Place all luggage, purses and laptop cases inside of plastic bags when you reach hotels, bed and breakfasts or any other place to rest. Bed bugs are thin enough to crawl into the tiny cracks in luggage and then hitch a lift back to your home. Plastic bags thwart the bed bugs from climbing in. Vacuuming all luggage and washing all of your travel clothes as soon as you get home may also eliminate any other bed bugs that may have crawled into your luggage while on boats, planes or placed next to infected luggage, according to the Hawaii State Department of Health.
Bed bugs rarely bite through clothes, according to the Mayo Clinic, so be sure to wear them when sleeping or napping. Lift the sheets to look at the mattress seams, underneath the mattress and any cracks or seams in the headboard. If there are brown, black or dark red stains, these are most likely excrement from bed begs. If you see any of these signs, spray yourself with pesticide. Any common pesticide used for mosquitoes or other biting insects will deter bed bugs. Assume that if one room in a hotel is infested, all of the rooms are infested.
Avoid buying used furniture, picture frames, chest of drawers, bureaus, mattresses or bedding while on vacation. These old items may be home to bed bugs, according to the Mayo Clinic. If you purchase any of these items, clean them with detergent. Adults and eggs can be killed in the heat given off from a clothes dryer, according to the Hawaii State Department of Health. Vacuuming furniture can also help remove some eggs and adults. Any second hand mattresses needs to be covered in dark plastic and left out in strong sunlight for at least four hours in order to generate enough heat to kill bedbugs.
