Now when working at a hotel finding bugs is usually a common thing.
Most of the time, it's a spider or two. Sometimes, its whole infestations that happened.
A whole swarm of bugs is hard to deal with. Being a housekeeper, usually, you are the one to find the problem, or you are a soldier on the battlefield for cleanup.
Either way, it's not fun.
So from there, let's begin:
ANTS
Now we have seen single ants on the first floor many times. It happens on the ground floor quite often.
But this... was not normal. Far from common. We had an infestation of ants on all four floors.
I was one of the first to find an ant room. I was on third and they were all huddled near the PTAC unit, though some had wandered away and I found and killed them on the desk.
I had a feeling something was going on so I called for maintenance. They just added the room to a growing list, told me to vacuum thoroughly where they were clustered and thanked me for finding them. Nothing special.
I had later heard a story of a girl that found mounds of ants on the fourth floor in a stayovers room.
How the person lived with those ants was far beyond me.
THE CENTIPEDES AND THE SPIDERS
All these creepy crawlies were found during the same day. I personally don't find bugs gross, but I know people who do.
I was on the first floor this day and I was just making my way to the bathroom when I found this large thing crawling across the floor.
I at first thought it was a Caterpillar, but I realized it wasn't when I got closer to it.
It was a stupid centipede! Of course, I killed it and very happily sprayed the area that now reeked of dead bug and kept on my merry cleaning way.
Starting to clean the shower, I nearly ran headlong into a spider. Luckily I wasn't afraid, so I killed it.
I began to think the bugs were gone. I was in another room and things were going well... until I saw a spider running along the wallpaper in the bathroom.
Sighing, I did again what I normally do and killed the spider by smacking it with my hand. I washed it down the drain and continued my day.
Later, I heard a shout of surprise and far coming from the women's staff bathroom. They opened the door and spoke of a bug on the floor near the toilet.
I told them I would kill it and entered the bathroom. The centipede was right where Alana said it was and I killed it with ease.
Now that I was the hero of the day, I got back to work. The whole time I just thought the bugs were out to get me.
PRAYING MANTIS
Now, this was one of the fortunate ones that I saved instead of killed.
I had just finished cleaning a room and had set aside the bag of dirty sheets and towels at the end of my cart and out of the way.
I noticed a flicker of movement to my left from my peripheral. I turned and saw the mantis clinging to the jutting corner of the wall.
It was just by the elevator and I had seen so few of them before that I had decided to save it and bring it outside.
I knew they could pinch me and I didn't want that. I grabbed a small ice bag and scooped up the large insect.
I could feel it moving as I hurried to bring it to the safety of the few trees we had on the property.
The praying mantis had managed to get to the third floor so I took the elevator all the way to first and carried it towards the staff exit.
Hurriedly, I opened the bag and gently urged the majestic creature onto a bush branch.
Proud of myself for saving nature, I washed my hands and went on my 15.
FLIES
This was another infestation. Flies were everywhere as the seasons changed from summer to fall.
They were coming in from the PTAC through vents outside.
Whenever I found them in a room they were always clustered on the window. Up to a dozen at a time.
I took a twisted pleasure in killing the ones I could and vacuuming the ones I couldn't.
Dead flies killed by the previous guest had been scattered along the carpet and on the desk near the window.
One room was really bad and I had been telling them for weeks straight that the problem was the worst in this room and they needed to shut it down. It needed to be fixed.
I told them eventually a guest was going to complain and it wouldn't be good. No one wants to stay in a room that flies had already been occupying.
And I was right.
One day, I got a call from my supervisor and she told me to finish cleaning that room and the one beside it. I was not to punch them because a guest had complained and they were finally putting them out of order.
I found myself doing a small told you so dance. I bragged about it with Sheri for a week.
I was right and the superiors were wrong.
BED BUGS
This one still gives me nightmares to this day. Bed bugs.
I was cleaning a room on the third floor and it was only a one bedder. The other queen lay perfectly made. It wasn't used at all.
Of course, though, I needed to check it out in case of hairs or fluff or anything like that and I came across something moving.
It was small and white. With gloves on, I picked up the bug and squashed it. I thought it came from the guest's suitcase seeing as it was on the topper for the bed.
I checked for more and found another one.
I grabbed a piece of toilet paper and brought the small white bug downstairs.
After searching it up on the internet, I knew it was a bed bug in its first stage.
"Gena, we have bugs in a room," I said to her. She was a laundry attendant and was almost always in the laundry room where the office was. "I think it's a bed bug."
Action was taken immediately. My manager and the manager of maintenance were called and we all rushed up to the room for then fo inspect.
It was bed bugs. And I had stopped it before it could get worse.
They told me to leave the room immediately and not to re-enter it again until it was dealt with by the pest control agency. I did just that not wanting to bring them home.
That day at our annual smart start meeting, I was rewarded for amazing eyes and stopping a major infestation before it could happen. I was given a $25 Montana's gift card as a job well done.
And for the rest of the week, that room was a problem.
A "bed bug expert" came in and told us we were all crazy. There was nothing wrong. I showed him the bug which was now in a paper cup and he said: "there are millions of different bugs in the world and this is not a bed bug."
He had basically called me crazy and I was not too happy about it. All he cared for was a stupid signature and that was it. While my supervisor squished a little fucker right in front of his face and it oozed blood.
He left after a few minutes and got the signature he wanted.
The room was put back into order and a guest was in it by the end of the day.
Right after they checked out, another specialist came. He said that for sure there was a problem and it needed to be treated as soon as possible.
So they treated it. The invisible bed bugs now visible and being exterminated as we spoke.
I was given the room to clean it up and put it back in order. As I waited for a member of maintenance I cleaned the bathroom. They told me to wait for that room and do the other rooms first. Yet it was the only room I could do.
Once he got there, we had to put the box spring back on its frame and skirted it. Put the mattress on and I made the bed and dusted the rest of the room.
And the room was rented again. And again they came back to the same room.
They treated it once more and we haven't had any more problems with the room.
But each and every time we had a bed bug problem in that room, they made me clean it.
UPDATE: The bed bugs did come back weeks later and my issue was not the room, it was the maintenance staff who had to put the room back together.
The headboard was pulled off the wall, the bed frames were taken apart and the mattresses and bedsprings were leaning against the wall and desk.
The pest control people are doing a truly awful job at fixing the room, but they won't do it properly until there are bugs in the room beside it too.
I may have to get my hands dirty and do some planting.
I won't really do it.