How To Avoid Bed Bugs When Travelling

While more vigilant about pests at home, travellers often overlook the risk certain pests pose in accommodations away from their residences. After all, if they aren’t in your home, there’s less to worry about. However, one pest in particular could return with you from your trip: bed bugs. In this guide, we’ll explain how to check your temporary lodgings for bed bugs, how to check for bed bugs in a hotel and give you some simple steps you can take to avoid bed bugs while travelling.

Understanding Bed Bugs: What You Need To Know

Bed bugs are highly efficient hitchhikers. They can move quickly across a room and climb onto luggage or anything left on a bed or floor in just one night. Hotels are ideal homes for bed bugs because of the high guest turnover rate. They are also found in these spaces because of how difficult it is to control bed bugs in hotels due to the number of rooms.

If you’re wondering, “Can bed bugs travel on clothes?” – the answer is YES, and quite easily, too. This is one of the most common ways bed bugs get around.

No matter how they get inside your home, bed bugs are a nuisance on many levels. They can survive in the cleanest of spaces, as long as they have humans to feast on. In Orkin’s Bed Bug Identification, Removal & Prevention Guide, you can learn all about bed bugs (from egg to adult), what to do if you have bed bug bites and how to get rid of these pests.

What To Do When You Arrive At Your Hotel

Inspecting your hotel room is a critical step in preventing bed bugs from attaching to your clothing, luggage, etc. Here’s our step-by-step process. You can also download these 5 Tips for Avoiding Bed Bugs to keep in your carry-on.

Do a thorough inspection

How do you check for bed bugs in a hotel? Upon arrival, always inspect your hotel room. It is worth noting that bed bugs are not a sanitation or cleanliness issue. This means they can be found in any hotel or motel—from a one-star up to a five-star location.

Travellers should look for live insects, blood stains on sheets or mattresses and dead bugs and eggs throughout the room. Additionally, with any large infestation of bed bugs, you will notice a sweet, musty odour, similar to soda pop syrup.

Bed bugs usually hide close to the humans they feed on. These pests are known to be nocturnal, so it’s best to inspect various areas in depth during the day.

Inspect the bed

Before settling in, check your room for bed bug activity. Bed bugs are often found in the crevices of mattresses. Keep an eye out for dark, ink-like stains on bedding, mattresses and box springs.

When inspecting, pay particular attention to the seams and tight areas, including box springs and sheets.

Examine your surroundings

Once you’ve searched through the bed and mattress, pay careful attention to other furniture with upholstery. Couches, in particular, can also be a habitat for bed bugs. Ensure you also look behind baseboards and pictures on the wall. Bed bugs may even hide in cracked or torn wallpaper, so check there, too.

Safeguard Your Belongings

Even after you’ve inspected your hotel room and found no signs of bed bugs, it’s important to take precautions and keep your belongings secured from a potential infestation.

Luggage

Your luggage is a prime way bed bugs can come home from your trip with you. Consider following these tips to ensure that doesn’t happen:

• Avoid placing your luggage directly on the bed. If bed bugs are present, they can climb into bags, suitcases or any laundry left on the bed.
• Use a metal luggage rack at all times. Bed bugs cannot easily climb metal surfaces, making these racks an ideal overnight spot for your suitcase. Keep the rack away from the walls and any wooden furniture.
• Place your suitcase in the tub during your stay to help prevent bed bugs from making their way into your belongings.
• Live out of your suitcase throughout your trip. Your clothes are more likely to pick up bed bugs when moved to closets or drawers, so avoid unpacking.

Bed bugs can actually hide in your luggage without feeding for up to four months, so it’s important to examine your bags when packing to check out and when you get home.

Consider unpacking and checking your bags in your garage or utility room before bringing them inside your house. Immediately launder all cloth items in hot water, and dry them on the hottest setting. This can help reduce the chances of introducing bed bugs into your home.

Clothing

Use small plastic bags to pack clothing, shoes and other personal items. This will help prevent bed bugs that climb into your suitcase from getting into your house with your clothing.

Personal items

In addition to being great hitchhikers, bed bugs are also masters at hiding. They have been known to hide in books, cloth toiletry kits and other non-metal personal items. Ensure your belongings are secured properly throughout your trip and keep them elevated and away from the bed and other upholstered items.

When In Doubt, Remember S.L.E.E.P.

When travelling, Orkin suggests using the acronym S.L.E.E.P. to avoid taking bed bugs home with you.

• Survey the hotel room for signs of a bed bug infestation. Look for black or brown spots on any furniture.
• Lift and look in bed bug hiding spots: the mattress, box spring, bed skirt and other furniture, as well as behind baseboards, pictures and even torn wallpaper.
• Elevate luggage away from the bed and wall. The safest place is in the bathtub.
• Examine your luggage while repacking and once you return home from a trip.
• Place all dryer-safe clothing from your luggage in the dryer for at least 20 minutes at the highest setting after you return home.

What To Do When You Arrive Home

Do your laundry

Immediately wash and dry your clothes when you return home. The longer clothes sit in the hamper, the more time bed bugs have to spread.

Store your suitcase

Store your suitcase in the garage or attic. If you did pick up bed bugs, you don’t want them invading your bedroom.

What To Do If You Find Bed Bugs

Efficiently treating and detecting a bed bug infestation requires the use of an experienced and professional pest management company. At Orkin Canada, we leverage our extensive knowledge, tools and expertise to help you remove bed bugs effectively. If you’ve recently returned from a vacation and would like to schedule a bed bug inspection, or need bed bug pest removal, contact your local Orkin Pro today.