Visiting new places is fun, but if you happen to stay somewhere with bed bugs, the fun can quickly turn into a nightmare. Bed bugs are great at travelling with people, and hotels can be great places for them to live. But if you follow a few smart tips, you can greatly lower the chance of bringing bed bugs back home with you.
1. Look into your lodgings: Do some study online before you book a hotel. Pay close attention to any comments of bed bugs in reviews written by other travellers. Reliable review sites can often tell you about how clean a hotel is and how well it gets rid of pests.
2. Check Your Room When You Get There: As soon as you get to your hotel, look around the room for a few minutes. Start with the bed and the area around it. Lift the mattress and look for small brown or reddish spots or other signs of bed bugs along the seams.
3. Keep Your Luggage Off the Floor: Don’t put your luggage on the bed or any carpeted places. Bed bugs are less likely to live on metal or plastic surfaces, like the bag rack that the hotel gives you. Bed bugs are less likely to come along if you put your bags up higher.
4. Keep your things safe: To keep clothes and other personal items safe, use the protective cover that comes with your trunk or big plastic bags. Bed bugs won’t be able to get into your things with this extra layer of protection.
5. Don’t add extra stuff: Keep your hotel room clean and well-organized. Bed bugs like it when things are a mess, so don’t throw your clothes and other things all over the room. These pests are less likely to come into a clean and organized area.
**6. Check the furniture and upholstery. Bed bugs can hide in chairs, couches, and other furniture. Before you use these things, you should carefully look at them. Look for places where bed bugs could hide, like gaps, folds, and cracks.
**7. Be careful in shared areas: Bed bugs can also get into common areas like hotel bars, libraries, and business centres. Be careful, and check the seating places before you use them.
8. Keep your electronics safe. Bed bugs can hide in electronics. Protect your gadgets by putting them away in sealed plastic bags or cases when not in use. By taking this step, you can keep bed bugs from finding places to hide in your electronics.
Use Bed Bug Sprays: If you’re going on a trip, you might want to bring a bed bug spray with you. These sprays, which are made for bags and hotel rooms, can help protect you even more.
10. Do laundry when you get back: Wash all of your trip clothes in hot water when you get home. Any bed bugs or eggs that may have come back with you can be killed by heavy heat.
11. Look over your things:
Even after you get home, you should still be careful. Check your bags and other things for signs of bed bugs. If you catch a small problem early, it can be stopped before it grows into an infestation.
12. Professional Extermination If Necessary: If you think bed bugs have come into your house, you should talk to a pest control professional right away. If you move quickly, you can stop the infestation from spreading.
Adopting these smart travel habits will make it much less likely that you will meet bed bugs during your hotel stays. To make sure that your trips are fun and free of annoying bugs, you need to be careful and take precautions. Make smart trips, learn about the places you’ll be going, and avoid bed bugs while you’re away.