Bedbugs are enjoying a surge in popularity, which a 2006 USA Today report attributes to increased global travel and the "curtailed use of pesticides." According to Consumer Reports, the National Pest Management Association says that bed bug complaints in hotels are up from one to two per year in 2000 to that many each week in 2007. Luckily, bedbug problems are usually contained to one or two rooms in a single hotel and are not quite as common as the media would let you think. Nevertheless, it always pays to be an alert traveler and, if you do run into the bugs, just don't bring them home.
Examine your mattress when arriving at the hotel by running your fingers along the sides and through all the cracks and crevices, where bedbugs hide. Check mattress tags, headboard and bedside tables, undisturbed corners for the critters to hide. Consumer Reports describe them as "a quarter-inch long, usually reddish-brown, with oval, flattened bodies." Watch out for tiny black, dark brown or maroon drops of excrement on the mattress near the walls and "translucent light brown skins," which MSNBC reports are the surest signs of nearby bedbugs.
Ask the hotel desk clerk to move you to another room if you find any of the above-mentioned signs of bedbugs. You will want to repeat the same examination procedure in your new room.
Store suitcases off the floor, on a luggage stand or on top of a dresser, if you have any reason to fear the bugs while staying. Bedbugs are fearless hitchhikers, hiding themselves in luggage, on shirt cuffs and in jacket creases.
Check each piece of your clothing thoroughly before you leave the hotel. Put clothes in airtight plastic bags, which can help kill bedbugs if they have already made it through the cracks.
Wash all of your belongings in hot water and laundry soap when you return home. Dry them for at least 20 minutes on a heated setting in the dryer.
