Housekeeping
Helps you bring more business to your hotel

Teaming Up Against Bed Bugs

After many years of virtual eradication from the hospitality industry, the bed bug is back and showing up in even the most exclusive hotels and resorts. And, though these blood-feeding insects aren't known to spread disease, their bites can cause severe reactions - both physically and from a public relations standpoint. That's why more and more hotels are becoming as proactive as possible when it comes to identifying bed bug infestations, and ensuring they are dealt with aggressively.

What are bed bugs?

• Bed bugs are blood-feeding parasites.
• They are a light tan color, but turn dark-reddish brown once they have fed on blood.
• Before feeding, the adult bed bug is about 1/4 inch long and flattened. Once engorged with blood, it will swell in size.
• Bed bugs can easily be seen with the naked eye, but typically stay hidden.
• They can be found in hotel rooms any time of year, and will often go unnoticed until the population size is large.

Where do bed bugs come from?

• Bed bugs can't fly, so they either crawl or are carried from place to place.
• Bed bugs or their eggs are known to hitchhike in a traveler's suitcase or clothing.
• The offspring of one pregnant female bed bug can quickly infest a room, and other rooms nearby.
• Bed bugs live in bed frames, headboards, in bedside furniture, behind pictures and switch plates, behind baseboards, under buttons on mattresses, in box springs, and in other cracks and crevices.

What do bed bugs do?

• Bed bugs usually feed at night and spend the day hidden.
• They feed about once a week, usually for several minutes.
• Bed bugs most often feed on a sleeper's exposed skin.
• Bites are nearly painless and are not felt by most people.
• Some people do not react to bites, but some people develop a hard bump with an itchy whitish center.
• Although bed bugs suck blood like other human parasites, there has been no evidence that they spread diseases.
• Bed bugs can survive for several months between blood meals.

Daily inspection of rooms by the housekeeping staff is the most proactive way to prevent bed bug infestations.

What to look for

While servicing rooms, housekeeping staff should inspect beds and immediate surroundings, especially if there has been a recent history of bed bug activity. The following steps should require no more than two minutes:

• Examine all bed sheets for blood stains. After removing bed linens, examine the folds and seams of the mattress, mattress cover, and box spring.
• Examine headboards closely for the presence of bed bugs.
• Examine wallpaper and/or moldings around bed headboards.
• Use a flashlight, if possible, to enhance inspections for bed bugs.

What to do if bed bugs are found

If bed bugs or blood-stained sheets are found, perform the following steps:

• Notify hotel management that bed bugs were found or their presence is suspected
• Quarantine all linens! Follow a strict housekeeping chain-of-command for linens to prevent bed bugs from spreading to other rooms.
• Suspect linens should be isolated and laundered separately from non-infested linens.
• Keep the floor vacuum in the suspect room for inspection.
• If the housekeeping cart was inside the room, do not remove it.
• Close the room and do not allow occupancy until a pest Elimination Specialist has performed service and approved the room for re-opening.

Best housekeeping practices

Performing these steps will help reduce the potential for bed bug infestations:

• Be vigilant. Daily inspection by housekeeping staff is the best proactive tool for identifying infested rooms.
• Vacuum rooms thoroughly each day.
• Carefully inspect any used furniture before bringing inside.
• Securely paste down loosened wallpaper and repair cracks in walls.

Laundry Recommendations

Quarantining and treating linens that have come in contact with bed bugs is critical to helping prevent further infestation. Follow these recommendations if you suspect the presence of bed bugs in a room.

1. Discard any linen with blood stains or permanent soils.
2. Isolate linens from infested rooms by placing them into a separate linen bag.
3. Place linen into washer, separate from non-infested linens.
4. Wash linens from infested rooms on the highest water temperature available; at least 140° F with detergent and typical laundry cycles.
5. Dry linens in drying machine at minimum 140° F until thoroughly dried.

If you find evidence of bed bugs at your property, you can contact your local Ecolab Service Specialist to answer any questions you may have. Ecolab has performed bed bug service for more than 130,000 rooms in the past 3 years alone offering unparalleled Service Specialist experience and retention. They have dedicated Research & Development bed bug experts that have completed and continue to conduct University-level research focused on bed bugs. Ecolab tests all available products, technologies, and treatment cycles to determine the most effective, science-based protocols.

Ecolab Inc.
370 Wabasha Street N.
St. Paul, MN 55102
(800) 325-1671

What are alternative treatment options to for bed bugs?

HEAT (STEAM)

• Steam treatment will kill bed bugs on direct contact only
• Steam will not achieve temperatures high enough to kill bed bugs hiding in the mattress or within cracks and crevices.
• Steam treatment is time consuming and impractical, and risks damage to hotel rooms

• CO2 freeze treatment is utilized in some countries (e.g., UK) for pest control.
• CO2 applications will kill bed bugs on direct contact only.
• A small proportion of bed bug adults survive even direct cold treatment.
• CO2 remains under evaluation

The information above was provided by Ecolab.

Information about bed encasements is available from Protect-a-Bed.