Ridding Your Home of Insects

Prevent Bed Bug Bites While You're Traveling With These 3 Tips

by Ted Miller

If you're a business traveler, or simply enjoy traveling often, it is likely that you spend the night in a number of hotels away from home. Bed bugs may also be spending the night in the hotels you visit, which is why you need to have some tips to avoid them. Here are just a few things you can do to protect yourself from bed bug bites while you're traveling.

Do a Room Inspection

When traveling, many people simply jump into their hotel bed at the end of a long day. This can be a mistake, and you may wake up with little red bug bites all over your body. Before you even unpack, it is a good idea to do a simple room inspection to make sure you're not sharing the room with bed bugs.

The bed is the first place to look. Lift the blankets and sheets off of the bed and look for signs of bed bugs on the mattress. Although the eggs can be hard to see, the adult bugs are reddish brown and visible. Look near the creases in the mattress and check out the corners as well. Make sure to investigate the headboard as well.

The bed is not the only place these bugs can hide. You should also check chairs and sofas. Should you see any bugs, notify the hotel manager and asked to be relocated to a room that is nowhere near the room you were originally in. That is because bed bugs can travel from room to room.

Wrap Your Luggage

On your packing list, always be sure to include plastic trash bags or large plastic gift packaging. Wrapping your luggage with the bags will help prevent bed bugs from making their way into your luggage and hiding out and laying eggs.

Wash Your Clothing in Hot Water or Steam

When you get home, after greeting loved ones, make time to take the luggage from your trip straight to the washing machine. Whether you wore certain clothing pieces or not, toss everything into the washing machine and wash with hot water. If certain pieces cannot be machine washed, make sure they are steam cleaned. That will stop you from carrying any hitchhiking bed bugs into your bedroom, closet and living spaces. 

With the tips above, you should be able to travel confidently, knowing that you won't be the victim of bed bug bites. If you see signs of bed bugs when you've returned home, contact a local pest control company like Vancouver Pest Control right away.

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