Nov 17, 2021 | Bed Bug
With the long-awaited holiday season approaching, many of us plan to travel and visit friends and family. Unfortunately, bed bugs are notorious for hitchhiking their way into hotel rooms, rented houses, family houses, and college dorms. Check out our top tips for preventing bed bugs before you travel this holiday season.
Inspecting Your Room
Before bringing your luggage into the room you are staying in, check thoroughly for signs of bed bugs. It’s more common for hotels to have issues with bed bugs, so it’s important to check each room. Inspect all furniture such as sofa cushions, chairs, and around mattresses corners. One sign of a bed bug infestation is seeing small, dark-colored stains on bedding and the skin shells they’ve shed.
If you suspect a bed bug infestation, ask to be moved or consider another place to stay.
Unpacking Luggage
Bed bugs are small and nocturnal, often allowing them to go unnoticed. Even after inspecting your room without finding any signs of bed bugs, continue to be cautious when unpacking your clothes. It’s recommended that you use the luggage racks instead of placing bags and suitcases on furniture or tables.
Returning Home
Once you have returned home, don’t bring the luggage and bags you traveled with inside. Instead, unpack your items outside the home and thoroughly inspect them. After inspecting your items, wash all your clothes immediately, making sure to run them through a high-heat dryer cycle, as bed bugs cannot withstand high temperatures.
After you have unpacked and washed your clothes, store your suitcases in your garage or storage closet. To be extra cautious, you can also seal your luggage in large, plastic storage bags before bringing them inside.
If you suspect a bed bug infestation in your home, it’s best to contact a professional bed bug control company to assess the situation. A trained professional can help determine the best plan of action, treatment, and prevention plan for your home.
Aug 4, 2021 | Bed Bug
Our summer travels will soon end and the start of the school season begins for many families. As our travel season slows down, that doesn’t mean bed bug season will end anytime soon. Bed bugs are active year-round and they’re always looking for an opportunity to hitchhike into homes! It’s essential to know how bed bugs enter homes to help prevent and treat them before an infestation occurs.
Traveling season is the perfect time for bed bugs to make their way into your home. Bed bugs are notorious for latching on to bags, purses, luggage, and even wheelchairs. Before entering your home after travel, unpack your luggage outside instead of bringing it inside. Take all your clothes and wash them immediately, making sure to run them through a high-heat dryer cycle. The high heat helps to kill bed bugs as they cannot withstand high temperatures.
Before storing your suitcases, vacuum them out and leave them outside of your house. Consider storing them in outside places such as in a garage or storage closet. An alternative option is to seal suitcases in large plastic storage bags before bringing them in.
Another common, lesser-known way bed bugs can enter homes is through second-hand furniture that is already infested. Before purchasing, make sure to inspect used couches, mattresses, or box-springs for these pests.
If a bed bug infestation occurs, it can often require a very intense treatment to eliminate them. If you suspect that you have bed bugs, call your licensed pest control company as soon as possible. They will provide you with the best treatment plan and give recommendations to prevent future infestations.
Aug 21, 2020 | Bed Bug
Traveling can be stressful. The last thing anyone wants to deal with on top of the routine stress of traveling is bed bugs. These pests are notorious hitchhikers and often catch rides with travelers on their luggage to move from place to place. How can you eliminate the potential for bed bugs while traveling? Here is our traveler’s guide to bed bugs to help make your trip as smooth and bed bug free as possible.
Appearance
Properly identifying bed bugs is the first step to preventing an infestation. There are other common bugs that are often mistaken for bed bugs like carpet beetles, spider beetles, bat bugs, booklice, and fleas. Bed bugs are small, about 3/16″ to 1/4″ in length (about the size of an apple seed). If they have not fed recently, they are long and brown with a flat, oval-shaped body. If they have recently had a meal, they will be balloon-like and elongated with a reddish-brown color. They are “true bugs” with a 3-segmented beak, antenna with 4 parts, wings that aren’t used for flying, and short, golden-colored hairs. They also have an odor which is often described as sweetish or musty. Bed bug nymphs are smaller, translucent, and whitish-yellow in color. Bed bug eggs are tiny, about the size of a pinhead and are pearl white in color.
Signs
The next step in bed bug prevention is recognizing the signs of the presence of bed bugs. You should look for signs of bed bugs any time you are cleaning, changing bed linens, or inspecting the area where you are staying on a trip. Signs of bed bugs include rusty, reddish-brown stains on the bed sheets or mattress that happen when bed bugs are crushed; dark spots about the size of a period that are bed bug excrement that bleeds onto bed linens; eggs and eggshells that are tiny (about 1 mm in size); pale yellow skins that are shed by the nymphs; and live bed bugs. Any of these signs indicate the presence of bed bugs.
Habitat
Bed bugs are tiny pests that can fit into a crack or crevice the size of a credit card. Knowing where bed bugs can hide is the next step to avoiding them. When checking for bed bugs, thoroughly inspect the piping, seams, and tags of mattresses and box springs; cracks in the bed frame and headboard; seams of chairs and couches; between cushions; in the folds of curtains; in drawer joints; in electrical receptacles and appliances; under loose wallpaper and wall hangings; where the wall and the ceiling meet; along baseboard seams and cracks; and in the head of screws.
Behavior
Knowing how bed bugs act is essential to finding, eliminating, and preventing them. Bed bugs prefer to feed on humans but will also feed on other mammals and even birds. They will travel anywhere from 5 to 20 feet from their hiding spots to feed on a host. They are primarily nocturnal but will seek a host during daylight in larger infestations. They will feed on a host anywhere from 3 to 12 minutes. Bed bugs need at least 1 blood meal to be able to develop into the next stage of their life cycle. In order to continue to mate and produce eggs, both male and female bed bugs must feed at least once every 14 days. Females lay anywhere from 1 to 3 eggs per day and 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime. They can survive temperatures as low as 46 degrees Fahrenheit but will die when their body temperature reaches 113 degrees Fahrenheit; hence the use of heat in bed bug treatments. Bed bugs can be found anywhere their hosts can be found.
Prevention
Now that you know what bed bugs look like, where to find them, and how they act, the final step is how to prevent them. This is especially important when you are traveling. The first step is to check the bed bug registry to make sure the place you are staying doesn’t have any recently reported cases of bed bugs. Anytime you are staying outside your home, inspect the room where you are staying thoroughly for the presence of bed bugs. Use a flashlight and pull the sheet back to get a closer look. Inspect all of the areas listed above where bed bugs can hide. Use luggage racks to store your suitcases and bags and try to avoid putting them on the bed or the floor. Keep your belongings stored separately from those of the others you may be staying with. Consider storing your luggage in trash bags or protective coverings during your stay. If you find signs of bed bugs where you are staying, request to change rooms. If you must change rooms, do not move into a room that is adjacent to or directly above or below the infested room. When you return home from your trip, unpack your luggage directly into your washing machine and wash and dry everything on high heat. Inspect your luggage for bed bugs and use a vacuum or hand steamer to clean it before storing it. Keep luggage stored away from your bedroom, possibly in the basement or garage. Never store luggage under your bed.
With this traveler’s guide to bed bugs you will be well equipped for your next trip. If you suspect you have a bed bug infestation, contact a professional pest control company who can provide a thorough inspection and bed bug control service.
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Feb 8, 2019 | Bed Bug
With the increase in travel during the upcoming Spring Break season, the incidence of bed bugs will be on the rise. Bed bugs are difficult to get rid of; notorious hitchhikers that can travel with ease from place to place. They also don’t discriminate – bed bugs have been reported in accommodations ranging from 1 star motels to 5 star luxury resorts and everywhere in between, and have been reported around the world. Most home bed bug infestations occur after travel or are brought in by guests. So what can you do to make sure these pests don’t arrive uninvited after your spring break travels?
Do Your Homework
There are several resources out there that provide reports of bed bug infestations at hotels and other lodging facilities. The Bed Bug Registry is a free public database of user-submitted bed bug reports from across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Established in 2006, the Bed Bug Registry has mapped more than 12,000 hotels based on over 20,000 reports from travelers. Other user-generated sites like TripAdvisor also offer reviews that include bed bug reports.
Know What To Look For
Bed bugs are small, only about 4 to 5 mm in size. They are the size of a standard pearl. They have flat, oval-shaped bodies that are red or brown in color. Before traveling, download the EPA’s wallet-sized bed bug identification card for reference.
Check Your Accommodations
Where do you look for bed bugs? Bed bugs are excellent hiders. They are nocturnal so finding them during the day can be a challenge. Always check your room thoroughly before unloading your luggage. Bed bugs are usually found within 20 feet of a host (usually a bed). Bed bugs are commonly found in the seams of mattresses, in the cracks of headboards, in baseboards, and in the folds of upholstered furniture. They can also be found in drawers and closets and even in the fabric of luggage rack straps. Be sure to check each of these places thoroughly and use a flashlight if possible. Leave your luggage outside the door while you check for bed bugs. Be sure to also check the sheets and mattress for small brown spots sometimes tinged with blood. This is a tell-tale sign of a bed bug problem.
Know What To Do
If you find evidence of bed bugs in your room, notify the front desk and hotel manager immediately. Request to be transferred to another room that is not above, below, or adjacent to the infested room as bed bugs can travel through cracks in the ceiling, walls, and floor. If you aren’t comfortable, request a refund and find other accommodations. Request that the hotel launder your clothes immediately. Place all your garments in a sealed bag and put them in the dryer again when you get home. Steam your luggage, as well.
Prevention Is Key
One way to avoid bed bugs is to take steps to prevent them in the first place. Pack a large trash bag with your luggage and store your luggage in it while in the room. Don’t leave any clothes, purses, or computer bags on upholstered furniture in your room. Keep all bags closed when not in use. Double check your bags and clothing before you repack. Once you return home, immediately unpack your dirty clothes directly into the washer and then dry them on high heat. Store your suitcases away from any living areas such as in the garage or the basement.
Call A Professional
Bed bugs can be extremely difficult to get rid of. If you suspect you have a bed bug problem, contact a professional pest control company who can provide you with a thorough inspection and the appropriate treatment plan for your situation.
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