How to Prevent Bed Bugs When Traveling

Your bags are packed and you're ready to hit the road, the skies, the open sea. Wherever your travels take you, chances are you don't have unlimited time to spend there. The last thing you need is a kink in your itinerary, and while the good folks scanning your flip-flops at airport security might try your patience, there are far worse pests to avoid when traveling. Bed bugs occur most frequently in places with a high turnover of overnight guests (hotels, resorts, cruise ships, etc.), but there are steps you can take to help prevent them ruining your holiday.

Things You'll Need

• Flashlight
• Magnifier or hand lens
• Gloves
• Tweezers or adhesive tape
• Pill bottle or sealable bag
• Knife or credit card
• Trash bags and tape

Instructions

Find Them Before They Find You

1. Inspect mattresses and linens for blood spots and fecal matter. As stated on the website for the Harvard School of Public Health, these will appear a dark brown or reddish color.

2. Using a flashlight and magnifying glass, look for live bugs on bed frames, behind headboards, and in nightstands. Use a knife or credit card to draw bugs out of joints, cracks and crevices.

3. Check cracks in walls and loose or torn wallpaper near beds, as these may also provide hiding places for bed bugs.

Tips & Warnings

• Never leave luggage open or on beds. Keep it closed and stored on racks away from walls.

• If you find bed bugs in your room or cabin, ask to be transferred to another room.

• If your luggage or clothing become infested, immediately place them in trash bags and seal the bags with tape. Toss the infested items into a clothes dryer on the hottest setting for at least 60 minutes. To be safe, you may also want to have your clothes dry cleaned. (Bed bugs are a public relations disaster for hotels, and management may well agree to cover your cleaning costs. To that end, producing a bed bug specimen in a pill bottle or sealable bag might help.)

• If you are backpacking, avoid hostels and dormitories that do not expressly forbid the use of sleeping bags. Sleeping bags are frequent culprits in the introduction of bed bugs to these places.

• Don't panic if you suspect that you've been bitten by bed bugs. According to New York State's Integrated Pest Management Program, bed bugs are not known to transmit disease. However, if you are bitten, avoid scratching the bites, as doing so will increase the likelihood of secondary infection.

References

• Harvard School of Public Health
• New York State Integrated Pest Management Program