British Airways passenger sets up website to complain about in-air bed bug infestation

Bed bugs are no longer limited to hotel rooms – the biting bugs have now made their way on to commercial flights. One British Airways passenger got such a nasty case of bug bites, that she had to go through a very intensive detox to kill all the bugs on her clothes.

After failing to get an apology from British Airways, she took to the Internet and created ba-bites.com to bring some public attention to BA’s total lack of interest in their inflight bug problem.

The site gets attention the best possible way – with graphic photos of her bites. One example of her bites is seen above – the rest of the photos can be found here.

Once the site went up, the media got involved, and finally got a reply from British Airways, offering a very weak apology a compensation offer.

I’m torn on the whole issue – we know bed bugs travel with people in their clothes and their luggage, and no amount of pesticides will completely get rid of them. It only takes one passenger carrying bed bugs from a hotel to pass them on to the next passenger in that seat. The only solution would be spraying chemicals after every single flight, which would probably create a very nasty environment in the plane.

The bigger issue here is a total breakdown of customer service by British Airways. To read the entire story and hear how other airlines dealt with this issue, head on over to ba-bites.com.

Scientists confirm our worst fear: the super bedbug is here to stay

The results from a large bedbug study at Ohio State University have been revealed – and they don’t look good. According to scientists, bedbugs are turning into super bedbugs by becoming resistant to most common pesticides.

Compared to ten years ago, bedbugs are one thousand times more resistant to chemicals that used to kill them – and are less prone to stress from heat, cold and dehydration.

Even more alarming is that bedbugs in New York City are 250 times more resistant to pesticides than bugs from Florida – which explains why New York has such a massive bedbug problem at the moment.

The report from Ohio State is quite complex, but certainly worth a read if you like waking up in the middle of the night from bedbug nightmares.

Check out this article for more tips on how to detect and remove bedbugs – by taking basic precautions, you may be able to prevent spreading the infestation.

[Photo: AFP/Getty Images]

Hilarious bed bug video shows top cities for infestations

Next Media Animation has quickly become a popular go-to destination for hilarious news clips. Take for example this video clip translating the Terminix top bedbug infested cities into something we’ll call “must watch”. Sadly, they only took the time to show the top four, but the end result is still worth it.

Our friends at AOL Travel recently reminded us how bed bugs are still very much in the news with a report on the third bug lawsuit targeting the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

And back in November, we also published some tips on how to detect and remove bed bugs from your hotel room.

Feeling itchy yet?

Pest control firm announces top cities for bedbug infestations – makes you itch uncontrollably

Pest control firm Terminix just released a list of the 15 most bedbug-infested cities, “based on an analysis of call volume reporting bedbug infestations and of confirmed bedbug cases reported by sales professionals in 350 of the company’s service centers”.

The list contains very few surprises, New York takes the top spot, but Ohio manages to snag four of the top fifteen cities. Apologies in advance if I keep you up all night with phantom itches.

Getting rid of these nasty bugs is a laborious process – the Harvard School of Public Health has a great resource on how to detect and eradicate them.

Here are the top 15 cities where bedbug infestations are found:

  1. New York, NY
  2. Philadelphia PA
  3. Detroit MI
  4. Cincinnati OH
  5. Chicago IL
  6. Denver CO
  7. Columbus OH
  8. Dayton OH
  9. Washington DC
  10. Los Angeles CA
  11. Boston MA
  12. Indianapolis IN
  13. Louisville KY
  14. Cleveland OH
  15. Minneapolis MN

[Photo: AP Photo/Virginia Tech Department of Entomology]

Online tool helps check for hotel bed bug reports

WARNING: reading this article may screw up your sleep tonight.

Bed bugs are a huge problem for hotels. Obviously, not as big a problem as someone who actually ends up with bites all over their body after a night in a hotel bed, but still something they need to take seriously.

Sadly, some hotels have years of history of bed bugs, and until now, there was no real way to find the worst offenders. The online “bed bug registry” can help you track down properties you want to avoid.

By entering the city, and hotel name, you get an overview of all reports from people who have actually stayed at that property, and who ended up with bites from these bugs.

As I mentioned in the opening sentence – I really don’t recommend reading this before bed time, or if you are actually at hotel right now, because the last thing you want, is to read that you are at a property with a bad history of bugs.

New York and Las Vegas tend to pop up on the report quite a bit – though not many of these reports are from the high end properties.

In addition to infestation reports, the site also offers bed bug related products, and tips on how to get rid of them. Sadly, in many cases, arriving back home with a suitcase full of infested clothes means you’ll either need to boil them, or throw them all away, because the last thing you want is to bring them back to your own bed.