Bedbug Myths, Continued
3. Myth: Bedbugs Mean It's Unclean-
Bedbugs are gross, no doubt about it. Thinking about creatures crawling around in your bed and eating your blood is a real shudder inducer. That actually happens all the time, though -- the creatures looking for your blood, that is (think mosquitos). It might be the fact that bedbugs kinda scuttle that make 'em seem especially disgusto, and bed bugs are nocturnal -- creatures that scuttle at night just seem particularly sneaky, despite having microscopic brains and no personality characteristics to speak of.
The presence of bedbugs in a hostel or hotel don't mean the joint is unsanitary, though, according to Baumann. Cockroaches, ants, flies -- they all love old food. Bedbugs like fresh food. A dirty hostel does not attract bedbugs simply by virtue of its grime -- that's not how they pick new destinations.
The beasties hitchhike into hostels, hotels and, eventually, your own house, by way of your stuff -- your clothes, your sleeping bag or sleep sack, your backpack. They grab a ride out the same way. They don't get together in an underground bedbug lair and report on the latest gross place where they can have a party.
As Baumann says of unsanitary conditions, "Bedbugs don't really care about that, and can be in the fanciest of hotels all the way to the other end of the spectrum." He goes on to say that while the whole bedbug infestation, cleanliness-impaired hotel equation is popular, there is no data to support it.
The single connection that could be possibly be made between the bugs and unsanitary habits would be that a bedbug killing recommendation is washing possessions in very hot water. Perhaps that's how the myth started -- but no one, anywhere, ever washes their curtains in boiling water every day in order to keep a clean house. (Do they?)
Let's move to the next page to learn how to (sort of) spot those sneaky, night-scuttling, plotting, scheming bugs in hotels and hostels.
