At the annual Upper Midwest Foodservice and Lodging Show, which convened at the Minneapolis Convention Center a few weeks back, a fellow who was willing to do the legwork could have really gorged himself on meat. It seemed like somebody was handing out samples (“The Black Angus of Pork,” boasted the sign in one booth) every twenty yards. The portions were pretty small, however, so constructing an actual dinner, or even a ham sandwich, would have required persistence. It could be done, though, and lots of people seemed intent on doing it. There were also lines for cheese curds, condiments, cake, bread, and shot-glass-sized portions of soup, wild rice, gelato, wine, beer, and espresso that exhibitors were dispensing. People even queued up for an onion ring. One company advertised itself as “the leader in East Coast Calamari processing and distribution,” which sounded like some sort of mob racket.
For somebody really serious about opening a restaurant or hotel, the UP Show (as it’s known to insiders) offered a one-stop shopping experience, showcasing everything from mattresses, patio furniture, janitorial supplies, and background-music systems, to fry cookers, ice makers, commercial dishwashers, and convection ovens. You could even buy a doddering animatronic butler for your lobby, or transact business with “the leading effervescent manufacturer in the development, manufacturing, and packaging of effervescent products.”
Those seeking a breather from the hubbub of the main hall could venture down a set of escalators to a warren of meeting rooms where there was a full slate of educational and motivational programs with such titles as “Increasing Your Bar Profit—Strategies that Really Work,” “Menu Engineering,” and “Bed Bugs and the Hospitality Industry Today.”
That last one struck something of a dissonant chord, and yet also sounded intriguing in light of the ultra-sanitary and relentlessly cheerful atmosphere in the main hall.
Fewer than a half dozen convention-goers were on hand for Ecolab representatives Terry Elichuk and Doug Gardner’s harrowing PowerPoint presentation on a growing epidemic (according to the National Pest Management Association, there has been a sixty-three percent increase in reported bed-bug incidents over the past four years, and the pests have been identified in all fifty states).
A vial full of bed bugs was passed around. These were Cimex lectularius, or common bed bugs, from the Cimicidae family, and they looked like ticks. They’re nocturnal, fast moving, and rely on human carriers—suitcases, primarily—for transport. Once established in a hotel room they’ll camp out in curtains, carpeting, mattresses, box springs, or behind headboards and picture frames and commence to hatching, breeding, and feeding.
“As soon as the lights go out, you’ve got a bed-bug party,” Gardner said. “You can have large numbers crawling on you in the middle of the night and you wouldn’t even know it.”
The video, Bed Bug’s First Blood Meal, was shown. “This is real-time footage,” Gardner announced. “This is a bed bug that’s just hatched and it’s crawling on a person—a volunteer, of course. For a two- to three-minute period, it just sits there filling up with blood.”
The audience watched in squirming silence as the bed bug did, indeed, fill up with blood. Suddenly, all that free meat upstairs didn’t seem quite so appetizing.
The bugs inject a numbing agent so that the bites are initially painless. They also administer an anticoagulant that, Gardner said, “causes blood to run on sheets and pillow cases. These are leaking bites.” The video was followed by further visual evidence—“actual shots from the field”—corroborating that statement. The still-life images on the screen looked disturbingly like crime-scene photos.
The good news, apparently, is that there are no documented cases of disease transmission as a result of bed-bug bites, and the unsightly rash caused by multiple bites is fairly harmless and quick to heal. The bad news is that there’s no surefire way to prevent the bugs from entering a facility, and eradicating an infestation is costly and difficult. The key to damage control, Gardner said, is hypervigilance through regular inspections and aggressive treatment.
Such measures might offer small comfort to anyone who’s ever sat through a screening of Bed Bug’s First Blood Meal (or, for that matter, been a bed bug’s first blood meal), but, for the time being at least, they’re the only consolation the industry has to offer.
“These things have moved from the mythical to the real in a hurry,” Elichuk said. “They’re just exploding, from five-star hotels to dormitories, nursing homes, and residences, and all of us in the business are in serious catch-up mode. And the unfortunate fact is that bed bugs are rapidly becoming resistant to chemicals, so it looks like they’re here to stay.”
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