On our recent trip, we had guests of an unexpected and totally unwanted kind.

I won’t use any establishment names, but I will tell you that on one of the nights that we stayed in a motel, could have turned tragic except for a strange habit of my son in law Todd.

You see, he is an exterminator. He is trained in both detecting, and eradicating, if you haven’t guessed it yet, bed bugs.

So EVERY time he goes to a hotel/motel, he checks them first for these critters.

A cursory check in his room didn’t show much, except that the motel owners had “bed bug blocking” mattress covers on all the beds.

Our room however when checked, showed evidence of live ones in the room.

We insisted that our room be changed, and then the second room was checked.

It was worse than the first.

The owner was certain we were wrong until she was shown what we found.

Needless to say, we couldn’t even see our selves staying there, as our skin was kind of crawling.

We got our moneys back, and got the last two rooms at a different place a couple of blocks away.

Our son in law says that people always think he is crazy.

Until they find something!

There are a few things you need to know, and I learned them from Todd.

1. Bed bugs travel VERY easily, and are very difficult and COSTLY to get rid of if you take them to your home.

2. What to look for – I’ve included the most un-squeamish photo I could find in this post, and a short YouTube video showing just how to check for these critters in your motel/hotel room, so you can get a good nights sleep.

3. What bed bug bites look like.

4. And, last but not least, the thing we forgot about – a link a bed bug reporting site. https://www.bedbugreports.com/

You will still want to check your rooms anyway, because they unfortunately don’t always get reported.

My intent isn’t to make you sick, but to make you aware.

My mom had a saying; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

I’m so grateful for my son in laws “habits”.

I’m sure he saved us immeasurable grief, and who knows how much money.

My daughter calls him the “Bug Slayer”.

Indeed.

Don’t let the bed bugs bite!

Until next time …