Bed bugs - What You Can Do to Prevent Infestation and Spread
Some general guidelines which should be reviewed prior to leaving and returning to campus for academic breaks:
- Inspect antiques and secondhand furniture thoroughly before bringing them into your residence.
- Reduce the amount of clutter to achieve a good treatment and eliminate hiding places.
- When returning from a trip, inspect your luggage and clothes for bed bugs.
- Brushing, vacuuming and steam cleaning of infested mattresses and pillows are effective in killing bed bugs living in seams and buttons. Vacuum around the home at least once a week, paying special attention to areas surrounding bed and furniture posts.
- Dispose vacuumed contents in a sealed plastic bag.
- Cover mattresses with cotton covers and box springs with plastic covers.
- Wash bedding and garments in hot (120° F) water at least once a week.
- Put clothing in a dryer on high heat for 30 minutes.
- Ensure that the residence keeps a pest management professional on contract.
- Inspect any room you're about to inhabit while traveling.
- Caulk holes in floors and walls.
- Evidence of rusty colored spots on bedding could mean an infestation is present
How Can I Avoid Bed Bugs When Traveling?
Always inspect before settling into any room. Pack a flashlight (even the keychain LED variety) and gloves to aid in your inspection. The inspection should focus around the bed. Start with the headboard, which is usually held on the wall with brackets—lift up 1 – 2 inches, then lean the top away from the wall to gain access to the back. If you’re traveling alone, someone on staff should help. After checking the headboard, check sheets and pillows for blood spots. Next, pull back the sheets. Check the piping of the mattress and box spring. Finally, look in and under the drawer of the bedside table. If all these places are clear, enjoy the night. The next morning, look for blood spots on the sheets—bed bugs poop soon after they feed.
If you find evidence, but no live bed bugs, the evidence may be old and doesn’t mean that the hotel is dirty. Tell the front desk discreetly what you found and ask for another room—one that doesn’t share a wall with the room you just vacated. Bed bugs are a PR nightmare for the hospitality industry. If you run to a competitor (who’s just as likely to have bed bugs) it makes it less likely that the industry will become more open about this issue. Communication is key. Ideally hotels and motels would pride themselves on their bed bug programs and show customers how to inspect to keep all parties bed bug free.
If you can avoid it, don’t unpack into drawers and keep luggage closed on a luggage rack pulled away from the wall. Never set luggage on the bed.
Download and print a copy of NYS IPM’s travelers’ cards.
What can I do if I just got back from a place where there might have been bed bugs?
Launder your clothes before or as soon as these items are brought back into the home. Launder on hot water cycle or high heat dry (120 degrees F) for 30 minutes. If you found bed bugs after moving into a hotel room, you could ask the hotel to pay for laundering—and for steam-cleaning your luggage. The hotel may refuse, but it’s worth asking. Regardless, once home you should unpack on a floor that will allow you to see bed bugs—stay off carpets! Unpack directly into plastic bags for taking clothes to the laundry. Suitcases should be carefully inspected and vacuumed if you suspect that your items have been exposed to the bugs—suitcases can also be laundered, placed in a freezer for 24 hours, or heat treated in IU’s heat chamber.
Will bed bugs actually travel on me?
It’s less likely but still possible that a bed bug would travel on you or the clothes you are wearing. People typically move too much to be a good hiding place. Bed bugs are more likely to be spread via luggage, backpacks, briefcases, mattresses, and used furniture.