I-95 Bedbug Alley

As the major north / south artery for vacationers in the USA, hotels, motels, and even quaint B&B’s are prime candidates for bedbugs. With infestations rampant in the northeast, travelers unwittingly transport bedbugs from their home to the hotel they stop at on their way to their destination. Once arriving, they spread bedbugs to their hotel or rental apartment or home.

As the economy crashed last year and vacancy rates soared for the hospitality industry, hotel owners find themselves trying to cut corners and trim budgets, unfortunately for travelers, pest control budgets also suffer.

Imagine stopping for a night at a hotel on the way south. You check into your room, put your luggage down on the carpet or bed, unpack and go to sleep. While you're sleeping bedbugs may be crawling into your luggage or clothing. Even if you are not bitten or don’t realize you’ve been bitten, ( not everyone experiences welts or itching, especially the first time bitten ) you could become a host, or at least your belongings become the host. Now you continue merrily on your way, with the tiny vampires in your stuff. Bedbugs , by the way, can live for a long time without feeding and the warm tropical air you so enjoy, is also a welcome reprieve for your little guests. Arriving at your destination you unpack, put your clothes away and your luggage in the cupboard or closet. A few days later all hell breaks loose.

It’s one thing if you're staying for only short time, a few weeks, in a hotel. Sure the vacation will be most unenjoyable but you will leave relatively quickly, to go home, taking your friends back with you. But what if you are staying for the season. A proper course of pest control can cost thousands of dollars. It can mean insecticides, replacement of mattresses and furniture, you might have to stay somewhere other than your place while eradication is done.

Here are 6 very important steps to take to prevent this nightmare:

1) Use a site like bedbugregistry or even travel sites with hotel rating and feedback from customers, to research the hotel you plan on staying in.

2) When you check into your room DON’T put your luggage on the carpet or bed, or any upholstered furniture. Use only hard surfaces like the desk or luggage rack.

3) Inspect your hotel room very, very carefully. Check the headboard, behind the headboard if possible,the mattress seams UNDER the sheets, not just a quick look, and the baseboards in back of the bed. Inspect the drawers if you are going to use them.
You are looking for brownish rust colored stains, if you see them or if you see bedbugs, even dead ones, leave immediately.

4) Bring good quality, big, garbage bags to put you clothes and even luggage into while you at the hotel. There are specialty products for this purpose but garbage bags are an efficient , cheap alternative to protect your belongings.

5) Use a high quality, washable travel sheet to protect yourself just in case you miss a few bedbugs on inspection. Companies like Allersac manufacture and sell products just for this purpose and you won’t have to worry about unclean bedding as well.

6) When you arrive at your destination, spraying your luggage with one of the many bedbug sprays on the market would be a very smart idea. If you can . leave your luggage outside or in the garage just in case. This especially applies when you go back home.

By now you might be thinking these precautions are overkill but the alternative, bedbug bites and infestations, are much worse than then the time and effort to preform them.

Anti Allergy -Pest Travel Sheet
Protection from unclean bedding, pests and detergents