Executive Housekeeping Today - November 2008 - (Page 4)

Bed Bugs (continued from previous page) one reason: your guests are their prey. They typically live within 15 to 20 feet of their food source, human blood, so hotels are the perfect breeding ground for these flat, oval-shaped insects. Hotels and motels are particularly at risk due to the transient nature of their guests and the ease of which bed bugs can travel in luggage, clothing, and furniture. Because they reproduce at alarming rates (two can produce ten eggs in one day), it is critical to detect and treat infestations early. These pesky critters, which resemble an apple seed in size and color, can also live up to one year without food and withstand extreme temperatures. If they go undetected, their populations can expand rapidly, creating a larger problem for your hotel. While bed bugs tend to hide during the daytime, making it difficult to spot them, they are easily identified by the brown or red stains they leave behind after they feed. Sometimes, larger bed bug infestations can be detected by a musty, sweet odor like soda syrup. Some of the most common bed bug “hot spots” in hotel rooms where housekeeping should check for stains and the pests themselves are: • On mattress seams and tags, • In bed sheets, • Behind headboards, • Near baseboards, • In cracks and crevices, • Under seat cushions, • Behind picture frames , and • In light fixtures. Also, keep an eye out for potential hiding places (buckling wallpaper or carpet) or conditions that attract bed bugs, such as excessive heat or moisture. Because bed bugs reproduce at alarming rates (two can produce ten eggs in one day), it is critical to detect and treat infestations early. tion program will not safeguard an establishment completely because sanitation is not a factor when it comes to bed bugs. And good housekeeping won’t do the trick either—bed bugs can thrive in a spotlessly clean room. The best course of action to deal with a bed bug problem is to create and maintain a treatment and prevention plan with your pest management specialist. He or she will work with you to educate your housekeeping staff on the following steps to take when they find an infestation: 1. If housekeeping suspects a bed bug infestation, immediately take the room and the surrounding rooms out of service and do not remove any items from the room. This will help to isolate the incident and prevent bed bugs from further infesting your establishment. 2. Relocate the guests staying in the infested room and its surrounding rooms to other rooms. While bed bugs do not pose a major health risk, they leave itchy, red welts on their prey, causing much distress and pain for your bitten guests. The last thing you want to do is keep your guests at risk of being bitten and in an uncomfortable environment. 3. Once the rooms are clear of guests, contact your pest management specialist to inspect the rooms, confirm the infestation, and determine the best treatment options for the establishment. If an infestation is detected, you will need to work with your pest management specialist to prepare the room. Preparation may include: • Pulling furniture into the center of room and turning it over. • Removing or loosening all items attached to the walls. • Loosening carpet around the perimeter of each room. Two available treatment options include removing and thoroughly cleaning all furniture in the infested room and pre-treating rooms where you relocated your guests to prevent further infestation. Steam cleaners, which operate at high temperatures, can be used to kill the existing bed bugs and any eggs that have been laid in the infested areas of the room. To prevent further infestations, your pest management specialist will treat the area with materials, such as repellent, non-repellent dusts, and insect growth regulators. How to Manage Infestations No matter whether it’s a highend hotel or smaller motel chain, no one is immune from bed bug infestations. A top-dollar sanita- How to Prevent Infestations Above all, the key to bed bug prevention is constant and con(continued on page 8) 4 Executive Housekeeping Today/November 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - November 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - November 2008 Contents Executive Corner The Most Unwelcome Guests Good Housekeeping: Eliminating Pests from the Equation Frugal Housekeeper Director-at-Large Distribution Don’t Just Clean up After Birds—Get Rid of Them! Monday Night is Fly Night Green Pest Control Practices Executive Profile The Green Scene Keeping Hard Floors Clean For the Holidays Inside the Industry Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers’ Index Calendar of Events Inside IEHA What IEHA has Done for Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - November 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.