Health department finds bed bugs at Ramada Inn in Columbia

A Mid-Missouri hotel is now dealing with bed bugs.

Today, the Columbia/Boone County Health Department inspected a room at the Ramada Inn near the I-70 and Highway 63 connector.

The woman and her fiance, who preferred to stay anonymous, stayed in the Ramada Inn Sunday night as they were traveling from North Carolina to Colorado.

She said she looked under the sheets before going to bed, but found a scary surprise in the morning.

Ramada Inn guest: “That morning when we woke up, I pulled the sheets back there was like five bugs in the bed.”

The woman said she immediately went downstairs and told the employee working behind the desk what she saw. She said the employee said he wasn’t surprised, and that they’d had problems with the room before. The hotel reimbursed the couple for the room, but the woman said the problem didn’t end there.

Ramada Inn guest: “My fiance put his suitcase on the ground and I think they got all in his suitcase. And when we traveled with them they got in our car and spread through all of our stuff in the car. And so we had to wash everything, bomb the car with bed bug bombs, bomb our new house, wash all of our clothes.”

Even though the couple has done everything they can to kill the pests, they are still waking up with new bites.

Ramada Inn guest: “We’re miserable at night cause you think things are crawling on you. You itch and itch, and I’m allergic to the bites so my bites have swollen up.”

The woman said they called the corporate Ramada Inn office and were told to call the owners of the hotel, but when they dialed the number it had been disconnected. Abc 17 tried contacting the owners today, but the hotel’s front desk employee said they do not have the owner’s phone number on file.

The woman said she just hopes the problem is fixed so no one else has to go through what they did.

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department inspected the room Wednesday. It said it found the presence of bed bugs. No bugs have been found in other rooms in the hotel.

The inspection report said a professional pest control company treated the room just three days before the incident, but that obviously didn’t correct the issue.

The hotel manager said the room is closed now, but will be reopened when it passes a health inspection.

The health department is set to inspect the room Thursday, October 23.