Over the past 15 to 20 years, bed bugs have been entering our cities at alarming rates. These pests are great at hitching rides into your home unnoticed and hiding in hard to reach places, so once they are in your home they can be very difficult and costly to get rid of. Since they can be such a nuisance to deal with it is best to avoid them as much as possible.
To prevent bed bugs from entering your home you must understand how bed bugs can first get into your home and how to find them if they do enter your home.
How do bed bugs get into your home
Bed bugs can get into your home many different ways, the most common being by hitching a ride in your clothing, luggage and/or electronic devices when you travel to places that may be infested with bed bugs.
Two very common places that you may find bed bugs while away from home are hotel rooms and public transportation. Since you are directly or indirectly in contact with so many strangers while travelling on public transit or staying in a hotel, there is a high chance that you can come in contact with bed bugs.
If you come in contact with bed bugs while travelling they can easily go unnoticed, hiding in your clothing until you reach your home. Once they make it into your home they can spread very quickly before you even realize they are present.
Having this information, make sure to keep an eye out for bed bugs after being in places that have a tendency to be infested with them. Before you enter your home, check the common places that they would normally hitch a ride (your clothing, computer or luggage) to ensure you didn’t pick any up.
How to keep a lookout for bed bugs
Preventing bed bugs from hitching a ride with you while travelling is only half the battle. If you do pick up any bed bugs while away from home, the sooner you find them, the easier it will be to get rid of them.
To ensure that you can find them easily before it becomes a major problem in your home, follow these steps:
- Keep your home tidy, removing any clutter on the floors, thus decreasing the amount of places they can hide from you
- Clean your house regularly and inspect common places that bed bugs hide such as the seams of your mattress, cracks in your bed frame and behind baseboards
- Keep a lookout for clear bed bug warning signs such as feces and small blood spots on your bed sheets
It would be very difficult to realize if bed bugs have hitched a ride home with you while travelling but much easier to regularly check your home for signs of these pests. If you follow the steps above you will be able to notice a bed bug problem at its early stages, making it much easier to deal with the issue. Bed bugs are very difficult to get rid of so make sure you hire a qualified exterminator to do the job properly.
