Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Will White here with another edition of questions were asked when we’re out in the field. And today’s question is, how do I reduce the likelihood of bringing home bedbugs after a fabulous vacation?
Well, I’m going to share with you today a few tips that we use when we’re on vacation to avoid the likelihood of bringing bedbugs back home. And I would like to start with the number one thing you can do.
Once your own vacation once you make it to your vacation destination, you can simply ask the receptionist after you’ve got you’ve received your room once they’ve checked you into your room, just simply ask, Hey, has this room ever had a problem with bedbugs in the past or currently might catch them off guard but they’ll let you know you know they keep records of all the rooms in the hotel or resort that has had issues in the past you know with bedbugs are currently experiencing issues in the past.
And at that point, you can ask well can we get another room that has not had a problem number two, you know when you get to the room and this is one thing that I always say you packing your luggage is one of the most important tools that you can carry. You know I keep one of these in our travel luggage you know you can put it in something that you’re going to have easy access to because you’re going to find out that this tool here is going to be one of your best friends so that you can get in there get the room inspected, and get that great vacation on the way.
So if they say no, now remember, as long as we’re getting to know or no see, we keep moving to the next step because the most important thing is getting that vacation started right away. So once you get to the room, what I immediately do, if I have luggage, if I have my luggage with me as I put that luggage in the bathtub, and then I start you want to get you a piece of stock. You know white stock preferably so if they have a business car like a white business card at that front desk where you check it in, you know grab that business card or if you got you know if you think you can cut you up a couple of pieces of small white cardboard, you know, like about the size, the thickness of a shoe box, and you want to take that and you want to slide it in between where the headboard meets the wall so the headboard is screwed to the wall, you want to take that that that that piece of stock, and slide it alone the back of the headboard and all the way down and around.
And you look at that, you know, you put you slide it, take it out, look at it. If you see any fecal matter did bedbugs or if you’re lucky, you might find a live bedbug on it. I would immediately stop everything, go back to the desk and start all over again.
Alright, but let’s assume that we don’t find anything. So at that point we we’ve done the inspection of the headboard. Now we want to move to the sham most of the most of these hotels have a sham around the boxspring of the mattress. That’s where you want to take your flashlight out you want to take that sham you want to you want to take a flashlight and shine it along that sham and lift it up look up underneath that which a flashlight and this is where you’re going to find out this is going to be your best friend.
If you get around the entire base of the beds and then find anything up underneath the sham or on top of this Sham. You take that flashlight and you shine it up above the headboard where the wall porta wall meets the sill. A lot of times that wall is textured and most of the places that will be you know vacation and and if you see any black dots, you know there’s fecal matter or you might see live bedbugs or dead bedbugs up there.
Once again Stop go back to the front desk. Now, once if you’ve if you’ve made it this far and you still seeing nothing, you want to take that flashlight and shine it along the top of the curtains where the curtains are bumped together take the flashlight shining along the top of the curtains in a row. That is another great place for bedbugs because if this room has been chemically treated, you know where you know they came in and they wanted to do a chemical treatment in the wrong a lot of times when they’re using these highly repellent products. It’ll force the bedbugs up the wall so the curtains would be a great hide in place for the bedbugs to hide there and then crawl down at night when you’re sleeping and feed. So we’re fine enough in there we continue to move along.
Check the dressers you know if you’re going to be staying for an extended period of time, you know check the dresser drawers pull them out shine your light and see if you see any dead carcasses or dead bedbugs not finding anything there. One of the other places that I want you to look and the reason why I say put your luggage in the bathtub and not on that luggage rack. That luggage rack is a high area for hitchhikers for bed like hitchhiker. So you want to take your light. A lot of times these luggage racks are made out of metal or wood and they have the straps across the top. You want to take those straps lift them up, shine your flashlight in there. Take a look and see if you see any dead bedbugs, carcasses of fecal matter and in the hinges where the legs are hinged together. You want to take a look there as well. Moving on to the closet, we didn’t find anything there. We want to move to the closet where we’re going to be hanging up. Maybe our coats clothing for the week. Shine a flashlight around the closet looking at the floor looking at where the clothes rod is meeting the wall, see if you see any dead bedbugs harboring they’re hanging out or any dead or fecal matter as well as dead bedbugs. And if none of those items are fine if you do not find anything of the sort in there, it is time to start your vacation.
Now these tips are great for families that are vacationing, and they also work great for the business traveler. These are things you can do as you are traveling for business to avoid bringing that bringing that problem back home because there’s nothing like having a great vacation, building these great family memories. Only to find out six months to a year later that you brought back home some visitors which reminds me before I go this is this is another important tip.
When you get home from vacation. Now I said this will likely reduce the chances of you bringing bedbugs back. So when you get home from your vacation, one of the things you want to do is do not put that luggage on your bed do not put that luggage on the couch. You want to put that luggage somewhere where you can maintain it. And one of the things we do we usually bag up all of our clothes and plastic when we’re coming home because if you’re traveling by air, or some of these shared vehicle businesses, you never know who was in that seat before you or what problems they brought with them. So I always pack we always pack our clothes in plastic so that we can deal with that we tie them off to wash you know to wash and dry those items when we get home and we’ll leave the luggage in the garage or in a place if you don’t have a garage you want to bag the luggage up in plastic until you get a chance to inspect it or you can just leave it tied off. You know you can just leave leave it tied up in the plastic bags.
Because if you’re one of one of one of the type if you’re if your family is a type that like to take a vacation once a year, then by the time you take that vacation again if there were any living bedbugs on that luggage they will be dead or you can use that flashlight one final time and inspect that luggage. See if you see anything in the zippers, the seams are toughs on that luggage. And if you don’t find anything there, I would still leave it packed in plastic just to be on the safe side. I will pack the flashlight back in the luggage, pull the batteries out of it, pack it back into luggage so is readily available for you for your next vacation. But this to hear is just as important as your toothbrush. When you’re traveling across the country or out of the country. You always want to make sure you carry a flashlight with you. So I want to thank you for watching this video.
And if you just recently came back from vacation and you feel like hey, you know what we were kind of itchy in that hotel. You know you can pick up the phone right now. You can give Nexus pest solutions a call at 414-355-3732 and you can ask for me I’m Will White. I’ll be more than happy to schedule your home for appointment and come out there and give you a bedbug inspection. Thank you for watching this video, and I hope you have a great day
