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I’m on the middle of my 3 months stay in a flat rented through airbnb, since the first week I’ve noticed that each morning I woke up with various insect bites, I didn’t bother too much since I thought it could simply be a mosquito but over time I started to realize it there’s no mosquitos around and the bites wouldn’t stop appearing.
After a couple of weeks I’ve noticed, on a couple of times, small cylindric insects, wandering in the floor and also found one on my bed, which made me do the obvious google search and concluding they look exactly like bed bugs, which is something I never experienced before in my life, either on the places I lived or in the 10+ airbnb places I’ve stayed before.
Did anyone have any similar experience before? Any advices on how shall I proceed? I already contacted my host but I’m really afraid that I’ll bring those bugs to my house when I leave this flat, does airbnb usually deals with this kind of situations?
Well you are on a host forum, not a guest forum. No advice really other than to do what you have done, contact Airbnb, and yes, you will be bringing them back with you so I would prepare for that.
I had a similar experience when traveling overseas. When I arrived home, at the airport I changed into fresh clothes and shoes, that had been brought for me. Everything was put in black plastic bags and left outside. the clothes were all washed and dried, which kills the eggs and bugs. Shoes, suitcases were left to become heated in the sun while in black bags. You can kill them with extreme cold too. Electronic items don’t support bedbugs, but the cases might, so treat these with heat or cold. Books etc need the same treatment.
It’s important that you notify Airnb, so new guests don’t suffer.
Yes, a few months before I had shifted to my new home in CT area and I feel that bed bugs were in my bed. I had used various types of methods to get rid of them but they were of no use. So, at last on suggestion of my neighbour I had hired a CT pest exterminators, where the professionals had come to my home listened to all my concerns and used the best bed bugs extermination method to eliminate the bugs.
You did the right thing to prevent moving the bedbugs to your home, but… the eggs can survive for a long time. Having suitcases and shoes in a plastic bag in the sun is not adequate.
Dryer heat will kill them, but you should have taken the suitcases and shoes to a professional exterminator. Good extermination firms have big box vans with heaters, used to heat furniture and other items to 180 degF for 24 hours, which will ensure that eggs and bugs will be killed.
I have a friend who runs an extermination service, and most of his business, which used to be roaches, is now bedbugs.
Mosquito bites are far more dangerous. Bed bugs don’t carry any diseases whereas mosquitos carry malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever - according to Wikipedia.
