Traveling And Bed Bugs

It’s stressful enough traveling without having to worry about picking up some itchy pest and bringing them home to make your life a living nightmare. But, unfortunately, if you’re traveling this summer and staying in hotels, you need to consider bed bugs, or you could end up bringing an unwelcome visitor home. Here are some tips for checking for bedbugs at hotels.

When you go to a hotel, bloodsucking bedbugs could be hiding in the mattress, box springs, and upholstered furniture, so the first thing you want to do is put your luggage in the bathroom and check the bedding and furniture before even opening it. Look for reddish, rust-colored stains on the sheets, mattress, and any other soft surface. If you seen anything that even remotely resembles a smashed little creature, request another room immediately.

If everything looks ok, I’d still recommend at least keeping your luggage off the floor or bed and on a luggage rack. When you get home, even if you didn’t detect any bed bugs, you still want to treat all your clothing with a little heat just in case. Toss everything in the dryer for 30 minutes, and you can rest easy. Put your empty luggage in your garage, attic, or basement just to be safe…trust me, you’ll thank me later. If you do even some of this, you should remain unscathed this summer.

Have you ever caught bed bugs while traveling? How difficult were they to get rid of?