The Threat of Bed Bugs: Why Tourists Should Be Concerned

Family vacations to popular tourist destinations can be enjoyable, if somewhat expensive and complicated, undertakings.

After planning a family vacation like this, the last thing you want to be concerned about is having to deal with some out of control infestation of bed bugs. Yet, with some alarming degree of regularity, that is exactly what tourists have been experiencing.

It is not just some coincidence that the threat of bed bugs seems to be on the rise. Bed bugs are a threat to tourists for very specific reasons.

Facts About Bed Bugs

To understand why tourists should be concerned about the threat of bed bugs, you first have to know something about these parasites.

Bed bugs can live up to 18 months. During this time, females can lay up to 500 eggs. To add to this, bed bugs come out at night so it is difficult to even realize there's a problem until it's become out of control.

If the female is laying that many eggs, and if bed bugs are able to hide (and even hibernate for long periods where they require no food), it's easy to understand why tourists should be concerned about them.

Ability to Travel

The very nature of tourist travel adds to the threat of bed bugs. This is because one family can bring them from one place to another without realizing it. Bed bugs can get on clothes and even travel from one room to another through spaces in the walls.

Difficult to Eliminate

Tourists should be concerned about the threat of bed bugs since they are so hard to eliminate in conventional ways. Over the counter products are going to be useless when bed bug eggs have been laid in the very walls of tourist places.

Again, the idea that they hide so well makes elimination of bed bugs so difficult. Why would you call a professional when you don't even understand why you're waking up with red welts on your body?

Even if you kill the adults which are visible, complete elimination of bed bugs requires fumigation. This can penetrate into the difficult to reach places.

In sum, the prevalence of bed bug infestations seems to be on the rise and tourists should be especially concerned.

Bed bugs are a unique threat because of their ability to travel into hotel rooms unnoticed and because they tend to lay eggs where conventional sprays are basically useless.