Bed Bugs Found at 4 Las Vegas Strip Resorts Since September

Posted on: February 19, 2024, 09:33h.

Last updated on: February 20, 2024, 12:20h.

Corey Levitan Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

Inspectors found live bed bugs at four Las Vegas Strip casino resorts — Encore, Venetian, Mirage, and Excalibur — over the past five months.

Bed bugs are notoriously excellent at avoiding detection and reproducing rapidly, and can survive for six months without a blood meal. In addition, thanks to decades of genetic evolution, they and their eggs are now almost entirely immune to all known pesticides. (Image: Wikipedia)

According to documents from the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD), as reported by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas, one of Encore’s bed bug-sniffing dogs discovered a live one in a room that was then immediately taken out of service on Dec. 5, 2023, after a guest staying in the room filed a complaint.

Inspectors also found the insects at the Venetian in September, and at The Mirage and the Excalibur in October, after guests in those casino resorts also complained of either seeing them or being bitten.

As Casino.org reported last October, the itchy pests have been found at eight other Las Vegas hotels since 2021: Caesars Palace, Circus Circus, MGM Grand, The Palazzo, Park MGM, Planet Hollywood, Sahara, and Tropicana.

Bugging the World

While many guest experiences are exclusive to Las Vegas, bed bugs are not one of them. In fact, Sin City didn’t even appear on Orkin’s most recent list of Top 50 most infested U.S. cities. (Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia took top dishonors.)

“With approximately 155,000 hotel rooms and 41 million annual visitors, four rooms impacted over a nearly five-month period that generated millions of room nights shows these are extremely rare and isolated occurrences,” read a statement from the Nevada Resort Association, which speaks on behalf of all hotels in the state.

In fact, the entire globe has seen a resurgence in infestations. In Europe, a panic was caused last October when a bed bug was spotted crawling on the leg of a London tube passenger, and A-list celebs — including Paris Hilton and Gigi Hadid — reported seeing the insects at Fashion Week events last March.

“Unfortunately, these pests can be transported anywhere unwittingly in luggage and clothing,” the resort association’s statement continued. “While incredibly rare, when reported, our members take swift action in accordance with health and safety requirements. Guests are immediately relocated, and the room is taken out of service for extensive cleaning and extermination to eradicate any pests.”

The best treatment currently available is raising the temperature of an entire infested room to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, then spot-heating cracks and crevices where they might hide in cooler pockets of air.

“The minute number of incidents reflects the comprehensive and proactive health and safety measures and pest-control procedures Las Vegas resorts have in place to prevent and address issues,” the association’s statement contends.

Warning signs of an infestation include inflamed spots on the face, neck, arms, or hands — frequently arranged in a line — which are often darker in the middle and cause painful itching.

Before the bites even happen, other telltale signs include rusty or reddish stains — signs of crushed insects — on a mattress or around a bedframe, in addition to small black dots, which are their feces.

Guests are advised by bed bug experts to store their suitcases in the bathtub while conducting spot checks upon entering any hotel room.