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Bed bugs scare family staying at Williamsburg motel

Posted at 9:49 AM, Jan 21, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-21 09:49:06-05

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- A mother said her children were now scared to go to sleep after the family stayed at a Williamsburg motel. During their recent stay, Elizabeth Wilcox said she discovered bed bugs in the motel room after she noticed rashes and bites on her children.

"So immediately I flip the mattress just to see all the bed bugs crawling everywhere, there's so many of them the kids are scratching their legs," Wilcox told WTKR. "The mattress cover had a zip on it but there were holes covering it so the bed bugs were in the box spring."

The manager of the Travelodge, off Richmond Road in Williamsburg, said the property did not have a bed bug problem and found no issues when he inspected the room. He said he would order a pest control company to inspect the room.

4 things you can do to help prevent bed bugs in your home

Bed bugs are not known to spread diseases, but their bites might cause itchy red welts and swelling on your skin. Just because you have bed bugs does not mean you have a dirty home, the company said. Bed bugs can be found in homes and hotels, movie theaters, schools and public transit.

“Bed bugs are the great hitchhiker of the bug world,” Orkin Entomologist Ron Harrison said. “Bed bugs can travel in luggage and other personal belongings to enter your home. They don’t just hide in beds – they can be found in furniture, bed posts, rugs and even electrical outlets.”

Precautions to help prevent bed bugs:

  • Inspect your home for signs of bed bugs regularly.
  • Check locations where bed bugs hide during the day, including furniture, mattress seams and bed sheets, as well as behind baseboards, electrical outlets and picture frames.
  • Decrease clutter around your home to make bed bug inspections and detection much easier.
  • Inspect and quarantine all secondhand furniture before bringing it inside your home.
  • Dry potentially infested bed linens, curtains and stuffed animals on the hottest temperature allowed for the fabric.
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