So what are some manageable ways to avoid bed bugs when traveling?

[liberalpragmatist]

Since it seems like there's increasing concern - in some quarters, hysteria - about bed bugs, I think some precautions are warranted, particularly if traveling to NY or other major cities. So my question is, what are some manageable/reasonable ways to avoid getting bed bugs if traveling?

I've looked up some advice, but a lot of seems extreme. One message board says to get new clothes, shoes, and suitcase and throw them all away upon returning. Others suggest wrapping luggage in giant vinyl bags, then tossing the bags. The last one doesn't bother me, except that the bags supposedly cost $25 and need to be tossed everytime you travel.

So... what's the best option? I would think maybe getting hard-surfaced luggage, keeping it on a luggage rack, away from the bed, maybe sealing clothes inside a zippered bag (inside the suitcase), and when you get home, keeping the suitcase out of the bedroom, washing all your clothes and vacuuming the inside.

Is that reasonable or over-the-top? What would people suggest?

[VenusRising]

1. The thing I remember most is keep your luggage in the bathroom.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/family-finance/bed-bug-danger-5-ways-to-stay-safe-when-you-travel/2517/

3. Keep Luggage Away from the Bed

The biggest mistake you can make is to lay your suitcase on the bed and start unpacking your clothes. In fact, you don’t even want to store your bag on the floor. Instead, use the luggage stand. Just make sure to inspect the wooden legs and cloth straps before doing so.

Really cautious travelers will even keep their suitcases in the bathroom (and the tub, if possible) since bed bugs don’t tend to sleep in the powder room, says Sorkin.

[pitohui]

22. that's cute that's amusing v. cute

you do realize that some of us travel all over the world and keeping your bags in the shared bathroom is just fucking rude and/or stupid (if you have anything worth stealing in the bag)

[VenusRising]

31. I was relpying to what the OP had mentioned specifically...

"particularly if traveling to NY or other major cities"

Sorry you think that my post was amusing.

[pitohui]

32. sorry but it raised a chuckle because it just doesn't work

the poster is traveling to nyc, hotel rooms in nyc are almost london expensive/sized

this person is not going to be able to both USE the bathroom and store their suitcase in it, not at a mere $300 a night...

on a serious note, i'm just not traveling there now until they get their situation under control, even the empire state bldg is infected per today's news but if i had to for business, i would bring only clothes on their last wearing and they wouldn't be coming home w. me, in fact i'd bring a disposable bag/carryon so no suitcase would be coming home

but easy for me i'm a frequent traveler and have too many bags needing to be left somewhere to begin with...

[pink-o]

2. First thing you do in the hotel is lift up the bedclothes and the mattress covers

you can usually see evidence like small dots of blood. Also, you can carry a plastic sheet to put between the mattress and the bottom sheet if you're really worried. And there are sprays you can buy that are non-toxic to humans that you can pack with you.

One more thing: bedbugs don't fare well in the heat. My friend picked them up on her suitcase and clothes, and was driving across the country in the summer. She left everything in the back seat of the car and let the extreme temperature take care of killing them.

And lastly, there is a powder called Diatomaceous Earth, which is deadly to fleas and bedbugs. It's finely ground fish fossil bones that tears crawling bugs apart when they go over it, but can be used in small doses as long as you have enough ventilation.

I went thru all this in 2007, which is how I know all about it! I brought some home from New York, and had to do all this to my own house. Luckily I live in a small space; I'd have hated to go through this with some real square footage.

[XemaSab]

10. Tiny correction

Diatomaceous earth isn't from fish at all.

It's from microscopic ocean creatures called diatoms that make glass shells. When they die, the glass remains. It's too fine to hurt larger creatures, but insects get cut up on it.

[pink-o]

12. Thanx, I realized after I posted it that I was wrong about that.

Still, I think I had fleas instead of bedbugs, but same remedy worked great! I'm glad to know this, because I work for the airlines, travel a lot myself and handle many, many suitcases. Luckily, none of us at work have ever had a problem!

[applegrove]

3. The expert on the Tv had some good advice. He said bedbugs hate smooth hard

surfaces like a bathroom. So when you stay in a hotel put your bags and all your clothes in the bathroom and you will not pick up any critters. Bedbugs like rough surfaces like material.

[Flaxbee]

4. but then I guess you toss your nightclothes ? Sleep nekkid?

Don't sit anywhere in the room while dressed? (ew - b/c I KNOW hotel room furniture is NOT sanitary).

We have to go to NYC in a week or so and I'm trying not to freak out. In fact, almost anything upholstered is worrying me, including the train seats; I've also heard cargo holds in planes are absolutely filled with bedbugs. What about plane seats? The nasty critters like upholstered materials - if a person's items are infested, what about their clothes, then passing the bugs along to seating, etc.?

Ack! Heard part of a story on NPR about bedbugs yesterday and really have the willies about going anywhere ...

[Gormy Cuss]

7. The article says seal night clothes in a plastic bag to prevent transfer.

The article also suggests reading TripAdvisor and similar sites to see if anyone has reported bedbugs.

[liberalpragmatist]

9. I'm thinking of getting a non-upholstered suitcase

Hard-surfaced bags may be best. I'm trying basically not to get too worked up, which is why I'm looking at manageable/reasonable things to minimize risk.

It seems like the best advice so far is to (a) check the rooms when you get in, (b) keep hard-surfaced luggage, (c) keep luggage in bathroom or away from the bed, above the floor, same with shoes, (d) seal dirty clothes and night clothes in a plastic or vinyl bag.

Some other advice - both from this thread and elsewhere - is to vacuum luggage when getting home, putting everything in the wash and keeping it all away from the bed/bedroom.

[applegrove]

13. My brother in law travels a lot and he brought home bedbugs to my sister's house. She had to wash

everything but they survived.

[WinkyDink]

29. Washing and/or steaming in extremely high heat kills.

[ThomCat]

5. I've seen that you can buy a dense fabric sleeping sacks

with rolled, double seams. Supposedly they can't get through the fabric or the seams. So that you aren't sleeping directly on the sheets, and the bedbugs can't get to you directly from the sheets either.

If they are there they end up crawling onto sack instead of onto you. Only the ones up near your head, if any, might get anywhere near you.

I don't know first hand if these things work. Thankfully, I've never had to test one. But the idea of keeping the bugs off of you sounds like a good idea to me. Especially in conjunction with other options that kill the things.

If they are dense enough fabric to keep out any bugs that are used to burrowing through fabric, I'm guessing this must be microfiber or silk. So expect it to be warm.

[pitohui]

21. it's silk its miserable you canNOT sleep in those things

and bedbugs don't exist in most destinations anyhow...

[rug]

6. Replace your talcum powder with boric acid.

[Call Me Wesley]

8. Or a baryon sweep of the rooms.

;)

[JCMach1]

11. Sleep with the lights on... the HATE light and will run away

When you get home expose all of your stuff to bright sunlight on the front lawn.

But seriously, the little bastards can hide anywhere.

If for example you visit a friend's house who is infested (even he might not know it)... one might crawl into the cuff of your jeans.

You won't know until you find the full infestation a few months later.


How do I know... It happened to me...

And know, I DO NOT want to talk about it... :(

Was soooo disgusting.

[stray cat]

14. thousands of dollars to eliminate bedbug infestation is a worthy concern for most income levels

[Curmudgeoness]

15. Easier than any of this if you happen to have a chest freezer,

just throw the packed suitcase in there for a few days. I use my chest freezer all the time for pantry moths---all birdseed and flour products go in there before I bring it in the house. If you don't have a chest freezer, it is great to have.

[RandomThoughts]

16. Boy thats cold ;)

I removed those lines of code. <-- encoded comment. :) Not in the macro anymore.

[quakerboy]

17. My company

has been dealing with this a lot lately.

I second what someone else above said. Heat. I dont think you need to toss everything every time. But I would recommend plastic trash bags. one goes outside the luggage when in questionable areas. The other is for any items potentially exposed. Then when you reach home, or at any handy stop, hit a laundromat before going home, and stuff anything potentially effected in the dryer on high for a while.

When we are prepping homes for bed bug treatment, when my employees get back, thats what we do. Anything not being tossed goes in a sealed bag and then to a dryer as quickly as possible.

To me, this is still a bit hair raising, as people tend not to be as careful as I would prefer and most of them do not have a background in sterile technique nor how often it fails due to human error. But we know for a fact that we are going into a confirmed contaminated environment, which adds to my concern where your maybe would elicit a lower level of alert for me.

[carlyhippy]

18. after reading your post, I went and vacuumed my house and mattresses hah

I didn't realize bedbugs were such a problem,it's of epidemic porportions now in several cities, cheap hotels and some posh ones too. At one time, thanks to DDT, they had the little buggers eradicated, but they are coming back. But the bad thing is, you can get them in a movie theatre, airplane cargo areas, among other places. they may be on the bed, but also in the carpet in the room too. Just walking across the floor one can pick them up.

I am so freaky about lice, fleas and bedbugs this makes me not want to go anywhere. I saw some ideas, like putting your luggage on a rack and not the floor, putting the luggage in the bathtub, sealing the luggage in a bag.

This really changes my views on how I travel from now on. In the past few years, I have really been paraoid about this sort of thing, and have found myself staying in some pretty expensive hotels, thinking this may keep me out of bedbug's way. I guess even expensive hotels are not keeping the bedbugs away either.

[DoBotherMe]

19. Everything you ever wanted to know about

Getting rid and keeping rid of bedbugs. I thought I had bedbugs but didn't, but it is a very helpful site with an active message board. They sell disintegrating laundry bags, I bought some for travel. Dana ; )
http://bedbugger.com/

[pitohui]

20. dont go to new york or ohio other than that clear sailing

i've traveled all over the world inc. some v. primitive places w. nothing in the way of amenities or even electricities

never seen a bedbug

based on what i see in the news if you avoid manhattan & ohio this will be another bogus "swine flu" type thing, you'll never see it

for the person upthread forced to travel to new york on business i suggest taking cheaping thrift store clothes and not bring them back...you can't infect your house from your luggage/clothes if you don't bring them back, now can you!

new york thinks they're the center of the world but most of the world is not seeing this and let's keep it that way

[RandomThoughts]

23. I always thought bed bugs didn't exist.

I thought that was a name for what causes bed sores. And not a real thing. Never knew they were an actual bug.


It could be another swine flu thing. So could the egg thing for that matter.


How would you know?

[pitohui]

24. how would you know? do you travel? ask other travelers!!!

just in this short thread what i've heard is verified...they're in new york and ohio, otherwise live your life

going to those areas bring disposable clothes/bags and don't bring anything back to infect your home

paying a lot of money for an expensive hotel is stupid and doesn't work, much of the problem is in manhattan, world's most expensive hotel district

[RandomThoughts]

25. I seriously have never heard of them

And I appreciate your telling of the story, always good to hear someone local post about a story.


as far as living my life, that requires some things still not here, so :shrug: I just ponder on what stories are real and what are not.



I do not go anywhere, have not been paid yet, so have not left house in hmmmm a few months at least. So I really have no idea what goes on out there.


I did hear the two sonic booms though, that was cool.

[WinkyDink]

28. Local govt reports. But hey, you go on to NYC.

[quakerboy]

30. Not true. Portland OR

has been pretty hard hit by Bed Bugs lately. The low income community especially. Hotels here, that I wouldn't know about though. We are seeing it the worst in buildings with shared ventilation, where it starts with one scroungy person, and then spreads through the whole floor by the time it gets noticed. I can't think short stay hotels leave enough opportunity for a really heavy infestation to take hold, except in special circumstances.

[pitohui]

33. yikes it's spreading...

knock on wood tho i've traveled the world to 6 continents and not yet seen a bed bug

never heard of them here in new orleans, i figure they don't like to swim, so maybe if i ever did pick one up it couldn't hack our climate...

[quakerboy]

36. I dunno.

They have been hitting the low income, assisted living type communities pretty hard here for at least the last 2 years, which was when we started getting contacted and contracted about them

[tourivers83]

26. Give me love. Give me love.

Condoms.:pals: :rofl:

[unpossibles]

27. inspect your room carefully

look in corners, under mattresses, on upholstery, etc. before bringing your bags in if possible (or leave them in the bathroom while inspecting if not a shared bathroom). Once I've checked (they are visible as are their signs), I usually just bring my bags in like normal, and (knock on wood) this has worked so far. The worse part is, you can get them away from a hotel room too, either in stores, theatres, etc. so I'm not sure there's a sure-fire way to avoid them.

That said, as much as it is an epidemic right now, the rate of infestation is actually pretty low here per person, so I sometimes feel like this is the new "shark attack" or something, even though I know some people who have had them.

[pitohui]

34. they just said they're in the empire state bldg!

at that news i throw up my hands, because you can't inspect a skyscraper without going inside i don't think...

[carlyhippy]

37. OMG it's spreading in NYC!

http://theweek.com/article/index/206173/7-high-profile-nyc-bedbug-scares

[RandomThoughts]

35. Burning Bed?