Looking back over some old posts, it was noted on the European forum that Italy was pulling 508 train cars out of its rolling stock (fleet?) due to complaints about bedbugs.

Anonymous, good story about the RV.

In George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, he found that black pepper strewn on the sheets made the bedbugs beat a hasty retreat (it also made him sneeze but he thought it was worth the penalty).

We tried that tip with ants and it does work. We had some ants coming into our cottage from a small hole. We put small piles of fresh ground black pepper around the hole and they stopped coming.

I'm going to Boston at the end of April. I've never been to New England, and am both really looking forward to this trip and starting to dread it, thanks to all these new stories of bed bugs. I wil be staying in a nice hotel, though that's no guarantee. And apparently you can pick up bed bugs just by brushing up against someone on the street, if they are carrying them from their home or hotel. On the other hand, I live in Chicago, another big international city, so I'm probably not too much safer here. The biggest problem, though, does seem to be in the Northeast from DC to Boston. Maybe it's time to start doing all of my travel from the internet. :)

"And apparently you can pick up bed bugs just by brushing up against someone on the street, if they are carrying them from their home or hotel."

Since bedbugs like to hide in crevices, especially in the daytime, that seems very unlikely. I think you're thinking about lice, not bedbugs. Eeek, now I'm all itchy!

BTW, I missed the middle of this thread around 12/12, because that's when I was in NYC in my RV. I froze my tushie walking around the city, but slept in my own bed.

There are literally MILLIONS of people who have stayed in hotels and never had trouble with bedbugs. Given the Hotel Pennsylvania and the state of repair that it WASN'T in I am surprised that it was only bedbugs which were the "problem."

You sometimes actually DO get what you pay for.

Several years ago there was a 20/20 or 60 minutes about all of the awful things one can find in hotel rooms. It featured an interview with a business traveler (female) who had stayed in a nice hotel, spending upwards of $300 or so a night and had an attack of bedbugs. She kept some in a jar and showed them, and showed the bite marks on her arms, very nasty and this was weeks later...maybe they got infected. They attacked in the middle of the night. The show also went to a variety of hotels looking at cleanliness including $500+ per night hotel suites which had some of the worst accumulation of bodily fluids lurking all over. I'll leave that to your imagination.EEEEUUUWWWW!!

Gross.

When I read threads like this it makes me want to stay home.

Guess that's one way to cut down the travel budget.

Hotels in and around NYC are still infested with bedbugs which are sucking blood. There must be a solution to it.

Good grief, you must have REALLY been looking for this ANTIQUE thread to top it -- and with no particular addition or info about specific hotels.

At least we know, the search is working :))

What's the life expectancy of a bed bug?

Seeing this old thread piqued my interest .... and so, a quick google search revealed this lawsuit was settled last year (Nov-2007).

"Hotel Pennsylvania Settles Bedbug Suits for Nearly $100,000"
http://www.observer.com/2007/hotel-p...g-suit-100-000

Haha - there are even preservations trying to save this place from demolition.

http://savethehotel.org/

Jean--re life expectancy of bed bugs:
my son had bedbugs in his Montreal apartment sublet this past summer and we learned more about them than we ever wanted to know. He brought a few things home in airtight storage bins (taped shut) which he has left out in a shed for 18 months. This is the advice he was given for being sure they just were not dormant.

It is worth reading information about bed bugs and how to minimize the chances of picking them up in hotels via luggage or mattresses

It is very true that the bugs can get into the clothes or suitcase easily and be carried away to any other place.Still it is a major threat to all the hotels in and around New York City. Very often hear about the bug bites in hotels there.

The Jersey Journal reports that the Starlite Motel on Tonnelle Avenue near Fifth Street in Jersey City was closed by Jersey City inspectors yesterday “due to bedbug infestation and fire code violations.”

This shows that the cities and hotels are still infested with bedbugs!

If the bugs are still around it is better to go in for antibug treatment as soon as possible as it is the only cheapest way to get rid of the bugs.As our building is also infested with it we too are going in for the treatment. We have decided to get the suggestions from bedbugbureau.com for it.

Had a panic attack in Russia, when I thought I had been bitten, but it turned out to be another type of bite. Anyway, I think I read a post on here about a woman whose son got bedbugs, took them back home, and it took 1 year to rid them from her home. Now, after a trip, she has her suitcases shrinkwrapped at the airport on the way BACK, leaves them in the car parked in the heat for several days, and then unwraps them outside, before bringing the bags back in. The heat will kill them off. What a pain!!!

lets hope the heat kills the bugs. but heard that the bugs can tolerate the temperature.To get away from heat they hide in cervices of the bed or in the celing. Better option is to get advice from bedbugbureau.com of how to prevent the bugs.Precaution is better than cure.