How to deal with bed bugs in your hostel

Lets try cancel some myths about bed bugs

If you are the unfortunate guest that gets bitten by bed bugs during a night in your hostel
you might be pissed off and you are right, but you should not take it all out on your hostel.

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Here are the reasons why:

Bed bugs come from somewhere, and very often from other travelers. Bed bugs can hide anywhere. They will hitch a ride in clothing, in a backpack  and contaminate all the places this person will visit. They are even able to live up to 18 months without feeding. So it is often not the hostel’s fault. You can pick them up on an airplane or even sitting in a cinema. Even 5 star hotels have this problem. Then, once you reach your next destination, you actually (unbeknownst to you) carry them and share them around. So, most bedbugs are carried by travellers themselves.

The best action to take is always to advise the hostel reception immediately so they can act quickly and efficiently. Generally, they offer some advice and may offer to change rooms,  give thoughts on using an antihistamine cream to stop the itchiness, and explain that actually bed bugs are not dirty animals etc, just a big inconvenience with lots of unpleasant itchiness.Much like a mosquitos but  x 5.

The hostel ususally will seal the room off and get a hold of fumigators or experts. Bed bugs are extremely resilient and are very difficult to get rid of and incur massive costs to the accommodation.

Please trust that this is every hostelier’s nightmare!

How to ensure you don’t get bitten by bed bugs:

You will never be 100% sure. And the answer is that you can’t.  A hostel is not dirty because they may have bed bugs. Bed bugs attack at any time (generally at night while you are asleep) and devour a person even before he/she understands what is happening. Please bear in mind that sometimes, it can take up to 3 days for the swelling to appear so it could be that you were bitten three nights before. It is a great help, if you contact the previous accommodation provider as well, to let them know and help them out. This also means, that you may not have been bitten in your current hostel, but perhaps contaminated it.

Inspect your bed.  Although when you first arrive the sheets are clean, after your first night if you have been bitten, there are some tell tale signs that it could be bed bugs rather then mosquitos. Look for traces of blood stains on the sheet.  Do not forget to check also the label of the mattress, they love to hide there. Check sheets and pillowcases by turning them over. Try to see any small bloodstains that they leave behind after feeding. At Balmers, we even have special strips under each bed which tell if there are any bugs around.

Do not put your bag or suitcases on the bed, but rather place it on a hard surface that does not allow the bugs to cling if possible.

What to do if you are bitten by bed bugs:

Bed bug bites normally appear in a line of three consecutive bites, and do not leave blood in the middle of the bite like mosquitoes do. Some people have a reaction to them and there is swelling of the area. This is closely followed by itching. The best is to go to a pharmacy and put some camomile cream or for severe reactions the use an antihystamine cream can be very beneficial. Bed bugs do not carry diseases, sicknesses or anything of the sort.  You will not die!! After a few days, the swelling and itchiness will subside and all that will remain is a distant unpleasant memory.

Much like a mosquito bite.

Heat and even more heat! Wash all your clothes, and everything that can be washed, in the hottest water you can find.  Bed bugs survive up to 40 ° C so you will need a minimum of 50 ° C water. You can also put all your clothing in a black garbage bag and leave it in the hot sun for 3 days. This includes your backpack. This ensures that  a) you don’t spread around the hostel, and b) you dont spread to other hostels you may travel to afterwards.

The cold can kill them too so, if it is winter time, place all your things outside for a couple of freezing nights and freeze them, this might just do the trick.

The worse thing you can do is write all over social media slandering a hostel as dirty or advertizing they have bedbugs, if an accommodation genuinly cares, shows concern and you can see they are being proactive give them some understanding! Don’t forget that this can cause huge loss of income, give them a bad reputation, decrease their otherwise high rating and incur huge costs to them and they surely don’t really deserve the bad publicity?  No hostel/hotel/accommodation provider wants bed bugs by choice so help them out by reporting the problem straight away and allow them to take action and do something about it quickly.

We sincerely hope you will never have to deal with this problem…

– Love, Balmers –