Traveller's Guide For Bed Bugs
September 03, 2020
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Preface
Before being helped by a proffessional, many homeowners (and previous Pest Solution Services' clients too) make an effort to remove the bed bug infestation themselves.
With odds stacked against you, this usually makes the problem worse (the infestation prolongs and spreads with mistakes, also, money is lost trying some of these ideas).
For all homeowners out there, here is some valuable advice for every homeowner thinking about trying some D-I-Y tips for bed bug removal.
Traveller's Guide For Avoiding Bed Bugs
1) Hotel Reviews & Research
Finding hotel reviews is important - and obvious. Many people can do it.
However, what people don't properly do is filtering reviews to find the ones that explicitly mention "bed bugs". Follow some of the tips below to properly research hotels and filter reviews.
A hotel may have bad ratings, because the paint was old, or food was bad ... but what we care about is to go through all those bad reviews & ratings and simply find the ones that say "bed bugs". This is quite simple if you have all the reviews on a single page. With all the reviews on a single page, modern web browsers support a "FIND" shorcut which allows you to easily find/highlight specific word on the page. To try this, press CTRL + F (Cmd + F on a mac) to activate the find feature, then type "bed bugs", and see how it works on this page. By using this feature on a page of hotel reviews, you will easily find the reviews that have the words "bed bugs", saving you time and allowing you to easily find out whether the hotel has had a bed bug problem in the past or not.
Apart from reviews, you should check news articles and blog posts online. Usually when a popular hotel has a bed bug problem, the media picks up on the story. To find out if there are any news articles or posts about a specific hotel, you can use search engine features that allow you to only search for pages on the internet that have the words "bed bugs" and [hotel name] on the same page. If you search using qutoation marks, like this: "hotel name here" "bed bugs" -- you will only get search results for pages that have both the hotel name and the words "bed bugs" on the web page. This allows you to easily filter through and force the search engine to only find for you the pages you are looking for, namely, reports and bed bug complaints at a specific hotel.
Finally, don't forget to check travel forums, and see if you can find video reviews as well.
2) Luggage Protection
Upon arrival to your place-of-stay, be cautious with your luggage. The first thing you want to do is to inspect the room and bed to find obvious red flags.
Do not immediately bring your suitcases in to the room. It is a good idea to inspect the room and only accept staying there as long as it is clean and free of bed bugs/evidence of bed bugs.
Perform a simple homeowner check. Some people might prefer to place their luggage in the bathtub while they make sure the room seems clean and un-infested. This will decrease the likelihood of having bed bugs crawl on to your bags and hide in the zipper folds and other parts.
It also decreases the likelihood of you bringing the bugs from an infested room to an un-infested room in the case of the hotel compensating you with a different room.
3) If You Are Not Staying At A Hotel
If you plan to stay at a shared property or as a guest in someone else's home, then, you can still place your luggage in a safe place (like the garage), and do a quick inspection, privately, while you are getting settled. Check the bedsheets, and their elastic edges, and also the headboard. Having a trustworthy and tidy host will help reduce the chances of being in an infested house.
You can further prevent any chance of returning home with bed bugs by following the last advice below.
4) Returning Home Bed Bug Free
Before leaving the hotel (or other place of stay), pack the clothes in to plastic bags before putting them in your suitcase.
Upon returning home, it is a good idea to keep the luggage in the garage and inspect your belongings before putting them in the house.
Inspect your clothes and put all of them through a cycle of washing and drying.
Now that you have emptied the suitcase and washed the clothes after inspecting them, it is best if you store the suitcase in the garage instead of bringing it in to your home. Tighten a heavy-duty plastic bag around it and store it in the garage until your next travel.
Repeat all of these steps (and other tips you may already know) to have both a bed bug free trip and return.
First Published: September 03, 2020
Last Edited: January 16, 2020