BedBug Registry - Where you DON'T want to go (Boston: hotels, house)

[xS☺B☺s]

Boston's bedbug problem is getting pretty bad. Not like NYC yet, but perhaps second worst in the USA. Check this out before you book or rent. Particularly bad in Fenway!

Bedbug Reports for boston, MA

[Bob Lanata]

XSOBE, Great post. I use this registry alot as I travel often and am a regular in some hotels. I am obsessive in that I only bring into a room, what I need and check everything that I take out carefully. Thank you

[K-Luv]

Comm Ave is number 1; not surprising but I would have expected more cases.

Bob L: the bedbug situation in Boston is largely related to college students, which is demonstrated by the locations of the reports (largely within the so-called "student ghettos").

[Pear Martini]

^^^do you know why the college students are responsible for the Boston bed bug problem?

[xS☺B☺s]

Originally Posted by Pear Martini

^^^do you know why the college students are responsible for the Boston bed bug problem?

They aren't really. It's transience and traffic. Maybe college students go to NYC and stay in cheap hotels that can't really afford to fight the very resilient bedbug. Problem is one bedbug in the neighborhood is all it takes to start a epidemic.

Bedbugs are so evil. It's not about cleanliness. Bedbugs don't eat food crumbs, they suck blood. Whether you're a cash poor college student or a Back Bay Baroness, bedbugs don't care - the blood tastes the same to them.

The problem has arisen because bedbugs were essentially extinct in the USA by the 1950's. They were eliminated by using the pesticide DDT. However in the 70's DDT was banned as a carcinogen. So it's taken awhile, but now bedbugs are making a spectacular comeback!

The evil bedbug can hide in a crack in the wall for a year without feeding. They walk across the street to go invade other homes (thus the scourge in the Fens). They hide very cleverly and are immune to all legal pesticides. Baby size versions are very hard to see, and if there's one adult, there are lots of babies (also youth and adolescent stages). Bedbugs are known to smell the CO2 from your breath, walk across the ceiling, then jump down on you and suck the blood out of your face while you're sleeping.

The scourge in the Fens will definitely spread all over town in the next couple years. A few have reached Dallas, but NYC is the epicenter. We're fortunate to have a natural defense in that heat over like 107 does kill bedbugs. So in the summer here, any of them caught outside do fry (burn in hell, bloodsuckers!).

I'm skipping my trip to NYC this year. I probably will skip Boston hotels too. Until they get serious and wake up about this rapidly developing epidemic, I think I'll just visit Mom and Dad. They need to fix that problem - pronto - whatever it takes. Should seem like one of those rare issues government can actually work together on as I would assume blood sucking insects would likely offend equally regardless of party affiliation.

[Bruins_Fan]

Originally Posted by Bob Lanata

XSOBE, Great post. I use this registry alot as I travel often and am a regular in some hotels. I am obsessive in that I only bring into a room, what I need and check everything that I take out carefully. Thank you

Bob,

With your frequent travel, have you encountered hotel rooms with bed bugs? I've asked an airline pilot friend, and so far for him, no bugs.

[lrfox]

I stayed at one hotel... Hotel Carter in NYC (a complete and utter dump) where there was an infestation in my room. Thankfully, the hotel was so crappy that the first thing I did upon opening the door was inspect. We were moved into a "better" room. I've stayed at some hotels ranging from excellent to awful in countries like Thailiand, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh without so much as a sign of them (though I did see GIANT cockroaches in the Andaman Islands). Same story for Western Europe, the Caribbean and S. America (Venezuela, anyway... haven't been anywhere else down there)-- no bed bugs. The only place I've encountered them is good old NYC (right off of Times Square, no less).

[wanderer71]

OK this is frightening!

I might be traveling to Boston in the coming months for interviews and if something works out I might be living there.

I stayed at a hotel in NC in December that I swear had bed bugs. I felt things crawling on me and I was scratching all night and the next day. I could never see anything. I kept turning on the light and searching all night. Are bed bugs too small for the naked eye? This wasn't a bad hotel -- just a cheapie but a clean one -- Holiday Inn Express -- built in 2009.

Can you catch bed bugs from a hotel and bring them home? What's the difference between bed bugs and fleas. Oh, the horrors...

[Bruins_Fan]

Originally Posted by wanderer71

OK this is frightening!

I might be traveling to Boston in the coming months for interviews and if something works out I might be living there.

I stayed at a hotel in NC in December that I swear had bed bugs. I felt things crawling on me and I was scratching all night and the next day. I could never see anything. I kept turning on the light and searching all night. Are bed bugs too small for the naked eye? This wasn't a bad hotel -- just a cheapie but a clean one -- Holiday Inn Express -- built in 2009.

Can you catch bed bugs from a hotel and bring them home? What's the difference between bed bugs and fleas. Oh, the horrors...

They are easily visible, especially adult bed bugs. And yes, you CAN bring them home. Many experts suggest leaving your suitcase in the bathtub, away from the bed and furniture where they tend to hide. Google bed bugs and you can find photos...if you really want to see 'em!

[seeriously]

We spent weeks in a Boston suburb Marriott while waiting for our house to be ready, we travel for overnights to Providence, NH, and Boston's north shore. We always stay at Marriotts, which I know is no guarantee, but we've never a bed bug problem. Everything is always ridiculously clean. Even in Manhattan, our Marriott was spotless.