Traveling Tips

Bed bugs are hitchhikers but we can take preventative steps to keep them out of our homes. These vermin can find their way into your home on your clothing, your luggage, your shoes... and bringing just one pregnant bedbug into your home or office can result in an infestation. People who travel are at exceptionally high risk of bringing bedbugs home.

If you're traveling, it's important to leave your luggage at the door or on a table or rack near the door while you inspect your room. Never, ever set your luggage... at any time... on a bed. And be sure not to place your luggage on a couch or chair until you've inspected the couch or chair.
Bedbugs are most often found in and near the bed. It's important to check behind the headboard, throw back the sheets and blankets and inspect them, and also examine the mattress and box spring. You should run a credit card along the seams of the mattress where they love to hide. Also check bureaus and tables within 10 to 15 feet of the bed, especially underneath the drawers. Bedbugs are also found in remote controls, clocks, behind paintings and generally anywhere near the bed.

If you find any signs of bedbugs... including excrement, the bugs themselves, or skins they've shed... immediately ask for another room away from the room you're inspecting.

You should have special protectors for your suitcase and specially designed drawer liners to protect your clothing from bedbugs.

As you prepare to return home, put all your laundry in dissolvable laundry bags. When you arrive, place the bags and your clothes directly in the washer in the hottest possible water and then in the dryer. Of course, if your clothes are labelled for dry cleaning only, then you can take the laundry bags as soon as possible to the dry cleaner.

Bed bugs die in extreme heat and extreme cold, so items which can not be washed in the washer can be placed in the deep freeze for up to 4 weeks. This should kill the bed bugs and their eggs. The freezer is great for books, passports, papers, etc., that you won't be needing for a period of time.