QUESTION:
What would be things to know when you’re planning a vacation to not bring bed bugs back home with you? Should you pack your clothes in a plastic bag inside your suitcase? And, how do you protect laptops and alarm clocks from being infested?
ANSWER:
Great question, and one that is now on my mind every time I stay at a hotel or motel, and which should be on the minds of every pest control person out there. The best protection, of course, is to be absolutely certain the room you stay in does not have bed bugs in the first place, and that means doing an inspection before you settle in. I probably should be more aggressive with my own inspection, but at least take a close look at the most obvious places – mattress and box springs – for any telltale signs of these bugs. I have talked with PMP’s who tell me they nearly tear the room apart, checking along carpet edges, inside night stands, behind anything on the walls, etc., and they do this before they bring their luggage or family into the room. When I attended a major convention last year one speaker on bed bugs asked the audience of maybe 100 people how many had inspected their room, and all 100 technicians said they had. He then asked how many FOUND bed bugs, and 3 hands went up!! So, of course always take a good flashlight with you.
Let’s face it. Bed bugs are now found in so many places that we cannot possibly ensure we are avoiding them all the time. You cannot inspect the overhead luggage compartment on the plane, or all the seats in the theater, or the dressing room at a nice clothing store. But, we can inspect hotel rooms. One thing to do is to keep your luggage where it will not be reached by the bugs, and since they have difficulty climbing smooth metal surfaces you should place luggage only on the small luggage racks in most hotel rooms. One PMP says he takes out the ironing board and sets it up and keeps their luggage only on that, ensuring that nothing touches the walls behind the luggage. Don’t leave the suitcase on the spare bed or the floor. Likewise, when you take your shoes off at night place them on the stands, dirty clothing can go into a plastic bag, and before you leave the hotel to go home place this plastic bag inside a second one and seal it. There also are now all kinds of devices for preventing the bugs from getting into your suitcase, including tightly sealed zip-up plastic bags that you can encase your luggage in while at the hotel.
When you get home do as I did, and undress out in the garage or some other room away from the living quarters. Place ALL clothing, including shoes, in sealed plastic bags to deal with later. Put your luggage in a sealed plastic bag. In fact, put everything in a sealed plastic bag. You then can dump clothing and other items that need to be washed directly into the washing machine, other items like backpacks directly into the dryer for a hot cycle, and in general anything that can go through either a hot wash and/or hot dryer can be done. Heat is a bed bug’s enemy.
Electronic items obviously should not be heated up very much, so thank goodness for Nuvan ProStrips. These vapona strips can be placed into the bag with anything that cannot be heated, and left for 1 to 2 weeks to ensure any bed bug eggs that may be on those items are killed. So, which is it, 1 week or 2 weeks? The product label says 1 week and the experts say 2, but the key may be the temperature inside the bag. If you can get the temperature up to 80 degrees the vapona will act much more quickly on bed bug eggs. I know that I myself cannot live without my laptop for more than a couple of days, so the faster the better. You also could keep it inside a sealed, clear plastic bag while not using it for the next couple of weeks just to see what wanders out of it…….. hopefully nothing.
Back at that hotel you also could place the alarm clock over on that ironing board and not leave the computer sitting on the desk all night. Use one of the dedicated sealed bags for your suitcase and put the computer inside it for the night. The key, I suppose, is to do everything you can to avoid picking up these hitchhikers in the room, and then assume that you did anyhow and take the steps at home to isolate everything you had in the room and treat it to kill any bugs or their eggs that may have managed to come home with you.
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