Ever seen one of these ?

I'm not clicking that link only to be flashed by a dick pic or gaping pussy that looks like it has been turned inside out by an over-enthusiastic fisting.

Sorry to disappoint. It's a simple photo of a bug.

Oh okay, I'll look.

Looks like a tick

Omg.. the coconut fucking article.. I’ll never read another one of Shadow Cats articles, until someone else does first.

Every bed in Tijuana has bedbugs. Trust me, that’s the least of your worries if you’re concerned of catching something while down here.

Bed bugs aren't like roaches or even spiders. You can have the cleanest house in the world and get them because they are parasites who like human blood. If you are human, you can get them.

When I had to live with my aunt in my late teens (in the projects, in case Nicole1994 is interested... this is all actually true though lol), my sister and two of our female cousins had to share a room. Our room was infested with bed bugs because we needed new mattresses and my uncle thought it was a great idea to grab two of the ones he saw someone had thrown to the curb. Gee, why on Earth would someone throw two seemingly perfect mattresses away? I started getting bit when I first started staying there. I told them there were bed bugs and no one believed me. This was over a decade ago so bedbugs were just starting to make their come-back, but everyone around me thought they were just a thing of the past that is now mythical. My sister saw my itchy bed bug bites and thought I had some horrible disease. I said, "there are bed bugs here!" She said bedbugs aren't real anymore. Ok. So that night I took her bed and she slept in mine. When we saw each other at lunch hour the next day at school, she informed me that she had bumps all over her body. I said, "told you it was bedbugs." She still didn't believe me. She thought it was MRSA, began to break down in tears and went to the office to call my dad and have him immediately leave work because it was a "life or death situation." He picked her up, took her to the doctors, and sure enough the doctor said they were classic bed bug bites. It was horrible, because we still had to sleep there. My uncle did everything he could, but the bedbugs stayed. Finally my aunt let my sister and I start staying with our mom again and that's how we finally got away from the bedbugs.

It was very traumatizing. Now, when I stay at hotels, I put my luggage on top of whatever wooden surface there is, take all my clothes off, and sleep in the bed naked for the first night so in case there are bedbugs, they won't latch onto my clothes. If there are no bites, I am in the clear. Bedbugs love me (they bit the shit out of me and my sister when we lived with our aunt, but barely touched my two cousins who stayed in the same infested room). So one time last year, I went to a hotel hoping to stay for a few nights. Did my usual routine, climbed into the bed naked and laid there for a while. Then I got up and started walking around the room and looked in the mirror and noticed my arm was red. I thought it was just hives, because sometimes I'll get a few of those when I'm nervous. So I got back into the bed and watched some TV. Then after a few minutes, I saw one crawling right across the comforter I had put over myself. I jumped up, put my clothes on, grabbed my shit, and told the guy at the counter there are bedbugs in that room. Showed him my arm. He refunded me but said he had to keep 20% of the refund since I had already checked into the room. Bullshit. I drove to another hotel that was expensive but I'd stayed there before and knew it was clean, and by the time I got all checked in I went straight to the bathroom to take a hot shower to ease the bites (hot water and NOT scratching them makes them go away faster). I looked in the mirror before I got in the shower and there were dozens of bites all over my arms, stomach, and back. I mean probably 40+ bites that I got in very short time I was laying in the bed at the other infested hotel. That is not normal. That is a horrible infestation that no hotel should ever have. I need to make a yelp account to warn people about that hotel because if they had such a nice picnic on me in the 15-20 mins that I was laying there, the whole goddamn place must be heavily infested. It's gross to think that they probably rented that same room out to the next person who came along.

My friend went off to school in Chicago and always keeps a very tidy house. Ended up with bedbugs at both of her apartments. Luckily, both times they didn't spread to another room, and she got it exterminated immediately. I can't say I wasn't nervous though when I came to visit, but all was fine.

My mom's rich friend who was an RN with a managerial position married to an Anesthesiologist got them at her huge Cali house after traveling. That is another reason why I like to fly private or at least first class. With first class at least you are surrounded by less people, and flying private you know everyone you're flying with.

My mom's "sugar daddy" had just gotten done exterminating his house when she first met him, because he had them, too.

They are very smart, tricky, and evil. I am lucky enough to have never had them travel into any house, apartment, or condo of my own. But I was also extremely careful. I've never had any type of infestation of my own, but I would honestly rather have roaches than bed bugs. At least they try to stay away from humans, as far as I know.

Oh! Also, my dad's house got them as well a couple years ago! I slept on his couch and woke up with bites all over. I told him about it and he said it was probably a spider. When I went back to visit again, he said they were bedbugs. My stepmom was working as a nurse's assistant, and my little sister was in kindergarten at the time, so I'm betting one of them accidentally took them or their eggs home with them. My dad thought he had gotten rid of them but they kept coming back and it eventually took him almost a year, and hundreds of dollars worth of chemicals, to rid the house of them completely. He waited until the house was empty (family trip to the Philippines) to have it exterminated once and for all.

Anyway, I'm emotionally scarred for life from those experiences. Even taking Uber/Lyft is scary for me now. Idk who was in it before me and if they dropped some bed bugs off in there on their way out.

bed bugs are straight from hell.

My mom got them a few-months ago - we had to throw out her bed/boxspring/frame and have her house exterminated - luckily it seems they haven't resurfaced but they can be insidious.

Nina's suggestions are good - def not a good idea to lay one's suitcase or clothes on the bed in a hotel and best to try to avoid any possible cross-contamination - e.g. maybe place one's pajamas in a sealed ziploc bag or something after sleeping in a hotel then wash them in hot water and dry them in high-heat in the drier; supposedly heat kills them.

Yeah. Washing your clothes doesn't guarantee to kill all bed bugs, but putting them in the dryer on high heat for a good 45 mins will exterminate them completely.

As much as I travel I have been the victim to bedbugs. Usually in the area behind the need about the calves.

Somehow by a miracle I haven’t brought any home with me.

There’s a website out there somewhere that keeps track of which hotels have them by customers reporting it. I’ve kinda been afraid to search it before a trip but probably should.

Shailynn, definitely research before you go. You are lucky (as am I) to have never brought them into your home, but you don't want to take chances. They can survive for sometimes over a year without feeding, and will hide in the crevices of your clothes and luggage. That is how my mom's friend in Cali wound up with them.

I lived in a furnished apartment building in Downtown Detroit. The entire building got an infestation because the landlord decided to carpet the walls in the elevator. One of the staff members mishandled infected linen and they just spread from there because of the carpeted elevator walls. Because my apartment was furnished, I asked for a new bed and they refused saying they had no more beds available (a lie, they were stored in the basement). They also told me I brought the bugs into the building myself and denied their ability to scale and climb walls, vents, etc.
I was able to snap photos of the bugs crawling around in the elevator, along the walls and such. I also grabbed photos and video of the bedbugs in other parts of the building (hallways and the laundry room). Because the building staff and landlord were refusing to do anything for myself or anyone else who had them, I contacted the health department (there is a popular restaurant on the first floor of the building) as well as City Property and Maintenance Management. I forwarded photos and videos to both places I reported the building to Via a fake email address. I was told the restaurant in the building with both be inspected by the city. I moved out and was lucky enough to not take any bed bug larvae with me.

I brought some back from a friend's house when I was twelve. I was waking up with bug bites and I caught one as it was crawling across the mattress. I took the carcass to my Mom and said we've got bedbugs. She didn't want to believe it and didn't think my carcass was one. However, my bites we're irrefutable evidence that something was in the house.

The exterminator took one look and said, "Yup. That's a bedbugs."

Luckily, there hadn't been time for them to fully infest my mattress, and only one or two had escaped to my brother's room.

See? Them bitches be everywhere.

The grossest thing, to me, is how you can tell which ones have feasted on you because they change color as they fill themselves up with your red blood. Totally unsettling.

LegendAtLegends - I remember when you were dealing with that. I was so glad when you got out of there! And in hindsight, good thing the place WAS furnished, so you could leave that behind and not take any unwanted guests with you.

"cleanliness has nothing to do with the occurrence of bed bugs"

I do understand this. And good thread.

But they are still gross.

SJG

At the risk of coming across as the know it all that I am, :) bed bugs are not nearly as difficult to treat as people would think. The key is using pyrethrum or resmythrum based spray, and hitting them where the are hiding. Find your local “do it yourself” pest control supply company. These product are non-restricted and are labeled for use in restaurants, hotels, day care setttings etc. Always read and follow all label instructions and precautions.In any hotel, look for small flecks where the box springs and mattress meet. It is correct that any hotel or hotel room can develop a problem. All the other tips are correct.

I still would recommend someone have a professional do it. Bed bugs can hide in electrical sockets, dresser drawers, books, boxes, shoes, closets, suitcases, curtains, purses, etc. If my home had bed bugs (god forbid), I'd get it professionally exterminated just to be safe. They can spread out and hide in so many places. So sneaky.

One time I was on my way to meet my ATF and she called me screaming. I went to her apartment and she had found a bedbug in her hair. Her BF was in prison so it fell to me to inspect. Between the mattress & box spring there must have been a hundred of the little buggers. I dragged the mattress & box spring to the dumpster and we then took all of their clothing to a laundry that offered high temp drying. We worked our asses off cleaning and spraying, then got a hotel room. I’ll never forget all those critters crawling around.