Unpacking during your vacation in your new hotel room? Before you toss your suitcase on the bed or start hanging up clothes, doctors say there’s one crucial thing you need to do first.
“When I first enter a hotel room, I typically leave my luggage at the entryway while I do a quick check for bed bugs,” said Dr. Brianna Olamiju, a dermatologist at Spring Street Dermatology.
That’s right: Those tiny, crawly critters could be lurking underneath the crisp white sheets of your bed.
“When you enter a hotel room, make sure you immediately place luggage in the bathtub or on a tiled surface upon entry, then thoroughly inspect the mattress seams, headboard and furniture using a flashlight for bugs or dark stains,” said Dr. Kefah Al-Ramahi, an internal medicine physician at Hartford HealthCare.
“Bed bugs and their evidence can be visible to the naked eye — adult bugs are about apple-seed sized — but you’re often spotting clues like tiny black “ink-like” fecal dots, shed skins or small blood spots on sheets,” said Dr. Tiffany Libby, the Director of Mohs Micrographic and Dermatologic Surgery at Brown Dermatology in Rhode Island.
