I think we have BED BUGS in the vacation unit we are staying

Bed bugs do not transmit diseases. Your already there & your stuff is already there your main focus now will be to not bring them home to your house.

Are you in your car or a rental car? If rental car let the rental place know that your hotel might have had bed bugs. If your car your going to have to vacuum & clean it & have it treated with powdered desiccants bug powder. Bed bugs are pesticide resistant now have been for 10 years so they are dealt with best by a multi pronged approach involving removal, steam, & desiccants pesticide powder & interceptor traps. removing them when they can be seen ( vaccume ) then steaming areas where you can’t reach like your car seats. ( obviously the vacuum needs to be treated do not use your home vacuum, but any ‘professional’ who tells you that pesticides alone will work is fooling themselves and fooling you.

Put everything with you thru a HOT wash then a hot dry, what can not be washed or dried you’ll need to heat, steam or pack away sealed for awhile.

As a preventive measure incase 1 got thru somehow, buy bed bug rated mattress & box spring covers for all your beds at home have them delivered before you get home, this will prevent them Infesting the inside of your beds & mattresses, install that first thing upon getting home, leave it forever like any other mattress cover. Buy interceptor traps to put under your furniture legs both beds & other soft furniture. It’s better than sticky traps. This way if any eggs got thru it will hinder them creating an infestation in your home. If you find any in your interceptor traps call a professional right away, choose the professional who does more than just pesticides.



Bed bugs & bed bug eggs die at 118 degrees temp so heat chambers also work for things that can’t go thru a dryer.

Put your electronics that were with you in a sealed waterproof plastic for more than 2 weeks to make sure no eggs were laid in the crevices

Actually, bat bugs look very much like bed bugs. But they are not pesticide resistant and feed on bats.

Not sure knowing there’s bats in my vacation rental us that much better but it’s better than bed bugs

Wait, so you saw one bug and jumped to the conclusion that you have bed bugs?

It’s the south. We have all kinds of bugs, big and small. Lots of them look alike. They get inside sometimes.

Here’s hoping that Orkin is able to tell you that this is just a random bug and not something more sinister.

30% of people show no bite symptoms that goes up for elderly people. For some reason few elderly people show bite symptoms.

We did have this happen on vacation about 3 years ago. I work with a pest company frequently for work and have made friends with the owners. I sent them pictures and they confirmed they were bed bugs.

Their recommendation was essentially the same as hop2. Bag absolutely everything, suitcases included, in garbage bags and duct tape the opening as tight as possible. Spray everything, clothes we were wearing especially shoes, interior of car-everything we could think of with a heavy coat of Lysol. When we got home we shook everything out over the bathtub. Fortunately we didn’t find any more bugs. We did the heat treatment on everything. We had the pest company come out and inspect our house a period of time later (can’t remember what they recommended) and we were in the clear.

Now for the rental: we called them immediately and told them we had bedbugs. They of course denied everything. We sent pictures and asked her to check the notes for our particular house. When we checked in, they delayed us 2-3 hrs and said they hadn’t had a chance to clean because they were so busy. (When we finally got into the house we checked beds and actually commented they looked like new mattresses and bedding.) Fast forward to finding the bugs and checking out, I asked DS to take a bag of garbage out and he remarked he couldn’t because the dumpster was full of…you guessed it! bedding, pillows, etc! They knew they had a problem and tried to cover it up. We took pictures, sent them to the company and very politely asked them to make it right. They “investigated” and found they did have bedbugs, refunded our entire stay and gave us a gift certificate for the same amount.

We did use the gift certificate on a different property and had a good experience. I’m thankful we didn’t bring anything home and I’m comfortable with the way they resolved it.

Dead? You inspected the mattresses the night before and nothing. Are you sure you didn't bring it on your clothes, shoes etc?

So glad it turned out so much better then expected!!

Relieved for you!