Getting Bed Bugs From Traveling?

If you and your family have plans to travel this winter for the holidays, you need to pay attention to avoid bringing back bed bugs as an unexpected souvenir. With proper identification, a thorough room inspection, and careful packing and unpacking during your trip, you can rest easy and sleep tight — without having to worry about letting the bedbugs bite!

What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?

Bed bugs are wingless pests. They’re reddish brown and typically flat and oval in shape. Unless you’re in a hotel room with a seriously uncontrolled infestation, you may not see the bugs themselves.

Instead you’ll want to watch out for the bed bug’s notable fecal droppings – which are a telltale sign of infestation. Fecal droppings are brown or black and small in size – about the size of pin head. These stains will often be easy to spot on bedsheets and mattresses.

Also keep an eye out for shed skins and tiny translucent eggs, which are evidence of live adult bed bugs nearby.

Pre-Packing Tips To Prevent Bed Bugs

If your luggage is looking frayed and raggedy, take this as a sign to upgrade your suitcase. Opt for a hard-shelled suitcase that has less folds and seams for bed bugs to hide and hitch a ride back in. Pack your belongings – clothing, toiletries, shoes, etc – in sealable plastic bags and open these only when you need to during your travels.

Another, more affordable, option is to wrap your entire luggage in a trash bag to help prevent bed bugs from clinging onto it as you travel.

Before Getting Settled Into Your Home Away From Home

Avoid the temptation to throw your suitcase on the bed or floor as soon as you get to your hotel room. Instead, put your bags (including smaller ones like purses and camera bags) on the luggage racks that typically come with the rooms.

If your room doesn’t offer such a device, move your luggage into the bathroom and place it on a countertop, not the floor.

Inspect Your Room

Bedbugs are notorious for hiding away in cracks, crevices, folds, ruffles, and pleats in areas frequently trafficked by humans. When you arrive at your hotel, pull back the covers of the bedding and carefully inspect the linens and pillows for signs of fecal spots. Look in the seams and across the sides of the mattress, box spring, and bed frame, then check behind the headboard of the bed, if applicable.

Next, take a look at any furniture nearby the bed. Check under, in, and around the side tables and lamps and within any pleated furniture and drapes. In addition, take a peek behind wall hangings like mirrors and pictures – where bed bugs also like to hide.

What To Do If You Find A Bed Bug or Signs of A Bed Bug Infestation

If you happen to find a bed bug (even just a single bug) or fecal stains, that may mean other bugs are lurking nearby. Speak with hotel management right away to find a solution and avoid staying in the infested room. When switching rooms, avoid accepting a transfer to a room directly adjacent, above or below, the infested room. Bed bugs travel quickly and efficiently and may have hitched a ride to neighboring spaces via housekeeping carts, wall sockets, and via other travelers baggage.

When You Get Home

Keep your suitcase isolated from the rest of your home. Put it in a large plastic bag (such as a garbage bag), tie it tightly shut, and let it sit for a few days in the garage, basement, or outside, until you get the chance to have it washed or heat treated. The longer you keep the suitcase in plastic, the fewer bed bugs will survive. Even if a few bed bug eggs manage to hatch within your suitcase, the young need to feed within a few weeks in order to survive.

Before bringing your luggage back inside, thoroughly vacuum and/or steam the bag before putting it away. Wash all of your clothing on a high-heat setting with borax and dry on high heat for at least 30 minutes, to kill any detected bugs.

Worried You Picked Up Bed Bugs While Traveling?

It’s understandable to have a mild fear of bed bugs when traveling. Once bed bugs become established inside of your home, they’re very difficult to eliminate.

If you’re concerned that bed bugs may have found a way into your home after a long vacation or you have any questions about identifying bed bugs, call go2-pros extermination!