Bed bug activity on the rise in Virginia

By Mollie Halpern
Investigative Reporter
Published: July 22, 2008

A local hotel is doing what it can to get rid of a bed bug problem.

You may not realize it, but the tiny insects have become a big problem.

Virginia Tech researchers first told Ten On Your Side in 2006 that the numbers of bed bugs in Virginia were reaching epidemic proportions.

Two years later, the problem hasn’t gone away.  A local hotel and its guests, have become victims.

The state’s Urban Pest Management Specialist tells me that the blood-sucking bugs have been found in dorms, private homes and camps across the state.  She says bed bugs have crawled their way into nations across the world.

Paula Jasinki says, “They were burning, itching and painful.“  Painful, and plentiful. In all, 200 bloody blotches.  She says, “It was all over my hand, and you can see they travel up in progression.“

She says the bites appeared after she stayed the night at “Hawthorn Suites” in Blacksburg.  She thought she was sleeping alone, but her doctor later confirmed she wasn’t.

Jasinski had become a midnight meal for bed bugs.  Jasinski says, “To wake up like this, it was just unbelievable.“

Jasinski says her doctor prescribed her a half-dozen medications to ease her pain, but none of them worked well.

So while she dealt with sleepless nights, ‘WSLS 10 On Your Side checked on-line guest reviews of the hotel.  We found that another guest claimed they were also bitten from the persistant parasites, just two months earlier.

We wanted to know the extent of the infestation and why it hadn’t been exterminated.  Hotel general manager Jeremy Allen says, “It was the first case we had.“
Allen admits that bed bugs were uninvited guests at the hotel.

He believes guests that had stayed in a room other than Jasinki’s, brought the bugs with them when they checked in.  Allen says hotel staff tried to get rid of the bloodsucking bugs with over-the-counter pesticides.

Allen says, “Initially treated it ourselves, threw out mattress, box springs, ripped up the carpet, did everything we thought humanly possibly to get rid of them.“
They thought they had gotten rid of the bugs.  They hadn’t.

Allen says the same guests that had brought the bugs with them the last time, returned.  This time he says they stayed in suite 507, the same one where Jasinski had spent the night.  “They were primarily in the bed just in the bed area.“

Realizing they couldn’t handle the problem alone, the hotel brought in the pros.  Ecolab, a commercial cleaning and sanitizing company.

A bill we obtained, shows the hotel paid Ecolab more than $12,000 to treat the infested rooms repeatedly, as well as the adjacent ones.  The hotel spent another $8,000 replacing mattresses, carpets and more.  That doesn’t include the $5,000 the hotel estimates it lost while the rooms were shut down to guests.

Allen says, “It’s been a nightmare and we’re talking not a major infestation, we’re talking two rooms.“

Tim McCoy raises bed bugs for Virginia Tech as a laboratory specialist.
Mollie says, “Oh my goodness, you have a lot of bed bugs!“
McCoy replies, “We have a lot of bed bugs.“

Actually, you could say he’s a human laboratory.  Because he “voluntarily” allows the bugs to feed on him.

Mollie asks, “Does it hurt when they bite?“
Tim answers, “sometimes.“

By giving the bugs life, McCoy hopes to discover how pesticides can better cause their deaths.  He says the best way to kill these blood-bloated bugs, is to hire a pest control company.

WSLS spoke with pest control experts, who tell us that bed bug activity is on the rise because of international travel.  The trend is expected to continue because entomologists say bed bugs are like hitch-hikers.  So if the 6-legged insects somehow crawl on you or your belongings, and then you travel, bed bugs travel with you.  Meaning, you could be sleeping with the enemy whereever you go.  Be it a one, or even five-star hotel.

McCoy says, “Bed bugs are not a filth pest despite their association with flop houses or places that have poor sanitation.“  Whereever they invade, Mccoy says they’ll likely hide in mattresses or headboards.  He says to look for their fecal stains that they leave behind.

That’s exactly what the staff at Hawthore Suites is being trained to do, in hopes of showing bed bugs a ‘no vacancy’ sign.  Allen says, “We’ll looking at doing additional checks just specifically for this and try to set it up to where on a monthly basis we’re hitting every room and doing a very thorough inspection.“

As for Jasinski, she continues to heal.  She says she’s paranoid of the parasites, and will always do her own pest control.  Jasinski says, “It definitely changes the way we travel.“

A change, to make sure the old adage, “Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” never proves true for her again.

We spoke with Paula again on July 22nd, and she tells her that she has bad scarring from the bites.  She also says Hawthorn Suites has refunded her for the night she stayed there.  And, she says that it’s working to reimburse her for her medical costs and her luggage.

Also, the Virginia Health department payed a visit to the hotel after we told them about the infestation there.  Although the health department doesn’t regulate bed bug problems, it does advise people how to deal with them.

In this case, it approved of the way the hotel was handling the infestation.

The bed bug population was virtually wiped out in the 40’s and 50’s with the use of DDT.  But, DDT is now banned because of its environmental impact.  And even if it had not been, bed bugs have become resistant to it.  The insecticides that are now available don’t always kill them.

Bed bugs are really difficult to control.