Bed Bug Prevention Tips

Essential Bed Bug Prevention Tips to Keep Your Home Pest-Free

Bed Bugs are elusive, nocturnal creatures that hide behind baseboards and in any cracks, voids, and folded areas of beds, bedding and adjacent furniture, especially mattresses and box springs.

Travel Tips

Upon Arrival (before unpacking):

• Don’t put your suitcase or backpack directly on the bed; put
  them in the bathroom (bathtubs are typically pest free) while you
  inspect the room.
• Inspect the closet and luggage stands and baseboards nearby the
  luggage rack before placing items in the closet or on the
  rack.
• Wall mounted headboards are standard in many hotel rooms. Check
  behind and around the headboard. A credit card can be used along
  seams and cracks.
• Lift bedding, mattress and box spring and check seems, folds,
  tags, stapled dust cover and other hiding areas carefully. In
  hotels, these areas are disturbed frequently and inspected by
  housekeeping often, so bed bugs are not found here as frequently as
  they are found here in a home.
• Inspect nightstands, dressers, and other furniture around the
  bed area including behind wall hangings.

During Your Stay:

• Periodically inspect your suitcase and clothing.
• Each morning, check for new red marks on your body and for
  blood spots on the bedding.

Before Leaving:

• Inspect your clothes and other items before packing.
• Carefully check crevices in suitcases and backpacks. Run a
  credit card along all seams. After Returning Home:
• Check again all traveling items and separately wash and dry
  clothing and bedding items for at least 30 minutes, or dry clean as
  necessary.
• Check your suitcases again.
• Don’t store your suitcase or backpack under your bed.

Frequent travelers pack a change of clothing for their return trip and keep that clothing in a sealed bag. Before leaving the hotel, they will bathe and change into the clean clothing. When home, they will store their suitcase in a deep freeze until the next trip. These are extra steps you may want to consider taking, if you travel frequently.

Kids coming home from college

• Instruct students that if they are planning to bring any
  clothing home for laundering, it should be sorted and placed in
  plastic bags before packing. Separate the laundry as it would be
  for normal laundering, specifically: light colored items from dark;
  delicate items from items that can be laundered on regular wash/dry
  cycles; and finally, dry cleanable items. Separating the clothing
  permits easy loading of the washing machine and prevents any bed
  bugs from escaping into your home during the sorting process.
• Plastic bags that contained the suspect laundry can be frozen
  or discarded in a clean, sealed garbage bags.
• When washing, set the washer and dryer for the hottest setting
  that the fabric can withstand.
• Carefully inspect backpacks and suitcases. If bed bugs are
  found (or you are not sure) place the backpack or suitcase into
  plastic bags, and store in your garage until the student returns to
  school.
• Don’t place suitcase or backpack on or under beds.

Buying new clothes

• Keep clothing sealed in the plastic wrapping until the items
  can be laundered, washed by hand, heated, or frozen.
• Items that do not come in plastic should be laundered
  immediately upon returning to your home.
• When washing, set the washer and dryer for the hottest setting
  the fabric can withstand.

 Buying used clothes and buying online

• Special care should be given to any used clothing. Used items
  should be laundered immediately before being brought into your
  home.
• If you need to use a dry cleaning service, you should consider
  mentioning the items are from an unknown source and to minimize the
  spread of bed bugs the items should be kept in the plastic bags
  until loaded into their machines.

Buying mattresses and furniture

• Inspect secondhand or used furniture thoroughly for bed bug
  signs before bringing them into your home.
• You are strongly cautioned against “scavenging” beds and
  furniture that have seemingly been discarded and left by the curb
  for disposal.
• Bed bug infestations are not limited to beds and mattresses,
  and they can be found on tables, drawers, and even electronics if
  these items were located in a bedroom or other places that could
  support an infestation.

What do bed bugs look like?

• Adult bed bugs are oval shaped about the size of an apple seed
  (3/16” in length).
• Adult bed bugs have flat, mahogany colored bodies.
• After feeding, however, bed bug bodies swell and are a reddish‐
  brown in color.
• A bed bug has 6 legs. (Eight legs indicate a tick or )
• A bed bug’s antennae point forward and are about half as long
  as its body—not longer.
• The adult bed bug’s head is broadly attached to its body and it
  has no wings.
• Bed bug nymphs are nearly colorless when hatched, becoming
  brownish as they mature.
• Bed bug eggs are white slightly pear‐shaped and about 1/32” in
  length.
• The eggs are sticky when first laid.

Where do I look for bed bugs?

Once in the home, bed bugs might congregate or hide in:

• Any convenient crack or crevice
• Along the seams or in the buttons of mattresses
• The coils and frame of the box spring
• Wooden bedsteads
• Bed framing
• Upholstered furniture
• The back of pictures
• Window and door molding/framing
• Behind wallpaper
• Cracks in floors and ceilings
• Between wooden floorboards
• Behind switch plates, conduit etc.

In heavy infestations, they may be found in wall voids, attics or other enclosed places.

What if I find bed bugs?

• Stay calm.
• Call your pest management professional for a thorough
  inspection.
• Collect and save a bed bug sample to confirm the
  infestation.
• Bites alone may not be a good indication of bed bugs as they
  could be from another pest or may not bites.
• Consult with your pest management professional for proper
  handling or disposal of any infested items.
• Place bedding and clothing in a hot dryer at least for 30
  minutes.
• Store cleaned items in plastic bags away from the
  infestation.
• Follow more thorough instructions provided by your pest
  management professional or property management to prepare the area
  before Without your cooperation, the bed bugs will not be
  eliminated.
• Vacuum every other day or at least weekly by using a strong
  vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter
  to pick up bed bugs’ live stages and cast Target the vacuum on the
  seams of mattresses and box springs, along perimeters of carpets,
  under baseboards, and in other areas where bed bugs live. Carefully
  handle vacuum contents; they may contain live bed bugs. Dispose of
  vacuum bags immediately outside the building in a proper
  dumpster.
• Follow the precautionary measures before, during and after
  Cooperate with your pest management professional to do thorough bed
  bug elimination and follow up program.
• Follow all bed bug preventive procedures recommended by your
  pest management professional. For more information on how to
  minimize risk of bringing bed bugs home while traveling, refer to
  the travel tips.

Don’t:

• Jump to any conclusion before discussing with your pest control
  professional.
• Feel ashamed. Bed bugs have been around for hundreds of years
  and can infest anyone.
• Discard your bed, mattresses, box spring or other furniture
  before consulting your pest professional. Additionally, don’t move
  items outside the infested areas before your pest management
  professional’s inspection.
• Bag everything you own.
• Spread bed bugs. Don’t sleep on another bed, sofa, etc. or stay
  with someone else until your problem has been eliminated.
• Try to use pesticides on your own. Do‐it‐yourself chemicals,
  such as bug bombs, insect killers, and any over the counter
  products will not work for bed bugs, as they have no or little
  residual effects to eliminate missed bed bugs or newly hatched
  nymphs. Additionally, releasing a fogger or bug bomb in your bed
  room or home is dangerous.