5 Actionable Travel Tips to Avoid Catching Bed Bugs

To know you may be traveling with bed bugs is unnerving. Along with the uneasy feeling, threat to your health, and itchy irritation these bugs cause, your home is also in danger when you return home. While getting rid of a bed bug infestation is tricky, minimizing the risk of catching these pests during travel is simple. Prevent a bed bug infestation by following these 5 tips when you travel:

1. Inspect Your Bed

We call them bed bugs for a reason! When spending the night in a new place like a hotel, thoroughly inspect your bed before you unpack. Search beneath the mattress, around the box spring, and even on the headboard. Pull back the sheets and look in pillows for further inspection. While you’ll want to search for the physical bug, also keep your eyes open for dark excretions, reddish stains, or exoskeletons.

2. Investigate Second-Hand Goods

Bed bugs don't just frequent the bed. They can frequent second-hand items too, like upholstered furniture, rugs, even pictures. When it comes to bed bugs, haste can definitely make waste. If purchasing something that isn't new, be sure to inspect from top to bottom and know your items are bed-bug-free before bringing them back into your home.

3. Guard Your Suitcase

Before, during, and after traveling it is important to properly inspect your suitcase of signs of bed bugs. Use a flashlight and look for the physical bed bug as well as their remnants. When lodging somewhere new, use the luggage rack to keep your suitcase elevated from the floor. Keep other bags and purses on hard surfaces, rather than the carpet or furniture in the room, which will help minimize the chances of bed bugs hitching a ride in your bags.

4. Check Your Clothing

Since bed bugs hitch a ride and travel via people, checking your clothing is a great way to avoid spreading these bugs. While in a hotel, hang your clothes in the closet and use a laundry bag, rather than the floor, spare mattress, or hotel furniture. Once you arrive back home, also physically inspect you and your clothing as soon as possible.

5. Be Aware in Public Places

Since you can find bed bugs where the people are, be on the lookout for them in any place that has a large flow of human traffic. You might be exposed to them in public transportation, like buses, airplanes, subway, and public settings like movie theaters, stores, laundry facilities, and so much more. While bed bugs are extremely small, they are still visible to the human eye (though they do like to hide in cracks and crevices).

Turn to the Professionals

Whether you have questions about prevention or are looking for immediate relief from an infestation, the bed bug exterminators at Corbett Exterminating are here to help!  With over 40 years of expertise, there is no bed bug infestation we cannot handle. Know that you never have to go through a stressful and uncomfortable bed bug situation alone.