How Travelers Can Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs Home

How to avoid bringing bed bugs home from a trip

Bed bugs cannot fly or jump. They hide close to where people sleep and crawl into suitcases, bags and clothing left near the bed, which is how they move from a hotel room to a house. Because they feed only on blood, a spotless room can have them as easily as a messy one, and they turn up in hotels and vacation rentals at every price level.

A few habits on each trip make it far less likely that bed bugs ride home in the luggage. The same habits apply in vacation rentals, dorm rooms, summer camps and a relative's guest room, anywhere bags sit near a bed that other people have used.

How to check a hotel room for bed bugs

Set the luggage on the bathroom floor or on hard flooring near the door, then check the bed before unpacking, using a phone flashlight to see into the seams.

1. Pull back the sheets at the head of the bed and look along the mattress seams, piping and corners.
2. Check the box spring or bed base, including any tags and the fabric cover underneath.
3. Look along the edges of the headboard, and behind it if it lifts off the wall.
4. Scan the seams of upholstered chairs and the inside of nightstand drawers.

Adult bed bugs are flat, reddish brown and about the size of an apple seed. Young ones are smaller and paler, and eggs are tiny white specks. More often, travelers find the signs they leave behind, such as dark spots that look like marker dots soaked into fabric, pale shed skins, or small rust-colored stains on the sheets.

If anything looks wrong, ask the front desk for a different room. A room that is not next to the first one, or directly above or below it, is the better choice, since bed bugs can travel between neighboring rooms through walls.

Where to keep luggage in a hotel room

After the bed checks out, the luggage rack is the best place for a suitcase. Look over the rack's straps, then pull it a few inches away from the wall and furniture. For the rest of the stay, the main rule is to keep bags off the bed and off upholstered chairs.

Keep the suitcase zipped when it is not in use, and store worn clothes in a sealed plastic bag inside it. Hard-shell suitcases have fewer seams for bed bugs to hide in than soft fabric bags. For a short stay, living out of the suitcase avoids unpacking into dresser drawers nobody has checked.

How to unpack after a trip

Unpacking in the garage, the laundry room or another spot with a hard floor keeps any stray bed bugs out of the bedroom. Clothing goes straight into the dryer or into a sealed bag until laundry time. With everything out, go over the suitcase with a flashlight, paying attention to seams, zipper tracks, pockets and the channels where the handle and wheels sit.

Vacuum the empty suitcase, then empty the vacuum into a sealed bag and put it in the outdoor trash. Store luggage in the garage or a closet away from bedrooms rather than under the bed. Summer heat in a Valley garage or a parked car gets high, but it does not reach evenly into a packed suitcase, so it is not a dependable way to kill bed bugs.

Washing and heat drying travel clothes

Heat kills bed bugs at every stage, including eggs. Drying clothes on high heat for at least 30 minutes does the job, and clean clothes that were never worn can go straight into the dryer without a wash first. Washing alone is less reliable, since a cool or warm wash does not kill every bug.

Shoes, soft toys, backpacks and other items that can handle heat can often go through the dryer as well, if the care label allows it. Items that cannot take heat can stay sealed in a plastic bag until they have been inspected.

Checking used furniture and secondhand items for bed bugs

Used furniture is another common way bed bugs get into Valley homes. Mattresses, box springs and upholstered couches carry the most risk, and a mattress left at the curb should stay there. Wooden furniture can hide bed bugs too, in joints, cracks and screw holes.

Inspect secondhand pieces in the driveway or garage before they come inside. Check seams, tufts and the undersides of cushions, pull out drawers to look at the rails, and look at the fabric cover on the bottom of couches and box springs. Secondhand clothing should go through a hot dryer before it goes in a closet.

What to do if you think you brought bed bugs home

Keep sleeping in the same bed. Moving to the couch or a spare room usually spreads bed bugs to more of the house. Store-bought foggers are no help either, since the mist settles on open surfaces while the bugs stay in seams and cracks. Hold off on throwing out the mattress, too, because dragging it through the house can scatter bugs along the way.

Save a sample if you can, on clear packing tape or in a sealed bag, and take a photo. Bites alone are not proof, because some people do not react and bed bug bites look like other insect bites. Strip the bedding and run it through a hot dryer while you wait for an inspection.

Platinum Pest Management inspects homes for bed bugs across the East Valley and Phoenix. Our bed bug treatment usually takes two or three visits spaced about two weeks apart, with preparation steps for the household. To get started, request a free inspection or compare what you found with our pest identification page.