That warning about the bed bugs... - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

zz0011 · 03-09-2006, 07:53 AM

...you really had better take it quite seriously!

Warning: The pics of the wounds on the victim are yucky and will make you say, "ouch."

Quote:

Mar 7, 2006 10:15 pm US/Central
Woman Sues Hotel After Suffering 500 Bed Bug Bites
Mary Ann Childers
Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO Last year, there were reports of serious bed bug infestations in dozens of states. Now, a Chicago woman is suing a hotel for $20 million after waking up one morning with more than 500 bed bug bites.

"My body felt as if it was on fire. I just wanted to tear it off,” Leslie Fox said.

Leslie Fox, a 54-year-old bookings agent, says that after four nights at the 700-room Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York last July, she awoke to find red, itchy welts all over her body.

"I had no idea what was happening to me. We noticed the blood on the bed. I became very upset and alarmed,” she said.

She and her husband – who was also bitten, but not so badly – tore the bed apart and found a swarm of bugs under the linens.

"The bugs were sent to the University of Illinois in Chicago and verified to be bed bugs,” said attorney Alan Schnurman.

When the couple reported to hotel officials that their room was infested, the officials offered two free nights but Fox and Cohen declined, Schnurman said, because they were just itching to leave.

Joe O'Connor, a lawyer for the resort, said he and his client had not seen the lawsuit so he could not comment. But he said the hotel has ongoing treatment and inspection by pest control companies that will certify the Nevele is bug-free.

O'Connor also said he had contacted the lawyer who filed the suit and was "trying to work things out."

Several other lawsuits have been filed in New York City and around the country because of alleged bedbugs attacks in hotels.

Bed bugs are bloodsuckers, but they are not known to transmit disease. Their bite is painless, and it can take up to nine days for welts to appear.

Redness and irritation fade after several days, but one dermatologist says each person reacts differently.

"While a bed bug may bite me and I get a very small reaction, it could bite you and get a large reaction,” said Rush University Medical Center Dr. Clarence Brown.

Fox, who has seen five doctors, says she’s still suffering. She says she’s scarred, stressed every time she sleeps in a hotel and afraid she may have unknowingly carried home bedbug eggs that may still hatch.

"A clean room is not necessary any guarantee of a safe room,” she said.

How can you protect yourself? It’s tough because bed bugs only come out at night. They hide during the day in mattresses, headboards, upholstery and inside walls and baseboards. They can fit in a crevice the width of a playing card, and they can live for a year without food. Most people don’t know they have them until they’ve been bitten.

O'Connor, the resort lawyer, noted that bedbugs have become a problem in many places across the country, even in upscale hotels. He attributed the bedbug's resurgence to international travel and the banning of some dangerous pesticides.

snowy · 03-09-2006, 08:14 AM

Just reading the story gave me major heebie-jeebies. While I think suing for $20 million is a little much, bedbugs are just gross. Ewww. Ewww. Ewww.

Supple Cow · 03-09-2006, 08:52 AM

My roommate at the beginning of last summer brought them into our new apartment with her bed from a vacation condo in the Poconos. She had 30-50 bites and her doctor said that was the worst case he'd ever seen. Those little buggers survived the first fumigation and most of them the second round, too. The extermination guys finally told us to get some silicone to seal up the cracks in the walls and doorframe to trap any hiding ones, to spray with this heavy duty stuff in the cracks and in the rug and to vacuum every day for about a month because that's how often they generally feed and they just hide in tiny crevices until they need to do it again.

*shudder*

I'm glad that's all over now.

I wonder if the hotel is going to sue the pest control company.

cyrnel · 03-09-2006, 09:03 AM

"They can hide in a space the thickness of a playing card."
"They can live for up to a year without food." (and then greet the new tenants.)
"There's a resurgance across the country due to widespread travel and the banning of various pesticides."

Blea.

ryfo · 03-09-2006, 11:09 AM

Yuck I was wondering how big they are, cos i wont be going to bedagain without checking under my sheets. I agree 20 mil is a bit much but I wouldnt want to go thru that!!

Dane Bramage · 03-09-2006, 02:39 PM

Ask for 20 mil... settle outta court for 10 then give the lawers half. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Oh... and take your own sheets

jwoody · 03-10-2006, 03:17 AM

I'm going to move to America and sleep in dirty hotels. It's exactly like winning the lottery except the odds are better.

shoegirl · 03-10-2006, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onesnowyowl

Just reading the story gave me major heebie-jeebies. While I think suing for $20 million is a little much, bedbugs are just gross. Ewww. Ewww. Ewww.

Agreed. Bedbugs... ewww. I actually got a couple bedbug bites once and I was miserable - I can only imagine how much it would suck to have 500 bites. Yikes.

cyrnel · 03-10-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

...lottery...

I tried the local pet stores but they've all had a run on bed-bugs. Best I could get were brine shrinp. I hope they'll bite.
Then I find out the Marriott is completely booked.
Motel 6 had rooms but they wanted me to sign a bed-bug waiver.

Damn. Foiled again.

Are brine shrimp good on salad?

Willravel · 03-10-2006, 03:04 PM

I throw my pillows in the dryer every time I bleech my sheets. As I understand it, bed bugs (and other critters) don't do well above maybe 130 degrees F for several minutes. It won't stop the matress bugs, but it's a start. Otherwise, check and see if your matress, pillows, sofas, etc. are treated with DDT (a very old treatement from the 50s-60s that makes quick work of bedbugs). If not, don't let the house get messy too often. SDouble check clothes and luggage after traveling. Check used furntire. Vaccume.

And a big fat ewwww.

xepherys · 03-26-2006, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwoody

I'm going to move to America and sleep in dirty hotels. It's exactly like winning the lottery except the odds are better.

That's hilarious!

taboo · 03-27-2006, 10:27 PM

heh oh God...it reminds me of the first time I went to New York City..
I did all this research on hotels to stay at, and when I was reading reviews, I freaked out!!! Quite a few people had bed bug problems!!! As soon as I got to my hotel there, I inspected the room soooooo well....I had read about looking in specific places to find them during the day, and I was on the hunt! Luckily, I didn;t find any, but I still couldn;t sleep all night, because the slightest itch made me think they were all over me LOL....

chinese crested · 06-17-2011, 01:00 AM

Quote:

I throw my pillows in the dryer every time I bleech my sheets. As I understand it, bed bugs (and other critters) don't do well above maybe 130 degrees F for several minutes.

Our pillows would have short holidays in the chest freezer wrapped in plastic - I understand it does the same thing. There is just something icky about parasites isnt there - although there is the poem by John Donne
The Flea
Marke but this flea, and marke in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
Me it suck'd first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled bee;
Confesse it, this cannot be said
A sinne, or shame, or losse of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoyes before it wooe,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
When we almost, nay more than maryed are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet.

Though use make thee apt to kill me,
Let not to this, selfe murder added bee,
And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.

Cruell and sodaine, has thou since
Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence?
In what could this flea guilty bee,
Except in that drop which it suckt from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou
Find'st not thyself, nor mee the weaker now;

'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;
Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.

Is there a sonnet to the bed bug?

Shadowex3 · 06-17-2011, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willravel

I throw my pillows in the dryer every time I bleech my sheets. As I understand it, bed bugs (and other critters) don't do well above maybe 130 degrees F for several minutes. It won't stop the matress bugs, but it's a start. Otherwise, check and see if your matress, pillows, sofas, etc. are treated with DDT (a very old treatement from the 50s-60s that makes quick work of bedbugs). If not, don't let the house get messy too often. SDouble check clothes and luggage after traveling. Check used furntire. Vaccume.

And a big fat ewwww.

Actually the overuse of DDT/pesticides is one of the reasons the fuckers are so hard to get rid of, they've been more or less immune to even DDT since the 60s. Nuking them in the dryer over and over is one of the only ways to kill them.

genuinegirly · 06-18-2011, 12:34 PM

Bed bugs are a real problem in Cincinnati. I'm usually all for purchasing furniture at thrift shops, but that's one method of spreading the little buggers... creepy things, these little bugs.

MSD · 06-18-2011, 06:22 PM

I stayed in a hotel a few weeks ago. After listening to this interview, I followed her advice and tossed all of our luggage in the bathtub while I stripped the bed, pulled the cushions out of the chair, and checked for signs of bedbugs.

If I hadn't been so broke, I would have gone the whole nine yards and gotten Luminol powder to mix up in a spray bottle and check the mattress CSI style. As it is, I found no signs of infestation in reviews or in person, and can wholeheartedly recommend the Plaza Radisson Warwick in Philadelphia.

03-09-2006, 08:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
snowy Kick Ass Kunoichi Location: Oregon	Just reading the story gave me major heebie-jeebies. While I think suing for $20 million is a little much, bedbugs are just gross. Ewww. Ewww. Ewww. __________________ If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

03-09-2006, 08:52 AM	#3 (permalink)
Supple Cow Americow, the Beautiful Location: Washington, D.C.	My roommate at the beginning of last summer brought them into our new apartment with her bed from a vacation condo in the Poconos. She had 30-50 bites and her doctor said that was the worst case he'd ever seen. Those little buggers survived the first fumigation and most of them the second round, too. The extermination guys finally told us to get some silicone to seal up the cracks in the walls and doorframe to trap any hiding ones, to spray with this heavy duty stuff in the cracks and in the rug and to vacuum every day for about a month because that's how often they generally feed and they just hide in tiny crevices until they need to do it again. shudder I'm glad that's all over now. I wonder if the hotel is going to sue the pest control company. __________________ "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." (Michael Jordan)

03-09-2006, 09:03 AM	#4 (permalink)
cyrnel Adequate Location: In my angry-dome.	"They can hide in a space the thickness of a playing card." "They can live for up to a year without food." (and then greet the new tenants.) "There's a resurgance across the country due to widespread travel and the banning of various pesticides." Blea. __________________ There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

03-09-2006, 02:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
Dane Bramage Insane Location: Charlotte, NC	Ask for 20 mil... settle outta court for 10 then give the lawers half. Sounds like a good deal to me. Oh... and take your own sheets __________________ Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress. Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan

03-10-2006, 03:17 AM	#7 (permalink)
jwoody Shackle Me Not Location: Newcastle - England.	I'm going to move to America and sleep in dirty hotels. It's exactly like winning the lottery except the odds are better. __________________ . Last edited by jwoody; 03-10-2006 at 03:20 AM..

03-09-2006, 11:09 AM	#5 (permalink)
ryfo Psycho Location: melbourne australia	Yuck I was wondering how big they are, cos i wont be going to bedagain without checking under my sheets. I agree 20 mil is a bit much but I wouldnt want to go thru that!!

03-10-2006, 03:04 PM	#10 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I throw my pillows in the dryer every time I bleech my sheets. As I understand it, bed bugs (and other critters) don't do well above maybe 130 degrees F for several minutes. It won't stop the matress bugs, but it's a start. Otherwise, check and see if your matress, pillows, sofas, etc. are treated with DDT (a very old treatement from the 50s-60s that makes quick work of bedbugs). If not, don't let the house get messy too often. SDouble check clothes and luggage after traveling. Check used furntire. Vaccume. And a big fat ewwww.

03-27-2006, 10:27 PM	#12 (permalink)
taboo Crazy	heh oh God...it reminds me of the first time I went to New York City.. I did all this research on hotels to stay at, and when I was reading reviews, I freaked out!!! Quite a few people had bed bug problems!!! As soon as I got to my hotel there, I inspected the room soooooo well....I had read about looking in specific places to find them during the day, and I was on the hunt! Luckily, I didn;t find any, but I still couldn;t sleep all night, because the slightest itch made me think they were all over me LOL....

06-18-2011, 12:34 PM	#15 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Bed bugs are a real problem in Cincinnati. I'm usually all for purchasing furniture at thrift shops, but that's one method of spreading the little buggers... creepy things, these little bugs. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

06-18-2011, 06:22 PM	#16 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	I stayed in a hotel a few weeks ago. After listening to this interview, I followed her advice and tossed all of our luggage in the bathtub while I stripped the bed, pulled the cushions out of the chair, and checked for signs of bedbugs. If I hadn't been so broke, I would have gone the whole nine yards and gotten Luminol powder to mix up in a spray bottle and check the mattress CSI style. As it is, I found no signs of infestation in reviews or in person, and can wholeheartedly recommend the Plaza Radisson Warwick in Philadelphia.