Dear Ms. Demeanor: Should I tell my Thanksgiving guests about my bed bugs?

Dear Ms. Demeanor,

We have just been through a nightmarish experience with bed bugs and we are allegedly clear.  The catch is we are having family come to stay over the holidays and having still more people over for dinner. 

Do we need to disclose our recent trauma?  I do not want to become a social pariah!

Signed, 

Basting turkey not bed bugs

Dear Basting,

The irony is that your out of town guests are more likely to bring you bed bugs in and on their suitcases than you are to give them if you have been given the all-clear by a thorough and reputable exterminator. 

I do think you owe it to the guests who will be sleeping in your home that you did have a problem and detail everything you have done to remedy said problem.  If you have the space, I would also invest in a Pack-Tite to ensure their luggage doesn't bring uninvited guests of the blood-sucking kind.  

Your dinner guests are another story; I do not think they need the full disclosure. To avoid cross-contamination in one direction or another, just avoid piling their coats on your bed.

I hope the turkey is moist and the mattress dry,

Ms. Demeanor

Ms. Demeanor is channeled by a longtime Manhattan vertical dweller and real-estate voyeur who writes under the pen name Jamie Lauren Sutton. She is here to commiserate, calm and correct. Please email your quandaries tomsdemeanor@brickunderground.com and put "Dear Ms. Demeanor" in the subject line.

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