Searching A Hotel Room For Bed Bugs

bed at hotelYou’re all packed and ready to go on vacation. As the plane touches down in your destination city, a moment of terror strikes you. What if there are bed bugs in the hotel room? This is a genuine concern to have, but by being careful, you can avoid bringing home any unwanted souvenirs.

Nowadays you can research a hotel online to learn everything about it. There are often reports about bed bugs, but these review aren’t always reliable. Some of them are fake and infestations can change on a day-to-day basis. When you initially arrive to your hotel room, follow these steps to ensure you aren’t sleeping with pesky bugs.

Step 1: Put your luggage in the bathtub

Luggage is the easiest way for bed bugs to get transported from place to place. The bathroom is least likely to be infested with pests and is also the most vigorously cleaned part of the hotel room. If you do happen to find bed bugs during your search, you can take your bags out of the tub and leave without risking contamination.

Step 2: Tear the room apart

Move the bed away from the wall. Often times the headboards are fastened to the wall, which can make a great home for bed bugs to reside. Use a flashlight to get a good visual behind the headboards and underneath the bed. Strip all the blankets and sheets off the bed. Check the ridges along the mattress and even check the box springs underneath the mattress. After you have effectively searched through the bed, inspect the nightstands. Open the drawers and carefully examine the corners. Finally, inspect the luggage rack by lifting up the fabric. Often times, bed bugs like to remain within 20 feet of the host. This means in a small hotel room, bed bugs could hide in nearly any crevice in the room.

Step 3: Check your sheets in the morning

Even if you have thoroughly stripped and searched the room, it is still possible that you missed a couple bed bugs. Humans act as a food source for bed bugs, so they will bite you while you are sleeping. Check your sheets for little blood stains or rust spots, because that could be a sign you were bitten. Not everyone will have a reaction to a bed bug bite. Some could have itchiness and swelling while others won’t react at all.

What do you do if you find bed bugs?

First, take your luggage and get away from the room. Just because one room has bed bugs doesn’t mean every room will. You can ask to changes rooms or you can find another hotel. Finding bed bugs in a hotel room doesn’t mean that the hotel is bad, it simply means that someone transported the pests from somewhere else. Bed bugs love to latch on to luggage, so they aren’t hard to transport. When you do get a new room, be sure to repeat the process of inspecting the room.

Fortunately, it is fairly simply to get rid of bed bugs. A Las Vegas pest control company can take care of the problem within a day. The exterminators at R & C Pest Control are dedicated to creating pest free environments for their clients. For more information about bed bug pest control, contact 702.257.2847.