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I was driving through Maryland, it was getting late, and I saw a hotel that was $45 per night. I literally thought to myself, "WTF, I just need a bed, how much could really go wrong if I stay here."

The room opened straight to the parking lot, and there were cats everywhere outside crying. I said hello to one of them, he was clearly in bad shape and so I went and got some cat food and invited him in and gave him some food. He bit me so I put him back outside and went to sleep.

I was most of the way on the drive home when I noticed I had red welts in a little line down my arm. You fucker, you have to be kidding me.

I basically stripped in the parking lot of my place, went in and took a long shower first thing, and put into the garbage all the clothes I'd had with me, suitcase, shoes, my backpack after taking the computer and notebook out. I put them all in a trash bag in the parking lot and then threw it in a dumpster that wasn't near any residence. Then I vacuumed my car and took a long shower again.

Fuckin bedbugs. I had no bedbugs carried back to my place after that and that's how I like it. $45 for the hotel cost me maybe $300 worth of stuff that I decided to get rid of.

My wife works in a public library and they regularly have a bedbug-sniffing dog come in. She tells me it's very cute.

Prepare your flats and take that shit seriously when traveling. Just look under ever mattress you sleep on. And tell your friends and family to do that. For real, we need to get a hold on that.

Check any hotel you stay in. Look under the mattress and in crevasses and seams. And don’t put your suitcase on the bed. Use the luggage stand or a desk.

And even if you check carefully, put your clothes straight from the suitcase and into the dryer and run for 60 minutes on high. The heat will kill bedbugs. If you can, also heat the suitcase or keep it sealed in plastic.

Also, protect your stuff. Put your mattress in a zippered encasement.

What if bedbugs evolve resistance and take over the world eventually. Bet no one had that on their Great Filter bingo card.

God, my brother once brought in a couch he found outside for his room about a year and a half ago. First time and only time I ever had to deal with bedbugs. Didn't help that the people in charge of the apartment complex took forever to do literally anything about it. I hope I never have to deal with another infestation ever again and that we find ways to completely eradicate them. Even if it means destroying an ecosystem or food chain, I'd be happy to see them go the way of the dodo.

As someone who's had bedbugs multiple times... Yes it's very much worth throwing away your entire wardrobe if you have to. Do everything you can to prevent getting them.

So that's plague and pestilence...

I'm sure there are multiple reasons, but I think the biggest cause is how much international travel people are doing now. It's kind of nuts how many more people travel for fun these days than even 10 years ago. Any place that is even slightly known in the tourism circles has about a billion people showing up every day, so the bed bugs are just being shipped around more efficiently these days.

Yes, I'm one of those people who are traveling internationally much more often than I did 10 years ago, so I'm not disparaging them or judging them. It's just a fact of the world we live in now that more people have the money to go to more places now.

It wasn't me I swear