A local father and businessman got more than he bargained for when he recently stayed at a Manhattan hotel.

Clyde Holder ended up sharing his Super 8 Motel room with some uninvited guests, Climex lectularius, commonly known as bed bugs.

Mr. Holder was given a beg bug infested room and suffered an allergic reaction to the bites during a recent trip to New York to get specialised eye surgery for his young son.

Now he?s filed a lawsuit against the Super 8 Motel on West 46th Street for compensatory and punitive damages for personal injury, negligence, recklessness, intentional infliction of emotional distress, nuisance, fraud, and deceptive trade practice from the popular hotel.

In a telephone interview yesterday, one of his attorneys in New York, Stuart Jacobs from Ebanks & Sattler said that Mr. Holder and his family checked into the Super 8 Motel on March 22 and that he after a quick nap the first afternoon in the hotel, Mr. Holder awoke to find bug bites on his arms, legs and stomach.

?Despite repeated requests for assistance from the front desk staff that night, Mr. Holder says the hotel did nothing more than change his sheets,? he said.

Mr. Jacobs said the 48-year-old father sought medical treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital the following morning, taking one of the bugs with him.

Hospital staff identified the insect as a bed bug.

?Following his hospital visit, Mr. Holder attempted to switch hotels and it was only then that the manager of the Super 8 returned his calls and offered to exchange the mattress in his room and otherwise make amends for the problem,? he said.

He added that neither the manager nor anyone else from the hotel ever changed his mattress or took any other remedial measures regarding the bed bugs.

Mr. Jacobs said bed bugs were far from the mythical creatures of bedtime lore, and are an easily distinguishable species of bloodsucking insects that have made a resurgence all over the United States over the past several years, particularly in cosmopolitan hotels.

?The tiny brown bugs, about the size of a flattened lentil, hide in the cracks and crevices of headboards, mattresses, baseboards, pictures, furniture, and wallpaper,? he said.

He said they wait until dark and follow the carbon dioxide trail to their sleeping victims, whom the bugs bite repeatedly until their bodies are engorged with enough blood to turn a deep red, then retreat to their hiding spaces to digest the meal over the next few days.

In a press statement to yesterday, a senior partner at the firm, Alberto Ebanks said bed bugs were disgusting creatures that exist only to feast on human blood.

?They are obligate parasites that, left unchecked, can not only effect the person attacked by them in the hotel room, but can hitch a ride in that person?s luggage and risk spreading themselves to that person?s home and the homes of any other travellers unfortunate enough to have their luggage come into contact with the infested bags,? he said.

Mr. Ebanks stated the Super 8?s bed bug problem is nothing new or unusual, citing other guests? comments on a popular internet hotel web site at www.travel.yahoo.com.

In one review, dated July 23, 2004, a guest claims to have captured three bed bugs in two of the beds and was met with rude management when he complained about it.

In another review, dated April 3 of this year, a guest from London complained of itchy red welts caused by bed bugs in the hotel. These complaints were also met with indifference by hotel management.

?Before investigating Mr. Holder?s claim, it seemed unfathomable that a reputable chain like Super 8 Motels would allow its guests to become buffets for bloodsucking insects, but it appears they would rather see this problem resolved through litigation than simple fumigation,? Mr. Ebanks said.

?No one deserves this kind of indignity,? he continues, ?but it?s especially egregious when a man who travels 1,000 miles to get his son special eye surgery is treated with such disrespect.?

Mr. Holders? attorneys said that he is currently in New York where his son is undergoing surgery, but he was staying at a different hotel.