what are your experiences with bed bugs and what do you do to avoid them?

We like to cover them with spicy mustard and serve them on toast.

In your hotel? Switch hotels. In your apartment--MOVE! My sister just had bedbugs in her apartment that had come down from an apartment above her. There was no way to get rid of them. She got rid of her bed, linens, couch, etc. Drycleaned all of her clothes and ran everything else through a hot dryer. Cleaned out eggs from her bookshelves & dresser.

They got released from their lease, moved apartments, and their old building is now under inspection by the Department of Health.

EEEWWWW!!!!! Sorry, but gross!!! Hope you don't have them at home. Switch hotels immediately!

gotravel: are you always that funny?

Hi meesa! No, just a smarta$$.

I've never had a problem with them but hope you get good advice.

TTT

Yuck and gross:

http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entom...ruct/ef636.htm

I prefer them with a nice hollandaise......

There is an article about this in the current issue Of Frommer's Budget Travel. It says bed bugs are back on the rise. One way to check for them is to look for brownish-grey discoloration on the hotel's matress. Also to look for tiny blood stains. But if I did find blood stains - I doubt I'd stay....

I disable them using a small infrared device--available at TravelSmith. If anyone needs further proof that our civil liberties are under attack as never before, the rise of bedbugs should provide a wake-up call, as it were. I mean, I can accept retinal scanners at the airport and fingerprinting at Disney Wrold and all that, but when The Man starts monitoring my sleeping area, well--I draw the line.

Brought a stowaway home with us from Kuaui (we think) from a very upscale hotel a few years back. They can hang out in everything from the hole in the wall dives to the best of the best accomodations. Do an internet search on them. Quite a lot of info. We chucked all of our bedding. This was possibly an overreaction by my arachnophobic wife and ended up never seeing a trace of another bug or offspring. We also had the exterminator out. They sprayed only after insisting on seeing and positively identifying the little creature. They didn't believe us at first and they claimed no one in the business would guarantee complete eradication.

We had bedbugs freshman year of college. (My suitemate apparently brought them with her from California.) It was a nightmare. Yes, you can see them, and yes, they bite. We had to throw out all bedding, and it took 2 months and 3 extermination attempts to get rid of them. (We did have the dubious distinction of being the first case of bedbugs at the college in 16 years.)

I chose a different suitemate for sophomore year...

Go get little Benjy. He was about 3 whenI would walk past his house on my way to my office. He was sitting on the driveway with a hammer one day pounding away and saying something.

I finally figured it out. He was clubbing ants and each time he splatted one he said "Son bitch."

His language was as vigorous as his pounding. Lil Benjy would have gotten rid of those bugs with his hammer.