What's The First Thing You Should Do When Entering A Motel Room?

One of the more helpful posts on Social Media we've seen in quite some time popped up today and we thank the award-winning bluegrass trailblazer, Claire Lynch, for bringing it to our attention.

Travelers (including most musicians) who find it necessary to lodge in hotels and motels put themselves at risk every night.  The risk is to be bitten by blood-sucking bed bugs hiding in even the most unthought-of places.

Claire shared a video produced by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension's Jim Dill who says most hotel/motel patrons make the same mistakes from the moment they first walk in the room.

According to a survey conducted by the National Pest Management Association in 2011, approximately 80 percent of Americans are concerned with bed bugs in Hotel/Motel encounters but only  25 percent have checked a hotel room for bed bugs.

Bed bugs remain the most challenging pest to treat according to 68 percent of surveyed pest exterminators.

Bed bugs do not discriminate in regard to household income and are found in both sanitary and unsanitary conditions.

What should you do if you find bed bugs in a hotel/motel room?   "Check out" was Dill's suggestion, "or at least move to another room."

For more information and tips on preventing bed bug bites, vist the National Pest Management Association's website here:  http://www.pestworld.org/all-things-bed-bugs/history-of-bed-bugs/bed-bug-facts-statistics/