How To Avoid Bed Bugs On Spring Vacation

Are you planning to take a vacation from your Atlanta home? Are you going to cash in on some much needed time off? If so, we’d like you to consider adding bed bug prevention to your vacation plans.

Are you familiar with this quote from Edmund Burke? “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Well, the only thing necessary for bed bugs to ride back to your home and create an infestation is for you to do nothing. Bed bugs are hitchhiking bugs. When you take a trip anywhere, you have a chance of picking these pests up, especially nowadays with infestations cropping up everywhere. Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do to keep your home and your family safe.

3 Easy Things You Can do To Avoid Bed Bugs

  1. Check bedbugregistry.com before you travel. This is a great resource for finding out if someone has had a bed bug experience at the place you’ll be staying. While one bed bug incident should not deter you from staying somewhere, several incidents, or reviews that describe inhospitable responses to bed bugs, should be used as a gauge to determine where you stay. It is also a good idea to call ahead and ask what their bed bug plan is. If they have a quick response, there is a good chance they have put the necessary protocol in place to safeguard against this growing problem.
  2. Check your room. It may seem like a big hassle, but checking your room for bed bugs can be as quick as 3 minutes. Put your bags on the bathroom floor while you use a flashlight to check the seams on all the mattresses and box springs in the room. If you find black residue, black streaks, brown stains, shed insect shells, white eggs, or tiny six-legged insects crawling around (especially if you see more than one or two of these together) you should bring it to the attention of the management. For added protection, you can also check the baseboards, outlets, and upholstered furniture for similar evidence.
  3. When you get home, wash all clothing, and any bedding you brought with you, on the highest temperature, and run those items through the dryer. Heat kills bed bugs in all stages of development. If you accidentally brought eggs home with you, this could get them before they hatch into a problem.

If you ever see bed bugs, or signs of bed bugs, in your Atlanta home, call Active Pest Control. We have the solutions for all of Georgia’s pests. Help is just a call away.

Post Vacation Bed Bug Tips

You just got home from a relaxing vacation in the Caribbean…fast forward a few weeks and you have now realized that you brought home with you more than sea shells and trinkets. This unwanted souvenir is a bed bug and now all the unwinding you did in the tropics is completely overshadowed by the stress these pests have created. No one wants the memories of a great vacation replaced by bed bugs.

While bed bugs pose no known risks to the health of humans, that doesn’t mean anyone wants them in their home. Bed bugs generally only come out at night to feed. Their meal of choice, human blood. Sounds like something out of a horror movie doesn’t it? They leave behind red, rash-like bumps that itch. While they are more of a nuisance than anything, the idea of bugs crawling on you, biting you while you sleep can make it rather difficult to get any rest.

There are some things you can do to try to avoid a bed bug infestation after you get home from your trip.

  • Before you leave for you vacation, leave trash bags in your car. When you get home from your trip, put your luggage in the trash bags and leave them there until you are able to get them thoroughly cleaned.
  • While in your hotel, avoid unpacking your clothing. Don’t leave your suitcase on the floor, and if possible, leave your suitcase in the bathroom.
  • Take a few minutes to look around the crevices and cracks of the hotels mattress and bedding with a flashlight. If you think you see any signs of bed bugs, ask for a different room on a different floor.
  • When you get back from your vacation, remove your luggage from the tied off trash bags when you’re ready to wash your items. Wash all clothing in hot water as hot as your washing machine will allow. Anything that cannot be washed should be tossed, if at all possible.
  • Vacuum out your suitcase before you put it back in your closet and as close to the door as possible (outside would be best).
  • Keep an eye out for the signs of bed bugs once you get home. Signs include copper stains on sheets, discarded bed bug skins, rash-like red, itchy bumps on your body or spotting bed bugs or bed bug eggs.

If you think you may have brought bed bugs home with you from vacation, it is important to contact a professional as soon as possible. Bed bugs can multiply quickly and it doesn’t take long for a couple bed bugs to become an infestation and many over the counter pesticides won’t help with these guys! However, the pros at Active Pest Control can!