncomfortable truth is there might be more of them on the London Tube, in aircraft, hotels and even homes than we’d like to imagine.
Many think of bedbugs as something from the past, but in New York last year there was almost a plague of them and according to leading Entomologists, they can sometimes be found in aircraft lockers meaning they spread around the world very easily.
Lola to the rescue: Luckily, there is a new adversary to the bedbug in the form of Lola – a Welsh born Jack Russell – which has become the first dog in Europe to be trained to sniff out these pests making removing much simpler and cheaper than traditional fumigation methods.
Lola simply enters a room and in seconds can detect their “smell”, then heads straight for the source. She is now working mostly in London sniffing out the bedbugs in all sorts of places, although most public places such as hotels prefer them to be referred to as “b’s” so as not to alarm their guests.
Why are they here? The slight misconception about bedbugs is they only breed in unclean places. In reality out nice clean, warm houses are rather nice for them especially with big fluffy mattresses. Infestations in public places such as hotels and the London Underground are more likely to be brought in by travellers who’s luggage carries the eggs and gets deposited in the rooms and on the seats.
If you’re staying in a hotel for example and are worried about bedbugs, a good way to check is look behind the mattress in dark places as they tend to hide there and are about the size of an apple pip. Although they are becoming more common in some places, it is still fairly rare for washed linen and well cleaned hotel rooms to have bedbugs as they tend to wash the linen at higher temperatures than conventional washing machines.
Signs of bedbugs: The usual signs are numerous little red itchy marks on your skin after you’ve been sleeping and possibly tiny red patches on the bedsheets.
Removing bedbugs: There are specialist companies who’ll remove them either with chemicals or more modern techniques such as heaters. Heating a room to 57′C will kill most bedbugs and eggs, and thus remove the problem quickly and effectively.
More details: There’s even more information about bedbugs and Lola on the Evening Standard bedbugs page.
One Comment
I recently had some clients find bedbugs on an island off the coast of Belize! With international travel the way it is today, it will be almost impossible to avoid them. Best policy? Housekeepers who check after every customer leaves. AND keep checking with every bed change.