Dayton's Pest Control

With the holidays comes an increased amount of travel.  You can pick up bedbugs in many different places, but the most common place to pick them while traveling is in hotels.  Before booking a hotel, check out customer reviews to see if other travelers have reported bedbugs.  Start with sites like IgoUgo, TripAdvisor, and Bedbug Registry.  When you first enter a hotel room, be extra careful about where you put down your luggage, preferably away from the bed.  Here are some more tips on avoiding bedbugs in your own home.

Don’t panic.  First make sure you really have bedbugs, not fleas, ticks, or other insects.  Getting rid of bedbugs can be difficult, but it is not impossible. Don’t be so alarmed that you throw out all of your belongings…most of them can be treated and saved.  In addition to being costly, throwing out belongings may actually spread the infestation and cause you added stress.

Think through your treatment options and don’t immediately reach for the over-the-counter remedy.  It is advised to bring in a professional that is well-educated in effective pest management techniques to eliminate bedbug infestation.

Clean up your clutter to reduce the number of places bedbugs can hide!  A cluttered home makes locating and treating bedbugs more difficult.

Frequently wash and heat-dry your bed linens to reduce bedbug populations. Bedbugs and their eggs can hide in laundry containers/hampers so clean them when you do the laundry.

Bedbugs are excellent hitchhikers, so be careful not to pass them on to others. If you throw out a piece of furniture that is harboring bedbugs, take steps to destroy the item so that no one else adopts it (along with the bedbugs)!

Thorough vacuuming helps reduce populations and therefore the likelihood of getting bitten. Carefully vacuum rugs, floors, under beds, around bed legs, bed frames, all cracks/crevices around the room, and upholstered furniture. Change the vacuum bag after each use so the bedbugs can’t escape. Place the used bag in a tightly sealed plastic bag and in an outside garbage bin.