As summer approaches, thoughts of summer vacations and travel come to mind. Unfortunately, when you travel you could bring back more than just souvenirs and a great tan. Summer travel is a prime time to bed bugs to hitch a ride home with many families. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. You can prevent bed bugs from coming home with you after vacation.

Identify signs of bed bug activity

Bed bugs are tiny (1 to 7 millimeters in length), flat insects that are brown to reddish brown. When you get into your hotel room, use a flashlight to check the mattress, in the seams, and under the mattress for signs of bed bug as well as the pillows, sheets, headboard, and the nightstand. Look for tiny fecal matter spots that are reddish or rust colored. You may also see the shells of bed bugs that have molted.

Keep bed bugs out of your luggage

When you get into your hotel room, do not put your luggage on the bed. Set it on a table, desk, in the bathroom, bath tub, or other flat, hard service. Before you leave, make sure that you inspect your luggage for evidence of bed bugs. You should also check your clothing and items that are inside your suitcases, especially if you found bed bugs in your room. If you fly, take a bus, or cab at any point bed bugs could crawl from another person’s bags to yours. So when you get home, do a complete inspection of your luggage.

Keep bed bugs out of your house

As part of your bed bug prevention, you can mist neem oil lightly on your sheets in your hotel room as well as in your luggage. When you get home you should still take precautions even if you did not find any bed bugs in your hotel room. It is better to be safe than sorry. Consider unpacking in the garage and don’t even bring your luggage into the house. Don’t give the insects a chance to get into your home.

Place both your clean and dirty clothes in the dryer before bringing them into your house and tumble them on high for 15 to 20 minutes. If any bed bugs are present, the heat should kill all the adults and their eggs.

At Preventive Pest Control we don’t want bed bugs in your home any more than you do. If you believe that bed bugs have hitched a ride home with you, give us a call and make an appointment for one of our experienced, knowledgeable technicians to come in and do a bed bug inspection. We make it our job to protect your home and family from unwanted pests.