Taken a family vacation recently? Travel a lot for work? Here are some tips to keep you bug free when staying at hotels. Even 5 star resorts can have bed bugs, so check out these tips to keep you safe!
When arriving at a hotel, place your suit cases and other belongings in the bathroom. The linoleum/tile floor is extremely difficult for the bugs to walk on, so they are less likely to be the bathroom, thus less likely to crawl into your belongings.
Be sure to pull back the sheets and mattress cover. Check all of the seams (especially in the corners) for any small black spots, the size of a ball point pen mark (fecal matter) or red shell casings. These things are evidence that bed bugs are in the bed.
Most hotels have the headboards secured to the wall. It should be pretty easy to just pop this off and check behind it and along the wall for any bugs, white rice-looking particles (eggs), or fecal matter. Bed bugs love to hide in headboards!
If you do see any evidence of bed bugs, notify management immediately. They can typically move you to a different room. Be sure that your new room is not directly adjacent to, above/below the suspicious room. Bed bugs are “hitchhikers” and can travel on housekeeping carts or through wall outlets to other rooms. If one room is infested, surrounding rooms are likely to also have bed bugs.
Heat is what kills bed bugs. So, when you arrive home, place all of your clothes (even clean ones) in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes. This will kill any bugs that may have tried to come home with you. You may also want to consider you using a garment hand steamer to clean your suitcase. The heat from the steam will kill any bugs or eggs that may be in your suitcase.
If you suspect, for any reason, that you may have brought bed bugs home, simply place your luggage in a garbage bag and call Advanced K9 Bed Bug Seekers today! Tracker can come out and search your luggage as well the trunk of your car (or any place your luggage may have been exposed to) so that you can take action before bringing the pesky bugs into your home.