Can you name five holidays that inspire Americans to travel? You probably already know one of them. It's in the title of this article. Along with Thanksgiving, we're likely to travel for the Christmas season, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and the Fourth of July. Do you know what else all of these holidays have in common? Yup. Bed bugs.
If you're planning to leave your South Portland home and travel to visit friends or family for Thanksgiving, it is important to add bed bug prevention to your itinerary. Bed bugs are hitchhiking bugs that take advantage of travel holidays to spread from home to home.
Are you planning to go a long distance? If so, you may find yourself staying somewhere along the way. Make sure to take the time to do the following:
- Leave your luggage in the vehicle or on the bathroom floor of your room while you do a quick bed bug inspection.
- Use a light to examine mattress seams, box spring seams, backboards, bed frames, baseboards, outlets covers, and upholstered furniture for signs of bed bugs. When bed bugs infest, they always leave shed skins, blood stains, black streaks or patches, and tiny white eggs. You may even see these bugs crawling around. It is important to know what bed bugs look like in all stages of development.
- Don't leave any laundry laying around. Bed bugs are attracted to clothing that has been worn.
When you get to where you're going, be aware that bed bugs can be there as well. They don't just come home from hotels and motels. They can be anywhere. And they can be in the cleanest of environments. Be sure to take the above steps to catch an infestation.
It is also important to understand that bed bugs don't just feed at night. Immature bed bugs can feed in the day. If you see a six-legged, pale bug, with a bright red abdomen, feeding on your arm, it is probably a bed bug nymph.
When you return home, be sure to wash all of your clothing on the hottest temperature. That hot water will kill everything from eggs to adult bugs. And, do a quick inspection of items that have creases, seams, or pockets. Look for tiny white eggs or bed bugs crawling around.
This should help you reduce your chances of having a bed bug infestation in your South Portland home. But, if you ever do, you can rely on Big Blue Bug Solutions to get rid of those bugs. We use the most advanced bed bug protocols in the industry for effective elimination of these blood eating pests.