Hawaii, renowned for its pristine beaches and warm Aloha spirit, has been intermittently grappling with a less welcoming issue—bed bugs. Recent incidents have highlighted the pervasive problem of bed bugs in hotels, public facilities, and even emergency services, raising concerns among visitors and residents alike.
Japanese Visitors’ Nightmare in Waikiki.
In a troubling report, a Japanese family described their harrowing experience with bed bugs at the generally well-reviewed Grand Islander by Hilton Grand Vacations in Waikiki. The guests reported severe bites and discomfort during their stay, which significantly marred their Hawaii vacation.
Despite the hotel management’s attempts to address the issue by moving them to another room, the family said the problem persisted. The group, including babies who developed fevers and allergic reactions from the bites, said they spent ten days of their month-long vacation dealing with the infestation.
Hilton Grand Vacations stated that they regularly inspect for bed bugs and that a pest control company did not find any in the room. However, a doctor confirmed the bites were from bed bugs, leading to confusion in the industry and a family frustrated with their vacation ruined.
Emergency Call Center Shut Down
In another surprising Hawaii bed bug event, Honolulu’s emergency call center was temporarily shut down for bed bug fumigation. This essential public service had to halt operations to deal with the infestation, underscoring that bed bugs are not just a problem for hotels but can disrupt critical infrastructure beyond Hawaii tourism. The fumigation process, although necessary, showed that extensive measures could be required to control such infestations and the potential for significant operational disruptions, such as also occurred, as you’ll recall, at Honolulu Airport.
Persistent Problems Beyond Hotels
Bed bugs have also been reported at Honolulu Airport, particularly in the terminals used by major airlines. Last summer, the Department of Transportation had to undertake extensive cleaning and repeated pest control measures, including carpet removal and ongoing fumigation, at the Southwest Hawaii terminal. This operation affected the E gates and lasted for at least three weeks to ensure thorough eradication and to prevent another re-occurrence.
The infestation prompted Southwest Airlines’ concerns and highlighted the broader challenge of managing bed bug infestations in high-traffic areas where travelers frequently move in and out, potentially spreading the pests. We received comments from our concerned travelers.
Recent comments from our readers highlight ongoing concerns about bed bugs in Hawaii:
Mary C: Also, a touchy subject regarding hotels. Do the hotels (even the expensive hotels) have ‘bed bugs’? Would love to go but afraid of this issue. Please let me know. Many thanks.
Connie: Natural oils are the best deterrent to bed bugs. Any natural oil, but the most well-received by most people are mint & lavender. The oil can be applied to cotton pads and stuck between mattress & box spring, in pillowcases, anywhere in your home or office that might be exposed. Spray luggage with a blend of essential oil & alcohol or witch hazel.
Carl R: Thank you for your timely, accurate information. We have battled bed bugs for over a year, with easily over $1000 in expenses to do so. We are pretty sure they came back with us from Hawaii. The process is miserable, distasteful and can be labor-intensive.
Lynn: Bed bugs are no joke! I got bit 41 times at a hotel! The spots don’t usually show up until a day or two after being bit. They are also saying that you should keep your suitcase in the bathroom because the bed bugs don’t like to crawl on tile. Definitely don’t unpack your suitcase in the house. Wash everything when you get home. Wipe down your suitcase, especially the zipper.
Preventive bed bug measures for Hawaii travelers.
Travelers to Hawaii are advised to take proactive steps to avoid bringing bed bugs into their accommodations and back home. Here are some tips:
- Inspect hotel rooms thoroughly upon arrival, focusing on mattresses, box springs, and furniture crevices.
- Pull back the sheets and look for signs that resemble black Sharpie marks on the fabric.
- Travel with a hard-sided suitcase, as fabric can harbor bed bugs on the return.
- Keep luggage off the bed; use luggage racks or store it on the bathroom floor.
- Clothes should be in sealed plastic bags.
- Launder clothes immediately after returning home using high-temperature settings.
- Consider heating (using a dryer) or freezing clothes to eliminate any potential bed bugs.
While bed bugs are a persistent worldwide issue, their presence in Hawaii poses unique challenges due to the state’s unique reliance on tourism. Visitors, residents, and industry stakeholders need to remain vigilant and proactive in addressing and preventing infestations to ensure that Hawaii continues to be a safe and welcoming destination for all.
We welcome your comments on bed bugs in Hawaii.
The majority of bed bugs that I have came across (while managing properties in high tourist areas in Hawaii) have been brought from the mainland or brought from the last place the guest stayed. When the correct or more effective pest control companies come and spray, knowing it’s bed bugs, it gets taken care of in less than 2 days
Wow.
.the consequences are gonna Boomerang…you law makers will be sorry..
This product is the best to rid bed bugs no need to spend thousands of dollars on pest control..2014 my daughter woke with bites didn’t know what bit her but later that night we found out. After that it was war..searching the internet I found (Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade)along with a handheld clothes steamer to treat beds and sofas will kill eggs and adults do research before hiring pest control we have been bed bugs free since 2014 you have to be aggressive and always check your beds sofas and place you may visit even friends and family houses.
As a former flight attendant for a major airline, I can attest that airline crew’s have Contracted bedbugs, and a lot of major cities around the world. It wouldn’t surprise me that airline crew members have a big impact in spreading bedbugs from one place to another place, since they are traveling so much. I myself have traveled over 12 Million miles in 22 years. Some hotels allow Crash Pads for airline crews. All it takes is for one airline crew member to come in contact with bedbugs, which in turn can start a domino effect of an infestation and nightmare for a hotel.
All nice hotels get bed bugs.
But they can easily be eradicated by heating a room to 132 F for a few hours.
A good hotel will find them before the guest and prevent bites.
Don’t bother with chemicals and pest control. Just buy heaters and get your rooms back online within 9 hours.
Look up diatomaceous earth treatment in room to prevent major infestations.
YouTube has all the answers and techniques you need. Don’t spend thousands on one time treatments. Invest in bed bug heaters.
Duke, We hired a pest service to do this to a rental on Maui. Worked great. Kills everything including in outlets, light fixtures etc. We had to take everything that they could hide in out of the closets etc. and leave everything open. They guaranteed it. They actually backed a generator up and provided the power.
The easiest way to rid yourself of bed bugs is to spray them with alcohol. They have an exoskeleton and will dehydrate rapidly.
Like rubbing alcohol/isopropyl alcohol or liquor? Lol
Even the luxury hotels have bed bugs. The Kahala Resort comes to mind. I found one crawling on my bag while I sat on a resort couch waiting for my room to be ready. I recommend calling the local health department to report bugs. They may not answer when you call but they are good about returning phone calls.
Superheating the room for hours kills all of the and the eggs. The pest control companies that use this method guarantee it. We used them on a condo years ago and it was successful. The heaters are so big that they bring their own gas powered generator to run them.
The term “bed bug” is very misleading, as it implies that they live in furniture. They transfer from people to people through the furniture and crevices of other structures, as they survive off of blood. Sterilizing the furniture only resolves the infestation on the actual furniture in that specific room, but the parasite continues to feed off the person and then transfer off them in the next room. So sterilizing the room, while helpful, only treats part of the issue.
My son and I went to Hawaii in October of 23, we came home with bed bugs. Chemicals do not kill them. We had to have a company bring in heaters. We heated the home to 149 degrees in order to get rid of them. The heat kills the eggs as well. Hey have become immune to the only chemicals that we have. Heaters work wonders and so worth the cost .
We encountered them a number of years ago at a highly rated Wyndham resort on Kauai. Resort did cooperate with us, but insisted the bites were not caused by bedbugs even though the symptoms and signs were typical of the bugs. We had to push pretty hard initially to get cooperation which included a partial refund for our stay.
Hello, seen many comments on Bed Bugs. Stayed in Ohua in 2015 for almost a year at a condotel (like a small apt. with two twin beds, small kitchen, bathroom, livingroom area and a balcony to sit on) in Waikiki . We never had an issues at all. We were out and about during the day and night. Never seen any bugs at all. Things have changed since then. It’s too bad as we would not go there now at all. Seems most places like Florida even UK and in Europe have them. Weather is not that warm in Europe, so don’t know what’s going on. I guess people end up carrying them around and don’t know it.
It’s disgusting. Sorry to hear people had such a horrible vacation in Hawaii. I love Hawaii so much, pray problem gets solved soon.
I have lived on Kauai since 1988, visited most other islands in Hawaii for extended vacations, and have not experienced bed bugs myself. I have helped clear two friends’ homes of bed bugs when they got infested while visiting Oahu family homes in Waianai. Another friend got bed bugs from contact with a homeless person they befriended. Most hotels are quite proactive about treating any bed bugs they find.
Spraying your luggage with rubbing alcohol and lavender or mint will bring out any hitch-hikers, run all your packed items thru a wash and dry at the laundromat. We treated shoes and boots with alcohol and a hairdryer.
Now I check the mattress seams all around the bed before my luggage enters the hotel room, been doing it since the 1970s.
I like to travel …
Well this 4th article really pounds the nail in the coffin. I am just so glad that we the public have you Two wonderful non biased reporters that relay the facts as they are. Think of how many travellers you have notified of all the current maladies that are consuming the Hawaiian Island as of late. Mahalo nui loa and hope you both are enjoying your summer. Heat wave + in Calif. I just look at my photos of Kauai and enjoy them.
Hi Debra.
Thanks for your nice words, and your 200 comments to date! Much appreciated.
Aloha.
Aloha, I was at HNL last year when people started noticing bed bugs in the terminal. When I was there I noticed that there was a homeless person resting in the terminal. This might be a significant factor relating to the problem.
Wanda- only ticketed passengers can be in an airport terminal. So evidently this “homeless” person could afford an airline ticket.
Doug, you need a ticket to get past security- but not to enter the check-in area of the terminal.
Person A can bring bugs to an area, Person B has a ticket, places luggage in the area, picks up bugs and carries them into the departure area.
Okay, so I travel frequently to Hawaii, and only once in thirty years did we get bed bugs. This was on Moku Keawe at a Sheraton. I had requested an extra blanket for the evening. I heard a knock on the door, and there was the “extra blanket” in a clear plastic bag all ready for me.
Without thinking twice, I opened the bag and placed the blanket on the bed, snuggled in, and next day- itching, burning and scratching with marks all over my body.
Yes, I called the Manager and gave them a piece of my mind.
Oy vey! Smdh…Oh well, it happens sometimes.
Come on guys. Bed bugs are quite common in the hotel etc business world wide. Certainly not unique to Hawaii.
Doesn’t Hawaii have enough tourism issues already? Bringing this up really makes me think BOH is secretly anti-tourist.
I have relatives in CA who’ve been battling bed bugs for over 1 1/2 years now. No idea how they got them, as they don’t travel anywhere except to the grocery store, occasional medical appts, and church (although 2 other households from there also had bedbugs about the same time, so that’s a possible culprit). Their initial treatment was in Feb this year (it took them a long time to get the house prepped). Although the initial treatment killed most of them, they’ve had to have 3 follow up treatments since as they still keep finding a couple here and there. It’s cost them over $2000.
I’d also add that the luggage racks also be inspected as those critters are tiny and can/will hide anywhere.
Since 1986, 92 7-10 day trips to Oahu-Maui, as well as 6-8 in Kauai, Moana, Royal Hawaiian, HHV, Hyatt Waikiki, Marriott Waikiki, Hyatt Kaanapali, Marriott Kaanapali (‘88-‘05), Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, Stouffer and Renassaince Wailea, Hyatt Grand Poipu and Stouffer Waiohai, never a bug. What happened during Covid, as to Hotel Practices, we know daily cleaning was not the rule, but an extra charge! Better get it fixed, or could the infestation have come with the guest.
Randall- you may have a very good point. Removing daily housekeeping could play a role as it may allow infestation to establish a foothold and spread to other rooms.
I remember being in Chicago more than 10 years ago – the hotel locked me out of my room as they found bed bugs in the room Next to mine. They gave me a different room, washed all my clothes in the original room and sent them to me at my home.
Without daily cleaning, they might not have seen the problem and I could have carried bugs home.
Soooo, the question becomes if the airport terminals have had or still do have bed bug problems, do the bed bugs hitch a ride to the aircraft and make a new home there for unsuspecting passengers on the next leg?
Any reports on that, although I don’t think any airline would admit there is or had been bed bug infestations in their aircraft.
Ewwww!
Hi Peter.
All that we can say is, not that we have heard of.
Aloha.
Aloha Peter,
6 yrs ago AA flight to Hawaii. The guy behind me had ling legs and kept kicking under my seat. I felt every bite. Made me jump in my seat. I told crew when disembarking. I had 20 bites. I removed all my clothes entering my home, threw my carry on away (at home in dumpster), and froze my clothes a week before hot washing. No bugs got in …
There is a freeze spray that works also …. Horrible flight from Dallas to Oahu on American.
Yet another Third World problem rearing its head in the U.S.
Best Regards
Before booking a hotel or STR, ask if your room will be fitted with bug bags on the mattress’ and box springs. They work.