Have you ever awoken to irritated skin with red welts? Chances are, it was due to bed bugs.
About 30 years ago, people thought they were a thing of the past in the United States, but it’s not so. In a recent study of 700 mid-priced hotels, 25% were found to have bed bugs.
In comes Rest Easy, a new product created to exterminate bed bugs (and bed mites). According to a press release, the presence of bed bugs has nothing to do with cleanliness; it’s about how large the population is. While they were nearly extinct from the country in the past, the chemical used to exterminate them is no longer permitted, and they have come back to the U.S. with a vengeance via global travelers.
Bed bugs can hide out in box springs, furniture seams, dresser drawers, and small floor cracks. Oh, and they can live a year without eating.
Rest Easy is organic and made from essential oils, so it environmentally safe and won’t hurt kids or pets. It comes in a variety of sizes (including a 2-ounce spray bottle for travel, of course).
According to the instructions, you spray Rest Easy all around the hotel room when you get there, which will kill some of the bugs already out and about and keep those hiding in their place. They also remind travelers to spray their luggage, since that’s how the bugs make their way back to your house. It says while you can spray it in your bed, it’s more important to create a barrier by spraying Rest Easy around the bed (and they note that if bed bugs are in the bed, you should contact a professional for extermination).
The release also mentions that in 2006, there were more than 4,500 bed bug complaints in New York City. I’m going there in two weeks. Normally I would never think to buy a product like this, but I’m starting to have second thoughts…
Have you ever encountered bed bugs? Would you ever use a product like this?
