How to Help Prevent Bed Bugs When Traveling

What’s worse than discovering bed bugs on your trip? Accidentally bringing them home. Luckily, there are steps you can take to detect and safeguard against bed bugs.

First, What are Bed Bugs?

The smallest bed bugs are biting insects that are just visible to the human eye. They feed on humans and warm-blooded animals but can go without eating for as long as 300 days. Like mosquitoes, bed bugs detect their prey using the scent of carbon dioxide and their antennae allow them to detect body heat.

How to Identify Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are flat, oval-shaped insects similar in appearance to ticks. Adult bed bugs grow to around ¼ inch long. They have a brownish-red appearance that becomes redder after they’ve fed. Before they eat, their oval-shaped bodies are very flat. As they feed, they become engorged and take on a rounder appearance. Young nymphs are harder to detect, measuring only 1-5 mm with a more translucent appearance.

With their small size, bed bugs are masters of hide-and-seek, let’s look at how to spot them when you’re on the road…

What Does a Bed Bug Nest Look Like?

Bed bugs don’t make nests but group together in warm, dark, and tight spaces. This grouping of bed bugs in a small space is typically what people mean when calling something a bed bug nest. After feeding, bed bugs retreat to a hidden spot to breed and lay eggs. One of the telltale signs to look for is dark spotting or staining caused by their excrement. The eggs look small and white, like head lice, though piled in quantities of a few dozen. You may also see hatched eggshells or shed skins. Scraping tight areas like bed seams with a credit card may make it easier to see the signs.

Mosquito Bites vs. Bed Bug Bites

Mosquito bites can look like bed bug bites in appearance. Knowing if you’re dealing with bed bug bites can help you identify a problem. Bed bug bites can occur any time of year and are usually on exposed skin during sleep. Unlike mosquito bites, bed bugs bite in a zigzag or lined pattern. Unlike bed bug bites, mosquito bites feature random placement, limited to the warmer months of the year. (If you haven’t picked your destination yet, consider destinations with minimal mosquitoes.)

How to Help Avoid Bed Bugs When Traveling

Check out these tips to avoid bed bugs in luggage and be prepared to act if you spot a bug:

• Choose luggage with a hard exterior.
• Sit on hard surfaces in airports.
• Inspect your bag frequently.
• Pack clothing in resealable bags.
• Assemble a bed bug travel kit – trash bags, UV flashlight, and travel steamer.

How to Pack a Bed Bug Travel Kit

In your bed bug travel kit, pack trash bags to separate dirty clothes and keep them off the floor of your hotel room. Also include a travel steamer to kill bed bugs on fabric, and a small UV flashlight for inspecting luggage, clothing, and hotel rooms. While UV lights may not help identify bed bugs themselves, they prove helpful in detecting other signs of bedbugs, such as fecal stains.

Does a Bed Bug Spray for Clothes Help?

While there’s a gigantic market for bed bug sprays for clothing, don’t bother. Many bed bugs develop resistance to sprays and there are some other brilliant methods to prevent and treat them. According to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, spraying luggage or clothing may actually pose a health hazard.

Bed Bug Safety in Hotels and Lodging

The best way to stay safe from bed bugs in hotels and lodging is to identify signs of bed bugs before exposing your belongings to a potential infestation.

Step 1: Complete a Thorough Inspection

Upon arriving at your hotel room, and before you unpack, start with a thorough inspection. Leave your luggage in your vehicle or rest it on a hard, non-porous surface, ideally elevated above floor height. Luggage racks without fabric can be a great option! Always keep your luggage closed when not accessing its contents and consider putting it in one of those large trash bags you’ve brought.

How to inspect for bed bugs in a hotel room:

• Start with identifying the storage area where your luggage will live during your trip
• Move on to the bed and surrounding areas:
  • Inspect the box spring and mattress. Pull up sheets at the corners and sides.
  • Next, inspect the pillows and other upholstered furniture.
  • Look behind headboards if not attached and inside drawers.
• Finally, inspect the bathroom and drapes or curtains

Step 2: Only Unpack Necessary Items

If the room passes your inspection, continue your prevention by elevating your luggage, though not on the bed (even at home). Always keep your luggage closed when not accessing its contents and consider putting it in one of those large trash bags you’ve brought. Only unseal the bags to access the clothing. Seal dirty laundry in a separate bag. When possible, hang clothes in the closet instead of placing them in drawers to limit bed bug access.

What to Do If You Find Bed Bugs in a Hotel Room

If you find signs of bed bugs in your room, alert the hotel staff right away. Many hotels will gladly switch your room and even offer extra services like laundering your clothes. If the hotel staff offers you a room close to the infested room, decline it. Rooms directly above, below, or next to the problematic room may also have problems, as housekeeping carts can be transportation vectors.

Finally, How to Help Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs Home

When you get home, quarantine your bags outdoors or in the garage until you can inspect them. Inspection should proceed as before, either in the quarantine location or in the bathroom. We recommend inspecting on a hard, light-colored surface, to spot hitchhikers.

Inspect your bag’s seams, straps, pockets, and zippers. If you’d like to sanitize your bag or shoes, a spray bottle with 60% isopropyl alcohol and 40% water does a good job. Next, inspect the contents of your luggage. If you suspect or find any bed bugs, use a regular or steam vacuum to remove them. When you’re done, immediately empty the vacuum outside your home.

Clean washer-safe clothing on a hot water cycle. Alternatively, you can put clothes in the dryer for 30 minutes on high heat before washing. This suffices to kill all bed bug life-stagings including their eggs. Take bed bug-free clothing that’s not dryer or washer-safe sealed and to a dry cleaner.

Now you’ve avoided the top risk of introducing bed bugs to your home. Next, consider a barrier treatment to help prevent them from wandering in on their own.

Get Help Preventing Bed Bugs Today, Especially If You Host or Rent!

Whether you run a vacation rental or bed-and-breakfast or don’t want to risk a bed bug infestation in your home, consider protecting your property with the Squad Home Shield pest package. The pros at your local Mosquito Squad^® will treat the perimeter of your home, focusing on spots where pests hide and thrive and areas where they may enter your home. 

Lower the chances your guests will encounter bugs and keep reviews positive! Contact your local Squad today at (877) 332-2239 or request a quote online.