“Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite, ” goes that familiar little childhood rhyme.

Those bites can cause plenty of discomfort from itching, welts, secondary skin infections, and allergic reactions. Thankfully, bed bugs aren’t disease spreaders. Unfortunately, they reproduce quickly, so bringing home just one pregnant bug from a trip in your suitcase can start an infestation in your home.

Here are some steps you can take to keep these unwanted hitchhikers from riding in your luggage when you travel.

Safeguard your luggage

When you first enter the room you’ll be staying in on your trip, don’t immediately set your luggage on the floor or bed. Use a luggage rack or table (after inspecting it for bed bugs). Then inspect the rest of the room for any bed bug signs.

Signs of Bed Bugs

  1. Actual bugs. Bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed. If they haven’t fed recently, they can be difficult to spot – they’re long, brown, and as flat as a credit card, with an oval-shaped body. If they have recently fed, they are more balloon-like, reddish-brown, and elongated. They tend to be smelly, with a “musty-sweetish” odor.
  2. Eggs. Bed bug eggs are the size of the head of a pin (about 1mm), pearl-white in color, and have an eyespot if they’re more than five days old.
  3. Excrement. This will look like small dark spots – easily missed – close to where they feed. These spots might bleed on the fabric like a marker would.
  4. Skins. Bed bugs shed their skins as they grow through their life stages to become adults. These pale yellow exoskeletons can usually be found with the droppings.
  5. Rusty or reddish stains. These stains are caused by bed bugs being crushed, so they’ll be found on bed sheets or mattresses.
  6. Blood smears. This comes from the site of the bite, so you probably won’t find this in a freshly cleaned room. But if you notice this during your stay and discover a bite as the source, be sure to check again for bed bugs.

Where to Look

Bed bugs prefer to stay close to where humans spend the most time, but they’ll find other small, dark crevices to live in if they need to. Here are the places to check:

  1. In the linens, near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. 
  2. In the seams of, between and underneath the couch cushions and upholstered furniture, and in the folds of curtains.
  3. Sometimes in drawer joints of nightstands or dressers.
  4. Behind loose wallpaper and wall hangings.
  5. In electrical outlets and appliances.
  6. Where the wall and ceiling meet.
  7. Inside screw heads.

After Inspecting

If you find even one bed bug in your room, request a different one or find different lodgings altogether. Where there’s one bug, there can easily be more. If you stay at the same location, be sure the room you request is not right next to, above, or below the infested room, as bed bugs often spread. Be sure to inspect your next room just as carefully.

If you don’t find any bed bugs, it’s a good idea to place your suitcase in a trash bag during your stay as a precaution. At the very least, keep your luggage away from the bed and stay vigilant. If you do see any bed bugs later, inform the management immediately.

When You Get Home

Once you return home from your trip, if you can leave your luggage out of the house for a day or two, any newly-hatched bed bugs will die during that time without a host. Adult bugs can go much longer without feeding, however, so once you bring your luggage inside, unpack it directly into a washing machine. Washing your clothes won’t typically kill bed bugs, but time in a dryer at high temperatures will. A garment steamer will kill them as well.

Be sure to inspect your empty luggage, vacuum it (and empty the bag or filter outside the house), or use a garment steamer on it. Then store your suitcases away from any bedrooms, in a place like a basement or garage.

Bed Bugs at Home

Following these tips will go a long way toward keeping the bed bugs away, but if you do find them in your home, contact BrockStar Pest Services, and we’ll take care of it for you.