Bed Bugs at the Polynesian =(

After doing a bed bug check, I will spritzer the sides of the mattress and headboard as extra insurance to keep the bugs at bay. In 2009, we discovered bed bugs half of all the hotel rooms we were assigned. Hotels have been doing a better job controlling the problem in recent years. I love it when I see new mattresses or better yet, beg bug covers on them.


In your own home, fine. But it is very inconsiderate to spray the mattress down in a hotel room. What if the person after you is allergic?
 
After doing a bed bug check, I will spritzer the sides of the mattress and headboard as extra insurance to keep the bugs at bay. In 2009, we discovered bed bugs half of all the hotel rooms we were assigned. Hotels have been doing a better job controlling the problem in recent years. I love it when I see new mattresses or better yet, beg bug covers on them.

Ugh no. Please do not spray stuff on the bed like that! Especially the mattress and headboard which can't be washed by housekeeping.
 
I just woke up from a bad dream about bed bugs at the Polynesian. I've had these types of dreams before. Years ago, I had a student whose home, backpack, and even clothing was infested by bed bugs and cockroaches. I used to kill the bugs and bag them for administration because they wanted actual proof. Disgusting. DCF was involved. My classroom was exterminated twice. It was a nightmare year. I had these bad dreams all of the time.

This year I have two students who have the awful itchy bites. We have not yet spotted a bed bug in the classroom, but I'm on constant alert. I keep my personal belongings in giant ziploc bags.

I read this thread frequently, and I need to stop. Last night's dream was so vivid. I was in my room at the Poly talking to my housekeeper when a bed bug walked across the quilt. We both screamed, and she said, "Not again!" I took a photograph of it to show management and tried to kill the bug, but I couldn't catch it. More bugs appeared. We kept screaming. Then I woke up.

I officially have bed bugs on the brain.

When we stay at the Poly in July, I will have my clothes inside giant ziploc bags in my suitcase. (Now I'm wondering about my cloth suitcases altogether. I guess I can bag them too or store them in our Ford Edge.) I will check the mattress. Not really sure how to check the headboard. Either I see them or I don't. Until then, I guess I can no longer read this thread. It has made me officially paranoid...as I scratch my arms and back and head.
 


We stayed in Pago Pago in September and were getting really bit up, it was a week after the hurricane so we thought it might be mosquitoes. Most of the bites seemed to appear in the morning. I shouldn’t have read this thread because now I’m convinced it was bed bugs. I did check the mattress when we got there and didn’t see anything and nothing came home
Probably not bed bugs. Bites from them can take a full day to appear. Many times, bites don’t appear at all. Sadly, bed bugs and prevention have been the topic of multiple professional development days in schools I used to work in. Chances are you were bit by some kind of mites or mosquitos.
 
I just woke up from a bad dream about bed bugs at the Polynesian. I've had these types of dreams before. Years ago, I had a student whose home, backpack, and even clothing was infested by bed bugs and cockroaches. I used to kill the bugs and bag them for administration because they wanted actual proof. Disgusting. DCF was involved. My classroom was exterminated twice. It was a nightmare year. I had these bad dreams all of the time.

This year I have two students who have the awful itchy bites. We have not yet spotted a bed bug in the classroom, but I'm on constant alert. I keep my personal belongings in giant ziploc bags.

I read this thread frequently, and I need to stop. Last night's dream was so vivid. I was in my room at the Poly talking to my housekeeper when a bed bug walked across the quilt. We both screamed, and she said, "Not again!" I took a photograph of it to show management and tried to kill the bug, but I couldn't catch it. More bugs appeared. We kept screaming. Then I woke up.

I officially have bed bugs on the brain.

When we stay at the Poly in July, I will have my clothes inside giant ziploc bags in my suitcase. (Now I'm wondering about my cloth suitcases altogether. I guess I can bag them too or store them in our Ford Edge.) I will check the mattress. Not really sure how to check the headboard. Either I see them or I don't. Until then, I guess I can no longer read this thread. It has made me officially paranoid...as I scratch my arms and back and head.
Yes, it can be stressful. Don’t let this ruin your vacation. Learn how to search the room (lots of YouTube videos in this). Get a strong flashlight (ones on cell phones work well enough) and pull back bedding looking for bugs and red/brown/black/rust colored spots, look behind headboards, inspect around outlets, look in dressers, nightstands and pay attention to where there are small cracks. Don’t put clothes in dressers or leave them laying out, keep suitcases closed. These things can be found anywhere, but I’ve never heard of a company taking care of guests that find them the way disney does. Chances are you will never encounter one on property and if you do put it in a ziplock bag and walk on down to the front desk. They will take care of things from there.

Also on return home, BEFORE washing clothes put them in the dryer on high heat for an hour (we do this even though we have never encountered any in a resort, but we can’t guarentee there weren’t any in the cargo hold of the plane so...). This will not harm fabrics at all if the clothes are already dry when they go in. After that, wash them as you normally would. Washing alone doesn’t kill them but an hour on high heat in the dryer will. Once everything has been dried and your suitcase is empty inspect it closely with a flashlight before bringing it inside. Two of the schools I have worked at had severe bed bug problems from the families we served. Constant. I never brought any home. Be proactive in preventing them and you won’t bring them back, either.

Mostly, enjoy your vacation!
 


Does Disney put those mattress covers on the beds to help prevent bedbugs?

I've seen them on one mattress the whole time I've checked beds at Disney, and for the life of me I don't remember which resort it was. The covers help prevent and treat infestations but they don't really prevent the bugs in the room at large. I don't know if they put them on when they've found the bugs and treated for them, or if the resort just had them all covered. I know there weren't any at Riverside or French Quarter when last I was there.
 
Stayed at The Polynesian in March. Towards the end of our trip we were informed our room had tested positive for bed bugs. Our belongings were sent to heat treatment and we were moved to a new room. Basically lost the last days of our vacation dealing with this huge inconvenience. Disappointed with resort early on, this just topped it off. The resort seems to be having a problem with bed bugs right now. I was told by staff multiple rooms tested positive that day. Also saw resort carts full of new mattresses being delivered early that morning. If you stay here I would research how to check the room for bed bugs and check it daily. We will never stay here again!
 
Scary. Changing mattresses won’t even help if they are in the headboards, like I suspected they were in our case. They do seem to have a much higher rate of reports than any other resort, don’t they. The really scary thing is where ELSE are they being spread from the rooms at Poly. Ohana? Monorail? Magic Express? Ride vehicles and theater seats? It’s kind of scary actually. Hope they can get it under control!
 
Scary. Changing mattresses won’t even help if they are in the headboards, like I suspected they were in our case. They do seem to have a much higher rate of reports than any other resort, don’t they. The really scary thing is where ELSE are they being spread from the rooms at Poly. Ohana? Monorail? Magic Express? Ride vehicles and theater seats? It’s kind of scary actually. Hope they can get it under control!

If you want to worry, worry about how they got there. Another guest's luggage, or clothes, or from somewhere on an airplane?

Avoiding the Poly in no way guarantees you will avoid bedbugs. They show up at every resort, there is no way to prevent them. The resorts can only deal with them, which they do as soon as they are notified.

I will also call bull on the post previous to yours. I find it totally unbelievable that "staff" would tell guests they had multiple rooms with bedbug problems. No way.
 
I
will also call bull on the post previous to yours. I find it totally unbelievable that "staff" would tell guests they had multiple rooms with bedbug problems. No way.
I don't know about that. We once had a bug issue at POR, NOT bedbugs but something else that needed attention and got it immediately. The exterminator that showed up was a Disney employee. We chatted while he did his thing and he told me they were fighting a losing battle at Pop at that time in regards to bedbugs. Shortly after that trip I saw reports of guests saying they watched mattress after mattress being hauled out at Pop. Pretty sure that CM was being truthful. And he was a CM, not an outside guy.
 
No matter where I stay, I look under mattresses and behind headboards at every place I stay before I bring anything into the room. You just have to these days. Glad you didn't bring anything home with you!
 
If you want to worry, worry about how they got there. Another guest's luggage, or clothes, or from somewhere on an airplane?

Avoiding the Poly in no way guarantees you will avoid bedbugs. They show up at every resort, there is no way to prevent them. The resorts can only deal with them, which they do as soon as they are notified. ...
I agree. You need to worry how they got there. If they were in the luggage on ME, that could be a big problem. They could get in all the luggage on board the truck. Or they were on the plane.
 
I find it totally unbelievable that "staff" would tell guests they had multiple rooms with bedbug problems. No way.
I believe it. IOve gotten quite friendly with staff at the resorts. We stay about 12 days and by the end of the trips I get some helpful information. I would also say Poly employees are the chattiest of them all! Housekeeping and the grounds crews will tell you anything you want to know. I wake up first, get myself ready, then wake up the family. While they are getting ready for the day, I sit outside on a bench enjoying the nice weather, scrolling through FB or something. Day 1 starts with a smile, day 2 a hello, day 3 how are you...by day 8 - 9 full blown conversations!! Yes, day 12 I could have the number of every room with a bedbug problem!!!
 
I believe it. IOve gotten quite friendly with staff at the resorts. We stay about 12 days and by the end of the trips I get some helpful information. I would also say Poly employees are the chattiest of them all! Housekeeping and the grounds crews will tell you anything you want to know. I wake up first, get myself ready, then wake up the family. While they are getting ready for the day, I sit outside on a bench enjoying the nice weather, scrolling through FB or something. Day 1 starts with a smile, day 2 a hello, day 3 how are you...by day 8 - 9 full blown conversations!! Yes, day 12 I could have the number of every room with a bedbug problem!!!
I love that! I'm the same way.
 
If you want to worry, worry about how they got there. Another guest's luggage, or clothes, or from somewhere on an airplane?

Avoiding the Poly in no way guarantees you will avoid bedbugs. They show up at every resort, there is no way to prevent them. The resorts can only deal with them, which they do as soon as they are notified.

I will also call bull on the post previous to yours. I find it totally unbelievable that "staff" would tell guests they had multiple rooms with bedbug problems. No way.


Not only a staff member but a manager. Also throwing another cast member under the bus while sharing this with me. They obviously are having issues since this thread started from a problem in January. They had the dog at the resort that day and that is how our room tested positive. Disappointed with how the whole thing was handled. I had to send them back to our room multiple times to make sure they got everything out. Two hours before we were supposed to leave they realized my clothes were still in the room. So those were shipped later. No follow up once we returned home. I just wished the whole thing was handled better. Also as I said in the post we had multiple problems early on in our vacation and we were very disappointed.
 
Also, just FYI, heat is the best weapon we have in our homes; put all your clothes through the dryer before you wash them. Crank it to high and bake it for over an hour, heat kills them. When you first go into a hotel room, make sure not to put anything down except for in the bathroom (because of the tile, it is the place the least likely to have bedbugs), put bags in the bathroom and then search the room for signs or bugs themselves.

I do this (put the luggage in the bathtub) and my husband laughs at me every. single. time. But who’s never been bit by a bed bug? :wave: Lol
 
Not only a staff member but a manager. Also throwing another cast member under the bus while sharing this with me. They obviously are having issues since this thread started from a problem in January. They had the dog at the resort that day and that is how our room tested positive. Disappointed with how the whole thing was handled. I had to send them back to our room multiple times to make sure they got everything out. Two hours before we were supposed to leave they realized my clothes were still in the room. So those were shipped later. No follow up once we returned home. I just wished the whole thing was handled better. Also as I said in the post we had multiple problems early on in our vacation and we were very disappointed.

Do you mind sharing what building you were in? Room number? Just curious as we are staying there next month.
 

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