Fort Sask. travellers return home with bed bugs – Fort Saskatchewan Record

Bite marks, bug infestation, cleaning, tossing furniture its been one hell of a week for some Fort families.

Roughly 30 to 40 students from Fort High and St. John Paul II spent a week under the sun in Punta Cana only with some returning home with bed bugs.

The trip was part of the annual Student Trip (S-Trip), which allows students to celebrate the end of high school with their friends. The trip took place from July 7-15.

S-Trip is designed specifically for high school students and includes non-stop action day and night. The trip was in Punta Cana, the Dominican. They stayed at the Blau Natura Beach Resort, explained one Fort Saskatchewan mother dealing with bed bugs. They flew back to Toronto and stayed overnight at the Four Points Sheraton. My son and his roommate both have bites on them. First (my friend) contacted me and we compared pictures of marks on our boys.

While an Exact number of those affected with bed bugs could not be confirmed, both parents had a local exterminator company confirmed the bed bug situation in Fort Saskatchewan homes and it was rectified immediately.

A second mother confirmed her son arrived home with sores on his body that he thought was just acne.

Once she had an extermination company come to the house, they confirmed it was a case of bed bugs.

She actually stated wherever he stayed they have lots of bed bugs as he has numerous bites. He already had his luggage in our house for about an hour before he showed me the bites, the dogs (with the exterminator) detected bugs in his room and luggage and the exterminator closed off the room and treated it, explained the Fort mother. I can tell you this is devastating... We took every precaution and treated our house, our child, and (we all) had four hot showers... All his belongings were either tossed or washed, all luggage was tossed. We vacuumed immediately as soon as he showed me the bites because he had his suitcases upstairs already... and we had to throw out our vacuum.

She also discarded her childs bedding, a love seat and then the dog with the extermination company confirmed they were all clear.

At the time of The Fort Record deadline, S-Trip had been notified of the bed bug issue by a parent, and stated it was the first time they had heard of bed bugs at the resort and would look into the matter.

How to handle bed bugs

Based west of Edmonton, owner Susan Baxter of Zenas Extermination Company detailed how to handle bed bugs.

If coming back from a trip leave your suitcase outside, put your clothes in garbage bags and you wash them one at a time. The person that was on the trip takes a shower when he comes home, does the hair, puts clothes in the laundry and check yourself for bites, said Baxter.

The bites, much like those from a mosquito, will vary in size, depending on allergies.

Whenever you stay in a hotel, travellers can search for signs of bed bugs, such as stains on the seems of the mattress. If there are many bed bugs you will see them running around.

You should also put your suitcase on the table, not the floor or the bed because those are the areas where youll find most of the bugs. If you do get into a room where there are bugs, get the hotel or resort to switch you out to another room, she said.

Bed bugs are reddish-brown in colour and are about the same size and shape as an apple seed but as thin as a slice of paper.

Baxter also said it is very hard to pin point where people pick up bed bugs when traveling due to how many different locations the person has been, whether hotel, airplane or other transportation.

The only time you can say exactly where you got them from, is if you go to a hotel and youve never had bed bugs before and you wake up the next morning with bites on you, then you know this is where youre getting bed bugs, she said.

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Fort Sask. travellers return home with bed bugs - Fort Saskatchewan Record