Well, you asked for a story -- I have one. This was on my honeymoon, in Mexico, 20 years ago, so not very relevant to today, but anyway: My new husband and I checked into our room in Ixtapa, only to discover that there were two twin beds, separated by a table that was built into the floor (hence no pushing of the beds together). After about the third night of our stay, we greeted each other in the morning with: "Do you feel itchy all over?" "Yeah, you, too?" Yep, bed bugs.

At this point our Apple Tour guide (what - it was the 80's!) offered to let us switch hotels, but we declined. Now, 20 years later, I would definitely take her up on it!

Mambo, I WISH it was an urban myth. Unfortunately bed bugs made a comeback in 2006, causing lots of problems. Just google it for news articles and videos galore.

And it is no longer just stories from 20 years ago in foreign countries, like SusanM had to endure! They are HERE, now, but with education and a quick look around, hopefully we can all avoid getting bitten!

And in 2007!

My best friend and her husband's dream holiday in Charleston/Savannah last fall was ruined when they were both bitten by bed bugs and he suffered a severe allergic reaction which required hospitalization, medication and then ongoing care at home in the Pacific Northwest. They had stayed at a very reputable hotel and the management was responsive but it spoiled their long planned southern holiday.

I gather there's resurgence because DDT or other pesticides that kept bedbugs in check have been banned due to environmental toxicity?

DDT was banned in 1972.

Thanks for info that DDT was banned so long ago.

My husband and I love to travel, stay in a wide range/type of accommmodations, do not generally buy into fears, urban myths but our friends' experience does make us more aware.

Because I use the lower end hotels I get to travel several times a year.And since I live near the west coast I often stay in hotels near the beach, San Diego, SF, LA etc...I've never had any problems with bed bugs in California. Never encountered any on excursions north to Oregon for that matter either. I think it's mostly the southern states that brings 'em out in herds. Not sure why. LOVE the garlic clove idea!LOL

Several hotels in New York City had bed bug issues a couple years ago and that's not a southern state. They can occur anywhere....it doesn't matter how clean the hotel is if a guest brings the little "visitors: with them. I now check the seams of the bare mattress carefully for tell tale signs. I encountered bed bugs years ago in Switzerland and don't want to experience them again!

Interesting to go back through this topic I started 4 years ago! We actually got the little critters about a year and a half ago, probably from a flight back from Orlando. Cost us $1000 to get rid of them, hours and hours and HOURS of time, many sleepless nights, and emotional stress like you wouldn't believe. They are real. They are to be feared. BUT they haven't stopped us from traveling. We've just gotten really, really smart about not bringing ANYTHING back into the house without heating or examining first. And we're smart about what we take in hotel rooms and where we put it.

In advance, I say that <I>it is perfectly OK when the OP gives additional life to a years-old post - particularly when it is a post not centered around trip questions.</i>

With that said, I've been to every state as well as much of Canada, and have <b>never yet seen a bedbug in my life!!!</b>

Not only that, <i>but I've only laid eyes on <b>three cockroaches in my life</b> as well.</i>

Though there was one eerie night when I <I>thought I was experiencing bedbugs while at a hotel:</i>

I'm in the center of Whitehorse, Yukon Territories... at a less-than-opulent hotel. Sitting in bed, watching TV, and I feel these 'bites' on my leg. I start to feel terrible about my decision to stay at this place, and the <I>bites</i> keep happening.

Finally, I decide to just accept my fate, and turn off the ratty-seeming TV along with the lights, and get back under the covers (still with a resigned, but eerie feeling).

It was only then that things became even more weird... and now <b>each time there was a seeming</b> <I>bite</i> <b>it was accompanied by the craziest seeming</b> <I>lightning show (under the covers)</i> <b>that I'd ever witnessed!</b>

<i><b>Static</b> was the entire cause of what I felt (and eventually saw in the form of light) and I'm sure the dry local air didn't help matters</i>. I was still very relieved.

It was only each time I <i>moved</i> that I felt the little <I><b>zap</b></i> on my legs, usually.

The next morning, I turned on the ratty TV, and watched the <I>Saddam</i> statue being torn down in Baghdad.

That's cute but I'm unclear. Where there lightnin bugs in your bed?

No, there were no 'bugs' at all... it was JUST electricity... (and no, I'd never seen static electricity cause actual 'light' before, but that is what it was... AND the seeming 'bites' were only felt when I so much as MOVED a little bit)

I still sense that it has something to do with the dry air up there, even though the overnight low temp was down to about FIVE degrees (roughly April 10th-ish).