“Bedbugs bite in area” |
| Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:08 AM PDT The phrase, "... don't let the bedbugs bite," has increased significance after a nationwide spike in bedbug infestations, and the Dells area has had its share of cases, according Joe Lally, environmental health specialist for Adams, Sauk and Juneau counties. When interviewed about four years ago in 2006, Lally said bedbug cases were rare in the area. Since then they have picked up. In a telephone interview, Lally said 11 cases in hotels or motel have been reported so far in 2010 that have been investigated in the three-county area where he works. In all of 2009, 25 cases were reported in motels in the three-county area. He had had 30 bedbug cases in apartments or rentals this year, he added. Lally thinks motels in the area have the pest under control, though, and that sometimes a case in an apartment can go untreated and spread to neighbors. "I think the hotels are all kind of aware of the problem, and it's a hard thing to try to be preemptive at because guests bring them in with them and, you know, all they have to do is enter the room and open the suitcase and spread their clothing out. And then the bedbugs are there," Lally said. Bedbugs feast on blood and like to hide in crevices around beds and chairs during the day. But they haven't been linked to diseases, Lally said. Apparently just the threat of bedbugs is a hardship for Diamond Hotel owners Ashok and Neera Sharma. They had one customer, Maritza Garcia, 19, of Rolling Meadows, Ill., complain to the Lake Delton Police Department on Aug. 14 that a room had bedbugs. The officer responded because it was initially reported the call was about a drunk man entering a customer's room. When the officer arrived, according to the police report, Garcia said the man, an employee, had left, and she was complaining about how her room was "disgusting and had mold growing on the walls with 'bedbugs' everywhere." Ashok denies that the hotel has a bedbug problem, but said "We're taking the precaution." The hotel calls in an exterminator to check whenever they get a complaint. Another complaint was filed with police on July 31 by Alicia Morales, 29, of Landfall Village, Minn., that there were bedbugs in her room. Morales was moved to another room. The officer told Morales it was a civil issue and told her she could contact the Better Business Bureau. Neera also said sometimes a guest can see a hotel and decide they want to ask for a refund and stay somewhere else, for whatever reason. "If you don't like a place, you can say anything," she said. But they acknowledged it is good to know about the complaints so they can have a room checked, even if the complaints are about bugs that people misidentify as bedbugs. Neera said sometimes clients call Asian lady beetles "bedbugs." The Sharmas said they use Plunkett's Pest Control out of Minneapolis as an exterminator. Plunkett's Pest Control owner Stacy O'Reilly said bedbugs are No. 1 in terms of the growing number of calls it is getting for exterminations. In 2006, the company had bedbug cases in 100 living quarters, living quarters meaning that could be one hotel room or a home. In 2008 it performed nearly 300 exterminations for bedbugs, whereas in 2009 it had double that at about 600 cases. She said for 35 years when her father ran the company he didn't have one bedbug case. In 2003, when O'Reilly took over, the company had its first case. She declined to say how many bedbug cases they respond to in the Dells area because she didn't want to deter people from visiting a hotel. "Hotels, among clients who are cooperative regarding bedbugs, I would put hotels squarely at the top. Their reputation rides on having a perfectly bedbug free hotel. So hotels stop at nothing to treat it right the first time instantly. So they are keenly aware that they need to be bedbug free, and so I would say the vast majority of the time that is the case," O'Reilly said. She said her company responds to calls in the Midwest, in big cities and small towns, in homes of all incomes. "This is a completely non-discriminatory pest," she said. Plunkett's Pest Control uses heat treatment to destroy the insects. O'Reilly said its equipment heats beds, curtains and clothes to 135 degrees Fahrenheit for several hours to kill the pest. Then a person might have to vacuum up the dead bug bodies, or sometimes for heavy infestations the Plunkett's Pest Control crew will vacuum up large gatherings of bugs before the heat treatment. She said the company prefers heat treatment because it doesn't have to put potentially harmful chemicals where humans sleep, though she said it is costly treatment. O'Reilly provided some tips so travelers can avoid bedbugs: • Visually inspect a bed for bedbugs. They are visible and are about the color of a wood tick, she said. They leave excrement that looks like it could be pepper sprinkled on a bed or surface. • Once at home, put your clothes in a hot dryer for 30 minutes. • Spray shoes and other items that don't go in the dryer with rubbing alcohol. O'Reilly said although the number of bed bug cases it is called to is growing fast, it's still more common to get called for ants, Asian lady beetles, cluster flies and spiders. Messages seeking comment on bedbugs left for general managers at other resorts were not returned. 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