Bed Bugs

This post is in an effort to inform and educate. Even though I read up on bed bugs before starting Camino, I keep on learning :-). Awareness is a great teacher!

Here's a great website I found after reading this article last Friday
http://m.lvsun.com/news/2012/sep/07/despite-efforts-beat-them-blue-our-shoes-bedbugs-a/

http://www.bedbugcentral.com/

My experience just goes to support that bed bugs do not discriminate who they bite. AND as importantly, where they live.

I checked into a very nice hotel in Santiago last Thursday! Recommended 1 out of 75 on TripAdvisor. And that night I awoke three different times...itching. The third time I was going to go down to reception to show them the bites. Well, as I debated in my mind and stood in front of the bathroom mirror looking at the bites on my back, I decided that even though it was 3 am that I needed to go down to reception.

When I went back to the bed, I thought I saw something in the bed! Against a white sheet it was easy (with no eyeglasses on) to see this very small insect moving. About the size of a tick. I managed to capture it under a cup from the bathroom.

The woman at reception knew very little English. And being very sleepy, my Spanish matched her little English :-)

And seeing my bites and the captured bed bug made up for our lack of fluency in each other's primary language :-)

She moved me to a new room. And the next morning, I spoke with one of the owners. He shared that there had been a instance last year. And the year before. And then told me something I did not know... Something he learned from the exterminators.

Bed bugs can hide behind the plates over electrical outlets or light switches. Or in moldings on the wall. Or in crevices. Not necessarily in the bed.

And I learned later that...they can live without feeding for weeks or months! During which time they hide out.

I already knew that they can (like ticks or fleas) hitchhike. Thus someone can un-knowingly take them from to an un-infected area :-|

Plus it take extreme heat or cold temperatures for a constant period of time, to kill them, including any eggs layed!

Soooo...it's up to all who travel (even for work or to visit folks for the Holidays) to be aware and do our part to educate ourselves about bed bugs and their habits so we can minimize bringing them from one place to another :-)

I certainly have learned a lot! And figuring out how to change some of my travel habits :-)

Buen Camino!