From CFN's "ewwww, icky!" files comes this super-hygienic story courtesy of Tulsa's NewsOn6.com: Health officials in Oklahoma reported a rise in the incidents of motel and hotel bedbug infestations.
Ewwww, icky!
The head-scratching, body-itching problem apparently comes from those dirty coasters who unknowingly bring their buggy friends when they visit the Sooner State.
"The transfer of the bug from location to location has to do with your luggage," said Tressa Madden, with the Oklahoma Health Department. "If there is a hole or tear in the mattress, that is the perfect opportunity for them to enter. You see it in the furniture. You see it in the carpet."
The article advises travelers to thoroughly check their hotel room, including the bed, dresser drawers and curtains. And, bedbugs apparently can't crawl on smooth surfaces, so it is also advised to use the provided luggage rack to store your suitcase, not the floor, which could be like throwing a bucket of chicken wings into an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.
And once the bugs are there, they're not going to give up their new real estate easily.
"It's a 21-day process," Madden told News on 6. "A couple of occasions it has been bad enough that the carpet was removed."
To help travelers plan their vacay to be bug-free, there's even an online registry that compiles bedbug complaints: bedbugregistry.com.
Yup. A quick scuttle through the site shows that there have been four OKC hotels/motels with bedbug complaints over the last few years, and another two in Tulsa. But that's nothing compared to Los Angeles, which has had a whopping 51 complaints just over the past few months. And we won't even tell you how many NYC has had in just the last couple of weeks. Blech.
If you'll excuse us for a minute, we need to go take a hot shower.
