Bed Bugs Lurk in Hotel Rooms

March 21, 2007 — -- Whether it's for business or pleasure, travel is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. But these days, taking a simple getaway is riskier than you think.

That's because when you enter a hotel room, you never know what kind of critters entered the room before you. Not people. Critters.

At first, opera singer Alison Trainer didn't feel the bed bugs when she stayed at a Phoenix hotel, but she woke up in the middle of the night and saw them.

"They were all over the bed and the comforter and the pillows and I pulled the sheets off and they were just everywhere," she said.

Trainer ended up with about 150 bites and 23 scars.

"It's not safe - what happened to me was not safe," she said.

Bed bugs are smaller than your fingernail, only come out at night, and are very flat -- until they feed on humans.

"They're like little vampires, like stealth feeders at nighttime," said Michael Raupp, an entomology professor at the University of Maryland. "You're asleep. They crawl into your bed and you may not be able to feel them."

To check for bed bugs, experts say to pull back the sheets and look for the rust-colored stains that bed bugs leave. You should also scrutinize the mattress seams and use a flashlight to check behind the headboard. If you put your luggage on a rack to keep it off the floor; you will reduce the chances you'll bring bedbugs home with you.

But there are smaller organisms lurking in hotel rooms as well: germs. Experts say it's like sharing a room with thousands of strangers and their germs. Hotel faucets and sink bottoms are moist areas where E. coli sometimes collects. Hotel floors can harbor athlete's foot germs for up to three months.

Chuck Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, says the virus is causing huge problems within the travel industry.