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Here is a video report on TripAdvisor's survey that lists the "Ten Dirtiest Hotels in America." The report goes on the road to visit some of those hotels. An expert took a UV light and a meter that measured bacteria. They then talked to a TripAdvisor expert about what to look for when you are in a hotel room to find evidence if there are "bedbugs" in the bed. The video does not list the dirtiest hotels, but here is the link to the TripAdvisor list.

Untidy beds may keep us healthy House dust mite House dust mites are linked to asthma Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe. Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies. A Kingston University study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed. The average bed could be home to up to 1.5 million house dust mites. The bugs, which are less than a millimetre long, feed...

Rush and Malloy’s Gossip column in the New York Daily News reports today that Bill Clinton’s offices are infested with bed bugs, and employees have been evacuated during treatment: "Bedbugs have sent Bill Clinton and his staff fleeing the former President’s offices, a source tells us. No word on whether WJC actually has a bed in his Harlem suite, but the infestation is said to have been so bad that exterminators told Clintonistas to take a few days off." That’s all we know so far. I do not wish bed bugs on anyone, but one positive outcome is that high...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US officials are on the warpath against a new plague pouncing on unsuspecting Americans from cellphones, keyboards and mattresses -- the humble bed bug now staging a comeback after two decades. The tiny blood-suckers had all but vanished over the past 20 years, but now pose "the most difficult, challenging pest problem of our generation," entomologist Mike Potter from the University of Kentucky told a conference. "In my opinion, we are not going to get out of this thing" until we "allow the pest-control industry to go to war," he warned. The two-day meeting on Tuesday and...

The US government is hosting its first-ever bed bug conference amid a comeback by the blood-sucking insects. Thought to have been virtually eliminated decades ago, bed bugs have re-emerged in dormitories, hospitals, shelters and hotels in several cities. Bed bugs live in the seams of mattresses, sofas and sheets, emerging to feed on their victims at night.

THE horror. The horror. As I sat, scratching miserably - Is that dry skin? Or is something eating me alive? - the City Council cranked up its brain power yesterday to deal with a menace so resilient and stomach-churning, I dare not speak its name. Bedbugs. I said it.

A Year Ago, The Bloomberg Administration Was Out To Stop Problem; A Year Later, 311 Hit 34 Percent More NEW YORK (CBS) The tiny menaces are making a record number of New Yorkers miserable and it appears Mayor Bloomberg is powerless to prevent the onslaught. Back in January of 2008, New York City announced it was creating a bedbug task force to help deal with the problem and help educate residents on how to avoid an infestation. The task force was put together after NYC received 7,000 complaints in 2007. However, an advocacy group said Tuesday there were more than...

Increased foreign travel and a lack of awareness have been blamed for the rise in bedbug infestations being reported by airlines, train and bus companies. [snip] "We think that some of the problems result from changing lifestyles: the increasing amount of foreign travellers returning home with second-hand clothes and furniture is a major source of the problem. But the banning of certain chemicals in the 1960s and 1970s around the European Union plus a general lack of awareness is also to blame," said Rentokil spokesman, Malcolm Padley.

Dramatic rise in bedbugs infesting seats on buses and trains ....The number of bedbugs on public transport has risen dramatically in the past year... a 40 per cent increase in the number...in the past year. More than two-thirds of infestations involved bedbugs. Don't let the bedbugs bite: The critters cause itchy white lumps on the skin Savvas Othon, technical director at Rentokil, said: 'The short turnaround times for planes and other forms of transport means they are sometimes not inspected as thoroughly as they used to be. ... ...have increased 51 per cent for cars, 24 per cent for airlines...

Last night I was reviewing a website called Washington Watch. It is a great website for keeping up on legislation being proposed in Congress. On the front page of the site was an unbelievable piece of legislative garbage: H.R. 6068, The Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008 H.R. 6068 would create a grant program in the Department of Commerce and authorize $50,000,000 in each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012 for giving these grants to states. I read that and did an involuntary Lewis Black style headshake. $50,000,000 a year! To fight bedbugs?!

Bed bugs are present on all countries and in every continent. Though there was a significant lowering of bed bug infestations in the developed world during the second half of the twentieth century, recently that trend has been reversed. Bed bug infestations can start from various sources. One of the most common forms of infestation is through contacts with infested furniture in hotels, motels, and other places of temporary accommodation. In fact a recent increase in bed bug infestations may have a direct link with the increase in the number of people who travel. Bed bugs are carried around in...

A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned. The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials. Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods. "In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star...

Bed feeling a little crowded? Maybe you have company. The Cimex lectularius, better known and despised as the common bedbug, is snuggling into households across Southern California, giving people the heebie- jeebies. The blood-sucking, heat-seeking, pint-size parasites aren't believed by the experts to transmit disease, but they do have a way of cranking up stress levels. "It was just horrendous," said a West Hollywood middle-school teacher, who, like others who have been horrified to have lived with the uninvited guests, asked that she not be identified. "Think of how you wouldn't sleep at night if you had roaches, and this...

Ewww! Bed bugs come crawling back By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service June 9, 2007 Close up of a bed bug feeding, ... Decidedly creepy and the very definition of crawly, an army of tiny insects is on the march, infiltrating hidden corners across the country in its insatiable quest to feast on your blood while you sleep. Yes, America, bed bugs are back. Largely absent, or at least little noticed, for more than 50 years, these little suckers have now been detected making people miserable in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since the new millennium...

Walter has stopped hugging his friends. He is throwing out his clothes and furniture, and he rarely comes out of his Tenderloin hotel room anymore. He's not suicidal, but darn near. He has bedbugs. Nearly eradicated in the United States 50 years ago, resistant strains of "super" bedbugs are infesting mattresses at an alarming rate. In what's being touted as the biggest mystery in entomology, all 50 states are reporting outbreaks of the blood-sucking nocturnal critters. Pest control companies nationwide reported a 71 percent increase in bedbug calls between 2000 and 2005. Left alone, a few bedbugs can create a...

Walter has stopped hugging his friends. He is throwing out his clothes and furniture, and he rarely comes out of his Tenderloin hotel room anymore. He's not suicidal, but darn near. He has bedbugs. Nearly eradicated in the United States 50 years ago, resistant strains of "super" bedbugs are infesting mattresses at an alarming rate. In what's being touted as the biggest mystery in entomology, all 50 states are reporting outbreaks of the blood-sucking nocturnal critters. Pest control companies nationwide reported a 71 percent increase in bedbug calls between 2000 and 2005. Left alone, a few bedbugs can create a...

NEW YORK - An opera singer has sued the Hilton Hotels Corp. for $6 million, complaining she suffered 150 bites from bedbugs on her arms, chest, neck and face when she stayed in one of its hotels in Arizona. Soprano Alison Trainer claimed she was bitten at Phoenix’s Hilton Suites between Nov. 20 and Nov. 26, and said the bites were a “horrific” experience that left her afraid to sleep in a bed, caused her to lose weight and made her uncomfortable about her physical appearance. “She looks like a piece of wood that has been attacked by termites,” said...

A New York lawyer is suing a leading London hotel after he and his wife were attacked by bed bugs. Sidney Bluming and his wife Cynthia are seeking several million dollars in damages from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in the action filed at the US District Court, Manhattan. The couple claim they suffered hundreds of bites that left their skin red, swollen and itchy during a five-day stay at the Hyde Park hotel last May. They also say the bugs infested their luggage, which led to further problems in their apartment when they returned home. Mrs Bluming claims the...

Bedbugs, the flat, brown, blood-sucking subjects of the beloved nursery rhyme, are back with a vengeance after almost being eradicated from this country for the past 60 years. They're turning up in the residences of local travelers, having hitched rides in suitcases from parts of Europe, the former Soviet Union and other international hot spots. They've popped up in a San Jose State University dormitory, where one room underwent extensive fumigation and cleaning Thursday morning. One world, one icky, icky bug. Case in point: the San Jose State infestation, which was found in a third-floor room of International House, one...

Ok. Enough news about Joe Lieberman, angry A-Rabs, and kittens around here. It's time to tell us what your favorite bug is and why. Pissants top 7 are as follows: 7. Potato Bug. The little fellers are like miniature Armadillos and was one you could pick up as a kid without getting bitten or stung. 6. Earwig or Pincher Bug. Those pinchers on their tushes are quite intimidating. And for some reason like to hang out in Dahlias, so beware. 5. Butterfly. They always looked the best tacked to my bug collection corkboard. And were much easier to catch than...