While most of us take all the precautions we can and utilize bed bug treatment plans to keep the annoying pests out of our homes, when we travel, we can’t control the sanitation of the places we stay or of the previous travelers who stay there.
But there are steps you can take to be sure that, even if you do have an unfortunate road encounter with bed bugs, they won’t latch on and hitchhike back home with you.
Here are a few tips for bed bug treatment while traveling:
Call Ahead and Do Your Research
If customers had a bad experience with bed bugs during a previous stay, they’ll often take to review websites and tell their woeful tales.
You can also call the place you are staying and ask them if they’ve had any history of pests invading their business and see what they offer up.
Plus, if you do find bed bugs in your room, you should ask to be moved to another room that doesn’t share a wall with the one you were just in and to be compensated for your trouble. But the more research you do, the better chances you’ll have of avoiding any problems.
Take Precautions
Using neem oil spray is a common way to treat bed bugs, which often aren’t even visible and only come out once you’re asleep and the lights are out for the night.
Neem oil is a safe, natural insecticide that is environmentally friendly. You can gently mist it around the bed and your luggage, and the bed bugs will ingest it and die – which means they can’t climb into your luggage and go home with you.
Store Luggage Properly
Bed bugs don’t like light and prefer dark spaces, so one solution is leaving suitcases in the bathroom with the lights on, or even in the tub if it’s dry.
It’s also a good idea to utilize the luggage racks that hotels provide. Keeping luggage away from the bed and off the floor should keep bed bugs from infesting your personal belongings.
Use Caution at Home
If you’re still concerned that there might be bed bugs in your luggage once you return home, there are a few steps you can take to make sure they don’t spread:
First, don’t unpack in the bedroom or rooms with carpets or furniture. Try doing so in an open space with good lighting, or even in the garage. Place the clothes directly into sealable bags, and then wash and dry them on the hottest settings the clothes can handle for at least 30 minutes. The extreme heat will kill bed bugs and their eggs, so you won’t have to worry once that’s taken care of.
And of course, be sure to wash your luggage extensively, getting down into the cracks, crevices, and pockets to be sure nothing else survives.
CTA: Need a pest management professional to assist you? Give us a call at Bain Pest Control to get a quote today.