As far as I know bedbugs will only feed on sleeping people, so while a suit may pick them up, they won't attack you while you're in suit. The bigger danger is bringing them home. So maybe put the suit in a plastic bag while it's not being worn, and check under and around the matress when you first get into the hotel room.

Hey there! Yeah, your second part was really more my point. I'm not worried about them attacking while in suit, but bringing them home/getting rid of them because I *was* in suit. You know?... or more generally, getting them because other suiters brought them along.

The article I was reading said that they can live up to 6 months in total confinement without a food source, so the plastic-bag trick doesn't always work.

I know it's all just the latest paranoia and it may never become an issue at all, but what kind of dark cloud would I be if I didn't rain once in a while? ^_^

The plastic bag would be for when you're not wearing it, so they can't crawl in.

Bedbugs are Darwin in action, because I think part of the resurgence is due to incleased resistance to pestdicides.

Wether a hotel is 'nice' may not be protection. I was at a very nice hotel for San Diego ComicCon one year and not only did I find a dead cockroach in the room, there was a big dried cum stain on the bedspread. This was a place that charged a couple hundred a night, and that was the con rate!

Yeah, I've read that. Even things like the now-forbidden DDT have little to no effect on them, which is scary on a totally different level.

In a word, "Ew." That's really gross. I've had similar but less disgusting concerns with past hotels, and after complaining to minimal satisfaction I've essentially learned to just accept certain inevitabilities in certain places.

Still, ew.

Part of the reason hotels charge so much is to combat bed bugs. Cheaper hotels present a much higher chance of catching them due to poorer cleaning standards.

And unfortunately, bed bugs can happen to anybody. They're not a sign of cleanliness, just... well, pretty much luck. If you find you're in a hotel room with bed bugs it's important NOT to be careless with anything you take back. You should have all your clothes cleaned before taking them back home, and visually inspected as well.

Wow, a response from the Boss Man! Hello, sir!

I agree with you, as my readings have all concluded the same truths.

I guess my secondary worry here is the cleaning part since, based on what I've read, they require heat and other common machine washing to get rid of, but most suits can't be washed this way and combing through 3 square yards of brown fur looking for eggs and such seems very inefficient.

Lastly, hotel rooms are usually fairly clean, but what about the conference room floors and hallways, etc?

I know I sound like a fanatic. I never really give two thoughts about the latest media blitz, but this one seems to have real potential.

I've been following the bed bugs stories for over a year. It is a problem, and it's getting worse -- and getting ride of bed bugs costs on average around $750. Bed bugs are immune to almost every single bug spray, and only the most expensive will eradicate them.

People who have bed bug infestations *can* wake up with hundreds and hundreds of the fuckers crawling over their entire body. It's repulsive.

And there's no proper way to combat them easily. It's a risk. Mostly a matter of being vigilant and checking anyway.

it gets worse, bed bugs can carry all kinds of vile diseases.


we can all be happy that there not kissing bugs though. thouse little bastards spread a horrific heart parasite. there native to south amarica and mexico though.

Careful there. I agree that bed bugs sound like an incredibly annoying pest that I hope never to encounter, but completely unlike their kissing bug cousins, bed bugs are actually not carriers of any disease and are surprisingly clean. Scientists have even witnessed these bugs feasting on patients with HIV/AIDS and the same bugs test negative for the virus. So if there is any luck here, its just that these bugs are itchy and annoying and not poised to spread any plagues. (See main journal for sources).

my research says they can spread colds flues and other more or less non serious illnesses. regardless the points moot there just RELAY annoying.

Hmmm... I wonder if they can transfer in mid-flight on the plane?

According to the ABC story, that's exactly how they've returned to America; by plane headrests and seat cushions, transferred on clothing.

So it doesn't help to do any cleaning at the hotel, it has to be as soon as you get home.

If you fly on a plane, travel, you should always do visual inspections of your luggage and clothing ASAP. They can infest a lot of places, and they're not a measure of cleanliness. They juts infest. It's what they do. But you can take preventative measures anywhere you are. Just takes some effort.

Hell.

The Nike store in Manhattan got infested.

Also more to point, and thus my greater concern, is that you can't avoid them as you do by not sharing hats or combs for lice. Bed bugs can be literally anywhere with cloth or cushioning, so any public seating, any clothing store, any baby changing stations, etc etc. They're a lot more of a pain in the ass.

My paranoia is not that the world is ending or anything disproportionally melodramatic. I'm just worried that as a genre, in general, we furs are probably going to be hit in very specific ways if we're not careful, since so much of what we do is built around A) bed-bug favored fabrics B) close contact with each other C) public spaces.

They -will- feed on you while you are awake if there's enough of them (but will only do it if you're say, sitting down- they don't jump or fly, so won't feed on you if you're moving). Just to clear that one up.

What you should do before you go even INTO the hotel with your stuff is inspect your hotel room extremely thoroughly with an LED maglite.Check the headboard, the bedside table drawers (and behind/underneath them!), the wooden bedframe, the dresser drawers/cracks, the entertainment center cracks/seams/drawers... the closet... et cetera.

If you don't find anything, you can help yourself sleep better at night by putting your luggage on the little stands they usually have in the room and put a slathering of vaseline (that you should wipe off when you leave, by the way) around each leg and thoroughly spray the frame with isopropyl alcohol. Don't let your suitcase or anything touch furnitre, the wall, blankets, anything.. and you might be alright.

The thing of it is, the epidemic is really just now being expressed as a problem because of people flipping out and not knowing what to do about it. Isopropyl alcohol will kill them if it comes in contact with them, and it will also kill any babies or eggs.

The major problem are the females, who lay up to 5 eggs per day... that take about 2 weeks to hatch. You would have a very hard time seeing the eggs at just a glance, and might still even have trouble seeing them if you were even looking for them. They're pale.

And before someone says, 'oh how do you know so much about bed bugs?'...

I work in multifamily housing. Yes, we have had them at our building. Yes, it's about $1000 to thermally treat each apartment (because chemicals are used so improperly these days, the bed bugs are gathering much resistance to any sort of chemical treatment; thermal is a one-stop-shop if done correctly). Yes, I've seen what they can do first hand.

However, not once have they been present in my home (and I live on the very same property, in the same building where others have had infestations), and not once have I brought a straggler home. As Dragoneer said, they're something you can be proactive about and take preventative measures for, but it will be a lot of work. Airplane seats, train seats... you can spray them with alcohol yourself, but that doesn't mean they aren't hiding deep down in the fabric of the chair, impervious to the spray (since it has to come in contact with them).

Alcohol won't hurt your fursuits, I don't think, and you could probably febreeze them after the alcohol so you smell less like a doctor's office... but seriously, keeping a sprayer (think about the industrial ones- the pump sprayers- so much more efficient!) and lots of 70% alcohol handy will definitely help.

You've put a lot of good information in here that mirrors most of what I've read in these articles, so thanks for summing everything up!

As you mention, prevention (as with most things) is the best medicine, so as long as one is vigilante it wont be a problem. All things considered, I hope my paranoia never materializes!

From what I've read, both adult bedbugs and their eggs can be killed at 115 degrees Fahrenheit. You wouldn't need to wash the suit, just put in a tumble dryer or drying cabinet set on low.

...have you ever put a stuffed animal in the dryer .__.

fake fur is thin strands of plastic and it melts very easy and becomes matted and curly looking...and once this happens IT CANNOT BE FIXED

My attic rises to 130 degrees in the summer, and the plush toys I've had stored up there for years look fine.

Since dryers can vary in temperature, you'd naturally want to experiment with pieces of material first. Even 'low' may be too high.

If I had a fursuit, I'd probably buy a steel wardrobe and build my own drying cabinet.

This might work, if done carefully (as per Beastcub's warning). 115° is still fairly low in terms of temperature... I don't know how hot acrylic fiber can get before it wilts or melts. I'd have to imagine that the wispy tips would melt first, which would be a problem for me.

Hypothetically, I would be most partial to the starve-them-in-a-plastic-bag technique, but now I'm reading that it is not uncommon for them to live up to a year without a food source. Yikes. Plus, they are apparently very crafty as they've been filmed squeezing through the teeth on closed zippers, so I doubt a plastic bag would be enough.

Anyway, this is all precautionary, but as a whole I think we need to be aware.

good point here for conventions and for people to know.
Can i re-post your journal in my journal to get the awareness out ?
( as im a fursuit builder alot of fursuiters watch my page.

Sure thing! Prevention is the best solution.

You can also seal away any suits or other unwashable items. For a WHILE, but if it comes to actually having them, it's an option. Seal it up in a plastic bag [or several] and they'll eventually starve to death

eventually.

I had them when I lived in NYC. I lived above a laundromat which is the likeliest way they got in [though I also sort of suspected by new room mate, as I hadn't had any issues previously...] but in any case. Treated what I could, sealed away the rest. I actually moved by coincidence, so I didn't have to deal with getting the apartment treated, luckily.

Thanks! I would think the sealing technique would be the best (and possibly only) technique given the heat and chemical intolerances for most suits.

It's lucky you were able to escape them! Run away! Run away!

i take my suits in a plastic bin, if the suit is not on me then it's in the bin with the lid on. and at the hotel i check the mattress, under the mattress, under the bottom drawers and behind the headboard before i unpack a damn thing. (remember you are lookin for small flat dark bugs and tiny blood stains which is their poop) and when i am in suit i am on my feet 90% of the time, rarely do i sit down let alone roll on the hotel carpet.

i think the chances of getting a bed bug from momentarily hugging a suiter is too slim to worry about...hopefully....

as a fursuit maker who lives in a big old spread out house with lost of pets... bedbugs would be the end of me because i do not see how we could get rid of them properly where i live and i could never live with myself knowing i was likley sending along bedbugs to customers D:

so i am super freaken paranoid about bedbugs.

..i am making my sister use a bin too, she scoffs at me using bins instead of a suitcase for my fursuits and other stuff...but bedbugs cannot get into a bin!

Sound advice. The preventative measures are certainly a given, and I think the make perfect sense anyway. I tend to be a bit neurotic about normal hygiene, so this added step isn't that far-fetched for me.

Obviously no one has studied if bed bugs will transfer among 'suiters. But if reports are saying that they travel in people's pants, purses and sweaters, I'd have to imagine they'd very easily hide in deep pile fur.

Although I'm not usually one to be caught rolling around on a floor that often, I know that I will at some point (even just to catch my breath after a dance), and many of our suiting brethren certainly will as their characters' personalities dictate. I don't think anyone should have to refrain from acting as they would normally in suit...but this added pest problem may now create consequences for doing so.

Professionally, you are certainly more at risk to be sure. I am confident that you are doing the right things and taking the right steps, though I will wish you luck anyway and take this off-topic moment to tell you that I freaken love your work ^_^.

Thanks for the two-cents!

They don't like alcohol :) We have bottles and bottles of isopropanol at our house. It's the best disinfectant and best of all hot glue is not alcohol soluble and keeps it's bond in pure isopropanol. They also die in direct sunlight just because they can't stand the heat. Now most synthetic fabrics also do not like sunlight, because of the UV, but they can tolerate it mildly. If you put your fuzzy items in a large plastic garment bag in direct sunlight, that kills them too.

If this is true, this could be a great solution during the sunny months!

The alcohol would likely discolor the pigments used in my airbrushed areas, so I'd have to avoid that. But if hanging suits in the sun for a bit works, this could be a great solution. I'd like to know more about the effectiveness, hypothetically speaking.

Thanks, Juno!

I'm also pretty sure a high intensity anti-microbial light would do the trick. The kind used in hot tubs to kill stuff in the water.

Probably a bit more impractical as a general solution, but certainly a valid one.

It's amazing the amount of fear mongering that's been going on over a pest that has been around for a LONG time. I've known about bedbugs at cons since the Trek cons in the 70's. It's not a new problem, it's just the latest thing the news media is foisting on people to get everyone panicing and drive up ratings.

I hear you, Z. As I said before, I am not normally the type of person to be caught promoting the Media Fear Machine™. But after having stayed in several hotels this year alone that have been infested, I know from experience that they are in fact back. At least to some higher degree than they've ever been in my past. Just because something has been around a long time does not mean it's a solved problem or something to ignore. The flu has been around a long time too, and people still don't wash their hands.

To your point, and whether you believe the news or not, bed bugs have been all but decimated in the States (explaining why I haven't seen them at all in my 34 years), and have made a comeback as the result of international travel. So again, if you believe the news, which I do with a grain of salt, you have to at least explore this as a potential real problem. Which is all I'm saying. I don't think anyone needs to panic or forgo their conventions, just be aware of their surroundings. It's the same advice I would give a person during flu season.

The "problem", as I am promoting it, is not whether bed bugs are a new dilemma or even a dilemma at all, but what to do if they catch on in fursuiting crowds. If I personally pick them up, I'll take a shower and wash my clothes. Job done. But if my suits become infested, it'll be a much more difficult problem that will affect something I have put a lot of precious time and money into.

Now in the end, does it really matter? Will the genre shut down if a few suiters walk around with bed bugs wantonly spreading them like candy at a parade? Probably not. The world will keep spinning and life will go on. But in the interest of sharing knowledge I wanted to initiate a conversation.

The way I see it, a little prevention never hurt anyone and it's really all I wanted people to think about; keeping themselves in the know. No mongering required.

I hope you agree, but either way thank you for sharing. I'm as skeptical of the news as you are.