Any traveler does not want to experience a horrible stay, especially if you are battling against a horde of bedbugs. These notorious pests are sure to disturb you during your deep sleep at dawn. If you are not careful enough, you can even carry bedbugs on your way home and possibly develop an infestation. Find out below how you can avoid experiencing insane pest infestation in your house from an unforgettable vacation.

Before You Reserve a Hotel

 Try to find out if the prospective hotel you want to visit has previous records of a bedbug infestation. Take this initial step during your planning stage. You can conduct prior research regarding bedbug complaints gathered by the bedbug registry in developed countries, including the US and UK. You can rely on infestation management reports from the local government agency where the hotel is located. In addition to credible data sources, you can also check customer reviews and social media pages to find out the experience of previous clients who stayed at your target hotel. However, be sure to read updated reviews, about less than 3 months old, as review posts with outdated date stamps will not be able to provide accurate information regarding the current pest bedbug situation of the hotel.

Once You Get There

Once you have decided on the hotel where you will sleep, do not put your luggage on the bed the moment you get there. Instead, bring the and other personal items to the bathroom or console tables then investigate around the room. Bedbugs do not hang out on cold tiles. However, expect their presence on the carpet floors, upholstered dashboard, and curtains. Check the nook and crannies of the bed, armchairs, and other furniture that can be infested with bedbugs. Also, avoid laying luggage or dirty clothes on the floor because bedbugs may crawl on them. Make sure to separate your dirty and clean clothes with a plastic bag.

When You Get Home

Once get home, avoid putting your luggage and other belongings on your sofa or bed. Take your dirty clothes to the washing machine right away and wash them. You can also use the dryer and set the heat cycle on for 20 minutes. As for the luggage, put it in a garbage bag with a pest strip and leave the bag in it for three days. Any typical pest spray can also be used to kill all types of bugs that may have sneaked on it. Also, avoid frustrating yourself because you just need to be proactive in dealing with bed bug problems.

5 Tips to Avoid Bringing Home Be Bugs from Your Hotel Stay

Bedbugs problems may not seem serious at the beginning of your upcoming trip, but expect them to ruin your fun travel experience, especially if the hotel where you stayed is heavily infested with bed bugs. Who wants to be crawled with disgusting and itchy insects in the middle of deep sleep? If you are not aware of any presence of bedbugs in your hotel room, it’s no longer surprising that you will experience dreadful infestation woes from the first night of your stay until you get home. Find out below 5 useful tips to prevent these annoying bedbugs from reaching your private territory.

Do a Wash

It is still a good habit to wash clothes regularly before, during, and after the trip to eliminate bed bugs. Perhaps you can consider doing laundry during your hotel stay or hire the hotel laundry service, especially if you are moving from one travel destination to another. Before you pack for the trip home, request a hot water wash and 20 minutes of heat drying from the hotel staff, though this may incur some extra cost. If you still have enough time, also consider a dry cleaning service to help eliminate the annoying pest. But if you are not accustomed to laundry service during your hotel stay, make sure your dirty clothes are separated from the clean ones with a plastic bag, and do not open the plastic bag until you get in front of your washing machine at home.

Keep Your Guard Up

Be observant around the room and maintain a protective distance between your luggage and unused clothes on a shelf or luggage rack to keep a safe distance. Being paranoid is not bad, but you can avoid a potential infestation in your house when you do.

Play Detective

If you want your travel experience and hotel stay to be memorable, It is good to be knowledgeable about the basic characteristics of bed bugs. You need to invite a certified exterminator to make sure the hotel place where you will stay is pest-free. Alternately, you can seek professional advice from an accredited bed bug sniffing dog company First Response BedBug Dogs to instantly detect any presence of bugs around. More than that, you need basic knowledge of what bed bugs look like and where they are often seen.

The typical size of an adult bed bug is about the size of an apple seed or at least 4mm long. They usually resemble the smaller and flat version of the cockroach. Their presence is noticeable through tiny black dots of feces and wings under the bed mattress and various hidden spaces. Bed bugs are active at night time and dark spots of the area, so you won’t immediately notice them at first glance.

Aside from the bottom of the mattress, you can also find bed bugs in holes, upholstered furniture, carpet floors, side tables, and drapes.

If there is no presence of bed bugs during an inspection, your room is likely to have no pests. If there is any, request a room transfer from the management and move to another room away from the first inspected room.

Head to the Bathroom

Suppose you are a frequent traveler and often go to the hotel for accommodation, always remember the golden rule of not going straight to the bed to put the luggage and other belongings. Take your luggage to the bathroom instead because bed bugs do not hang out on the tiled floor. Any fabric, upholstered furniture, and curtains are considered a suitable environment for bed bugs. As discussed above, inspect the area around the room for signs of pest infestation first before unloading your belongings. As much as possible, do not place your things near the bed and adjacent furniture so that your luggage and clothes will not be invaded by bed bugs.

Wrap your Bags

You will find plastic bags useful whenever you travel and stay in a hotel. Bed bugs can penetrate porous materials, crevices, and cracks, but not in a well-sealed plastic, before the bags or any clear plastic bag. You can use garbage bags or any clear plastic that can pass the airport security check as well as survive the baggage handling. It is better to wrap your luggage with a plastic bag because bedbugs can infest your bag from the other bags during plane travel.

Prior washing, wrapping, and inspecting processes can reduce your travel time, but you can be sure that your existing trip will not be wasted. Although hotel owners are willing to spend on bug extermination services to avoid loss of bookings and poor reviews, having, bug-free travel will always start with being extra vigilant.