Summer is a time of year when many people go on vacation, whether that entails a road trip across the country or a plane voyage overseas. However, encountering bed bugs can be an issue while travelling, especially if you are staying in a hotel, hostel, or room share. Bed bugs can also be found on planes and public transportation as well as in rental cars. Our Truly Nolen bed bug removal team in Toronto share a few ways to help prevent bringing bed bugs back with you while travelling. 

Check Your Mattress First

When you first walk into your hotel room, check the mattress of your bed for bugs. Bed bugs generally reside around mattress seams and the headboard, so you will want to pull back the sheets and inspect both ends of the mattress. If you see any bugs crawling around, you should contact the front desk where you are staying and request to be in another room; ideally, a room on the other side of the hotel. It is also important that hotel management knows about the problem so that they can figure out how to get rid of bed bugs and hire a professional to come to exterminate them. If it is not possible to change rooms, consider going to another hotel. That can seem inconvenient at the time, but dealing with a pest issue upon your return home will be even more of an inconvenience. 

Place Your Luggage Accordingly 

Prior to checking the mattress and other furniture in your room for bed bugs, put your suitcase in the bathroom since bathrooms tend not to have bed bugs. Placing luggage in a bathtub is ideal, as bed bugs cannot climb the smooth surface of the tub to access these areas. Avoid placing your luggage on any beds, sofas or chairs until you are confident that your room is free of bugs. Even if you did not see any bugs, it can still be a best practice to leave your luggage on the floor rather than on the furniture. 

Inspect Your Luggage

Even if you checked your room for bugs and did not see any, it is still possible that there were bed bugs that you missed that hitched a ride on your luggage. Once you get back home, check your luggage for any signs of bugs before bringing your luggage into your bedroom. If you do discover bed bugs in your home after coming back from vacation, consider searching for a service such as bed bug control near me in order to eliminate the problem before it gets any worse. 

Check the Furniture at Your Hotel 

After checking the mattress, continue to check your hotel room for bed bugs in other areas. Some other places where bugs hang out include couch cushions, wooden desks, the undersides of baseboards and wallpaper. Most smartphones have flashlights that you can use to quickly scan other parts of your hotel room for signs of bugs. 

Wash Your Clothes in Hot Water

You will probably need to do laundry upon returning home, so use that as an opportunity to kill any bed bugs that might have travelled back on your packed clothes. Using hot water in the washing machine and hot air during the drying cycle should be enough to kill any bugs hidden in your clothing. In addition to your dirty clothes, rewash any clean items of clothing that came back with you on your trip. 

If all else fails and you are now dealing with a bed bug infestation, contact our Truly Nolen Canada team in Toronto for pest control and removal services. Because bed bugs are so small and good at hiding, it is best to hire professionals to make sure your pest control issue is dealt with thoroughly.