Woman Sues Hotel After Suffering 500 Bedbug Bites

[Yollam]

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_066204127.html

Woman Sues Hotel After Suffering 500 Bed Bug Bites

Mary Ann Childers
Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO Last year, there were reports of serious bed bug infestations in dozens of states. Now, a Chicago woman is suing a hotel for $20 million after waking up one morning with more than 500 bed bug bites.

"My body felt as if it was on fire. I just wanted to tear it off,” Leslie Fox said.

Leslie Fox, a 54-year-old bookings agent, says that after four nights at the 700-room Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York last July, she awoke to find red, itchy welts all over her body.

"I had no idea what was happening to me. We noticed the blood on the bed. I became very upset and alarmed,” she said.

She and her husband – who was also bitten, but not so badly – tore the bed apart and found a swarm of bugs under the linens.


Egads, how awful. We had a problem with bedbugs once, when we lived in the hellish swamp called Miami. We put a stop to it by putting plastic mattress covers on under the sheets. It made a huge difference, since they hide in the creases in the mattress. These things seem to be getting more and more widespread lately. Blech.

[cornermouse]

1. Sort of makes you want to go out and buy a camper.

[opihimoimoi]

9. They will be the next Rulers of Earth.....

[Bark Bark Bark]

2. San Francisco: Two Blocks North of City Hall

Beautiful location, and got a great deal on the rent, but I had to move when the building couldn't get rid of the damned bedbugs.

They crawl all over you all night, then climb back into your books and shit your digested blood on them. The smell is not fun, and some people get bad rashes from the bites.

My building's manager tried to "spot-fight" 'em; having the exterminators spray for them on an apartment-by-apartment basis, which the exterminators advised him was doomed to fail. I gave up and packed up.

I packed everything in boxes, sealing them completely after dropping a couple of mothballs in each one to kill any hatchlings. Once I moved, I left everything boxed for three months to starve the adults. I opened one box early--couldn't cope without my Playstation 2--and almost ruined everything. Fortunately, the three little bastards that emerged from the box immediately climbed up the wall toward the light, and I nailed 'em.

I was horrified to realize how many people don't realize they have a bedbug problem. I passed a little old lady in Walgreens' a caught a whiff of that unique sickly-sweet odor off of her. What could I do? Accost a stranger and tell her she's being eaten alive by tiny bugs?

While I was fighting the infestation, the very first Google link I clicked led to...Free Republic! The Freepers were bellowing back and forth that this was all because of "those dirty immigrants." Christ. Speaking of infestations...

[bliss_eternal]

6. That sounds horrible!

Though I've heard of bed bugs, I'd never heard anyone's personal experience with them.

We get spiders :scared: which I thought was the hell, but this sounds far more troubling...

Was it a problem in the building? Can't they exterminate for that sort of thing?

As a kid, elders always told us people got bed bugs because they didn't clean their sheets, etc. Sucks when you grow up and find out that grownups lied to manipulate you...

[Bark Bark Bark]

7. They're Usually BROUGHT Inside

My building changed hands, and went from a hotel apartment building to a state-run housing project for low-income seniors and so forth. (Existing long-term residents were allowed to stay.)

Unfortunately, that means folks bringing in second-hand furniture and even junk they find on the street, and that's how the li'l bastards spread. They can be exterminated, but it takes repeated treatments throughout the entire building--not the occasional "spot-spraying" I mentioned earlier.

Go ahead, Google "bed bugs" or "bedbugs." It'll be an eye-opener. I found a NYC woman keeping an online JOURNAL about her problems with bedbugs. For all I know, it's still there and still being updated (shudder).

Spiders? I have a couple of tiny ones in my current place. I'm not a bug-lover, but I'm more than happy to have these little ladies around; they live by the window, stay away from my bed, and pick off any other intruders. As a result, we get along fabulously.

[Cobalt Violet]

10. I got attacked by them this summer.

The apartment I lived in had an outbreak. I am on of those people who breaks out in a rash. Those bites were way more itchy than mosquito bites, and the itch takes weeks not hours like mosquito bites to go away.

I left every thing behind. I had some pictures posted here on DU but I have deleted them from my photobucket.

[meegbear]

11. Ick! That's horrible!

Glad you got it solved, but too bad you had to leave.

[kurth]

3. The hotel/motel industry is working very hard to keep this under

the mattress.

About time for a high-publicity lawsuit.

Future headline: Bush and GOP Congress propose liability protection for hospitality industry.

[medeak]

4. at least not a dead prostitute

that friend found under mattress in Vegas hotel.

[LeftHander]

12. yuk

:puke:

[spinbaby]

14. Double yuk!

I checked this out on snopes and found that not only was a body found under a bed, but that this apparently happens a LOT.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/bodybed.htm

[xchrom]

5. i knew that new york was having this problem

i didn't realize that it had become so widespread.

[seabeyond]

8. so appreciate it yollman. leaving saturday to akumal mexico to

sleep in someone elses bed. you can be my hubby will now be taking down the sheets and giving it a good look see. lets just hope this leaves my brain. i hate hotel beds and pillows, the hardest to get me into

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

13. OMG! We used to go there when we were kids (in fact, my parents

honeymooned there in 1966).

Nasty!!