http://newyorkvsbedbugs.org/2010/12/29/january-18-bed-bug-panel-at-the-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york/
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/12/27/google-a-bedbug-today.html
http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/22/worst-cities-bed-bugs-real-estate-personal-finance.html?boxes=Homepagechannels

TOP 5 INEXPENSIVE TRAVEL ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR HEALTH

How many times have you wanted to kick yourself for forgetting the most simplest of travel items or of not thinking of using something you use everyday to solve a problem. Here are a few of my favorites in the health category.

It’s the simple things in life. We spend so much on time and money on vacations that sometimes we lose sight of the purpose of our travel or the accessories we need to help us stay healthy. These simple items can greatly improve your chances of not having your vacation ruined by something you can catch or be bitten by.

BLEACH WIPES : At about 8 cents a wipe, these handy little wonders will kill most viruses, bacteria and even insect eggs. Use them for wiping down whatever you might want to touch, handles, tv remotes, counter tops etc.

IMUNO BOOSTER : I know of only one product which has been proven to help prevent and cut the duration of colds, it’s called Cold/FX. This highly purified extract comes from north american ginseng. It’s great to start taking these a week before traveling and then during, to lessens your chances of catching something or getting you back on your feet faster. A bit pricey, about 35 cents per 200mg capsule at my favorite big box store.

TRAVEL SHEET: Nothing can impact your vacation like poor or dirty bedding. Haven’t you pulled back the filthy bedspread on numerous hotel beds to find questionable sheets. They look clean but there’s a hair or something that just doesn’t sit right, not enough to go through the hassle of changing rooms even if there are available rooms. A great travelsheet is wonderful thing. It’s easy to pack, easy to use and the really great ones are a snap to wash. I use a 100% cotton Allersac, it’s zippered and made of the same 400 thread count sateen that I use at home on my bed I use it no matter how much I pay for the room and between the bed bugs and the bleach, I just sleep better knowing my face is planted on sheets that I washed. The most expensive item on the list at about 50 bucks. But, because you can own one for years, it evens out.

ZIPLOCK BAGS : Think about this, the tv remote is the dirtiest thing in the room. Bed bugs can stowaway in or on any of your belongings. The person who washes the bathroom will touch your cosmetics, toothbrush, brush etc. when cleaning the bathroom. 
  To combat all these possibilities...ziplock bags of varying sizes. Pennies a bag.

HAND SANITIZER : Duh ! Although there have been a few studies which show that, on the whole, hand sanitizers do not cut the incidence of sickness as well as just plain soap and water but in a pinch, they’re great. $1 - $2.00 for an 8oz. bottle.

HONORABLE MENTION : For the slightly paranoid, painters tape. Wrap around  the legs of the bed and/or around the headboard after inspecting the mattress and headboard. Anything that crawls over the tape will stick. Take that, bed bugs. About $3 - $4.00 for a 60 yard roll.





How Does A Sleep Sack / Travel Sheet Protect You From Bed Bugs And Scabies

Travelsheets and Sleep Sacks have been around for about twenty years. First invented to protect the inside of sleeping bags, they became popular with backpackers to use in hostels. While the backpacker type is typically made of silk because it is lightweight and dries very quickly, the high incidence of unclean hotel and motel bedding along with the bed bug epidemic has seen an evolution in construction to include synthetics and cottons.

Bed bugs have always been present in third world countries but in the last 10 years have spread throughout the western world and are now found practically everywhere. A Sleep Sack / Travel Sheet will prevent bed bugs from entering through the fabric as they are just too large to pass in between the fibers. Most Travelsheets are closed at the bottom and one side, leaving the other side open or attached by cloth ties or velcro. The top is always open for your head. The best Sleep Sacks are zippered, allowing easy entry and exit while providing the best possible coverage.

Bed bugs are attracted to their food ( you ), by sensing carbon dioxide from your breath and your body heat. Because the Travelsheet must have the top end open, it cannot be 100 % guaranteed to prevent bites, but by using a Sleep Sack you are limiting the access bed bugs have to your body. Biting through a high quality Travel Sheet is highly doubtful. The parts of a bed bug, the hemipteran piercing-sucking mouthparts, that actual gets inserted into your body is miniscule, less than a millimeter. The chance of a bed bug getting it’s mouth part through the fabric and deep enough into you to feed is improbable. 

Make sure any Travelsheet / Sleep Sack you use is washable in hot water and that you can put it through a high heat drying cycle in your dryer. High heat is the only reliable way to kill bed bugs and especially their eggs.

Scabies, a parasite that burrows into your skin and lays eggs is much more insidious. Scabies cannot be seen by the naked eye. They are responsible for extremely itchy skin conditions and even disfiguration and scars. Scabies are most prevalent in long term care facilities for the aged , hospitals and even daycare centers as they are highly contagious and are spread mostly by skin to skin contact. But they are easily caught from shared towels and bedding or clothing. Scabies are becoming a problem in hotels due to the lack of proper laundering. A Travelsheet with a tight weave will prevent scabies from contacting your skin and because they are much smaller than bed bugs and are not as mobile, all you need is a barrier between the infested surface and your skin. Even though an adult scabies mite is only 3 millimeters in size, it’s still way too large to pass through a high quality cotton.

Any Travel Sheet / Sleep sack company should be able to supply you with the pore size of their products. Look for a Travelsheet with a pore size of about 10 microns, this will be sufficient to block bed bugs, scabies, dust mite allergens and dog dander.

Secrets To A Clean Hotel Stay

Everybody has at least one horror story about a hotel/motel stay. Dirty bathrooms, bad room service, noisy rooms, bad experiences rum the gamut. But what really affects ones stay is the bed, after all, the main purpose of staying in a hotel is to sleep. Sure you wash and sometimes eat in a hotel , but sleeping is paramount. You can have the best meal or a great shower, but if your pillow is too hard, or you become skeptical about the cleanliness of the sheets, you can pretty much kiss a restful sleep goodbye. Sure you can change rooms, but by the time you get into the new room just the stress and aggravation has put a damper on your evening.

Even when you're comfortably ensconced in what you think is a clean room, what you don't know can hurt you or at least make you sick and at best gross you out. According to the web site TripAdvisor "a survey of 4,000 members around the globe found that: 24% bring along disinfectants, pillows or their own sheets or towels. When asked for their worst experience in a hotel room, 28% say it was a dirty bathroom. 4% of respondents say they've shared their hotel room with bedbugs." ABC Primetime did a study on hotel rooms in New York, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles. A black light was used to determine cleanliness. At every hotel they visited, from a one-star hotel with rates at $55 a night to a five-star hotel with rooms that cost $400 a night, lab results showed evidence of urine or semen in every room tested. Bed bugs have also turned up at even high-level hotels. Some specifics:

Dried semen on the bedspread and urine stains on the walls of a $300-a-night room in "one of New York's finest hotels."

Trails of urine on the bedroom carpeting in a well-known Miami hotel.

Traces of urine on the walls, bedspread, chairs, bathroom vanity stool and carpeting near the bed at a four-star resort.

Via, AAA Traveler's Companion, tells of a woman contracting scabies from a bed in a well-known hotel chain. "Erin Sturges complained to the manager, who reimbursed her for her room but not for her visit to the doctor. She had contracted scabies, not to mention a case of the heebie-jeebies that lingers to this day. "Now when I'm traveling I can't help wondering," Sturges says, "how clean, really, is this room?"
In the same article they quote this from a director of housekeeping, " bedspreads are washed at least 10 times a year" Think about this, that bedspread, the one which you lie on to watch TV is only washed, at best, once a month. Who was on that bedspread before you, an incontinent senior citizen or a mommy changing baby diapers, or even that businessman entertaining his escort, and that's just the bedspread, we haven't even mentioned the sheets yet.

Any way you slice it, sharing a room with strangers is just plain gross. Do you think every chambermaid in every hotel changes every bed after every guest. Please don''t be naive, hotel employees these days are overworked and underpaid, if there's a corner to cut, it'll be cut. Check out the infamous Fox Atlanta hidden video on drinking glasses and how they were cleaned. You can see that video and more on YouTube. Then there are the pests like bedbugs which have become epidemic in cities across north america. Sure, I know what you're thinking, he's paranoid. That's exactly the opinion friends of mine had until they were bitten by those little bloodsucking parasites.

So what's a traveller to do ? Here are 5 rules to travel by:

1. Don't use the hotel glasses unless they're disposable and sealed

2. Don't sit naked on any surface.

3. Wipe down the TV remote, which is the filthiest item in the room.

4. Check your bed and mattress for bedbugs, look for rusty spots on the sheets or mattress.

5.. Use a travel sheet like Allersac, that way you won't have contact with the bedspread, sheets or pillows.

Learn more about why you should use an Allersac at www.allersac.com

TOP 5 INEXPENSIVE TRAVEL ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR HEALTH

How many times have you wanted to kick yourself for forgetting the most simplest of travel items or of not thinking of using something you use everyday to solve a problem. Here are a few of my favorites in the health category.

It’s the simple things in life. We spend so much on time and money on vacations that sometimes we lose sight of the purpose of our travel or the accessories we need to help us stay healthy. These simple items can greatly improve your chances of not having your vacation ruined by something you can catch or be bitten by.

BLEACH WIPES : At about 8 cents a wipe, these handy little wonders will kill most viruses, bacteria and even insect eggs. Use them for wiping down whatever you might want to touch, handles, tv remotes, counter tops etc.

IMUNO BOOSTER : I know of only one product which has been proven to help prevent and cut the duration of colds, it’s called Cold/FX. This highly purified extract comes from north american ginseng. It’s great to start taking these a week before traveling and then during, to lessens your chances of catching something or getting you back on your feet faster. A bit pricey, about 35 cents per 200mg capsule at my favorite big box store.

TRAVEL SHEET: Nothing can impact your vacation like poor or dirty bedding. Haven’t you pulled back the filthy bedspread on numerous hotel beds to find questionable sheets. They look clean but there’s a hair or something that just doesn’t sit right, not enough to go through the hassle of changing rooms even if there are available rooms. A great travelsheet is wonderful thing. It’s easy to pack, easy to use and the really great ones are a snap to wash. I use a 100% cotton Allersac, it’s zippered and made of the same 400 thread count sateen that I use at home on my bed I use it no matter how much I pay for the room and between the bed bugs and the bleach, I just sleep better knowing my face is planted on sheets that I washed. The most expensive item on the list at about 50 bucks. But, because you can own one for years, it evens out.

ZIPLOCK BAGS : Think about this, the tv remote is the dirtiest thing in the room. Bed bugs can stowaway in or on any of your belongings. The person who washes the bathroom will touch your cosmetics, toothbrush, brush etc. when cleaning the bathroom. 
  To combat all these possibilities...ziplock bags of varying sizes. Pennies a bag.

HAND SANITIZER : Duh ! Although there have been a few studies which show that, on the whole, hand sanitizers do not cut the incidence of sickness as well as just plain soap and water but in a pinch, they’re great. $1 - $2.00 for an 8oz. bottle.

HONORABLE MENTION : For the slightly paranoid, painters tape. Wrap around  the legs of the bed and/or around the headboard after inspecting the mattress and headboard. Anything that crawls over the tape will stick. Take that, bed bugs. About $3 - $4.00 for a 60 yard roll.




It Won't Take Long For Scabies To Become A Bigger Health Hazard Than Bed bugs.

We’ve all heard of bed bugs lately. These nasty little bloodsuckers have been in the news for 5 years now, causing havoc in hotels and homes all across the nation. As disgusting, expensive and a severe pain in butt these creatures are, the silver lining is, they , ( so far ), have not been proven to spread any diseases. Yes they can cause allergic reactions but the symptoms are relatively benign unless you have an anaphylactic reaction.

Scabies on the other hand, can be a real danger to public health . The difference between scabies and bed bugs is that bedbugs infest your home and scabies infest YOU !

A scabies mite is an insect about 3 millimeters long, that’s small, small enough so visual inspection is almost useless. You get scabies by having intimate contact with a person or surface which has been infected. The female scabies mite burrows under the first few layers of you skin and begins to tunnel and lay eggs.

Curing scabies can be problematic, some people experience resistant infections, secondary infections from the intense itching associated with scabies, or reactions to the scabicides used in treating the infection. The scabicides, medicine to cure scabies, are basically the same chemical , permethrin, used in killing bed bugs, only you spread it on you not your mattress. Granted the concentrations of this insecticide are much lower but still, this is a bug poison make no mistake. There are other less toxic treatments but resistance to these have been reported.

With an estimated one million cases of scabies occurring in the USA yearly, a scabies infection is not as rare as it was just a few years ago. International travel, higher population densities in hospitals, prisons and nursing homes, relaxed hospitality standards and poor laundering frequencies  in hotels, can all contribute to higher scabies rates of infection.

According to the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, which is a primary pediatric teaching site for the Harvard Medical School, “ Outbreaks of scabies have been seen in adolescents who are not sexually active. For example, outbreaks have been seen where groups of teens slept in a hotel, motel or hostel where sanitation was not optimal. It is possible that they acquired the scabies mite from blankets or sheets that were not changed between hotel guests.”

Avoiding scabies is relatively simple.

- Don’t have contact with an infected person.
- Don’t have contact with items such as hotel bedding which have had contact with infected persons.

How do you protect yourself from unseen infestations ? Aside from intimate contact with an infected person, barrier methods like an Allersac travel sheet will do the trick when it comes to hotel beds. Just make sure that which ever travelsheet you choose, make sure it is HOT water washable AND can be dried on a high heat setting to kill all the scabies mites.

On the bright side, scabies mites are nowhere as hardy as bed bugs and will only live for 3 -4 days when not on a human body. African Americans are much less likely to get scabies, no one knows why yet. Scabies in bedding are easy to kill and washing in hot water and drying on a high heat cycle will do the trick, just be sure to clean ALL items or store unwashable items for at least a week.



http://nymag.com/news/features/65733/
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/bed-bugs-outbreak-trained-dogs-apartment-heat-treatments/story?id=10303223