If you’re headed to a hotel somewhere for your March Break, the Health Unit wants to help reduce your chance at bringing home bed bugs.
They’ve sent out a list of prevention tips you can use to minimize the risk of infesting your home when you get back from your vacation. Bed bugs travel very easily in luggage and clothing that is often thrown on the floors & beds in hotel rooms.
The Health Unit says you should always check your rooms as soon as you check in and if you detect bed bugs, notify hotel management and request a different room.
Below is the list of tips that the Health Unit provided but if you’d like to learn more, please click here.
• Pack clothes into over-sized sealable plastic bags and leave them inside luggage during the trip, or hanging in the closet – never on the bed or floor.
• Leave luggage outside or in the bathroom and perform a mini-inspection around the bed: peel back the bed sheets and check the mattress, running your fingers along the upper and lower seams. Make sure to check the mattress tag, as bed bugs often hide there. Check for blood stains and bed bug droppings as well, since they’re often the easiest to spot.
• If bed bugs are detected, request another room. Be sure to inform hotel management. Just moving to a different room may not be the total answer. You should repeat the inspection of any new or different room you are offered.
• When you pack to leave, inspect your luggage carefully first, and inspect every item as you pack to help detect any bugs or their signs.
• If you find bed bugs, have bites, or know that you’ve spent time in a room harbouring the bugs, vacuum your suitcases, backpack, or camera bag. Wash everything washable in the hottest water possible and dry on the highest setting possible for 30 minutes.
• After your trip, unpack luggage outdoors, re-inspect clothing and then put everything into the dryer on the highest setting possible for at least 30 minutes or the freezer for two weeks (for delicates).
• Vacuum luggage thoroughly. When buying luggage buy the hard, smooth kind without inviting pockets, since bedbugs struggle over smooth surfaces and polished metal.