READ OUR LATEST ARTICLE!





Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite When You Travel on Your Holiday Vacation - December 2011

Many people travel over the holidays, and if you're one of them you need to be especially vigilant for bed bugs.

Even the best luxurious five-star hotels and resorts can occasionally get an infestation of bed bugs.  This is sometimes unavoidable because many hundreds, or even thousands of travelers and tourists can be staying at a hotel or resort at any given time.

These little blood sucking critters can easily hitch a ride on unsuspecting travelers or hide in their luggage. 

Hotel and resort managers are very aware of this problem and do their best to prevent this from happening. 

What do these pests look like?

Bedbugs are very tiny, flat, wingless bugs.  Their size can vary from a head of a pin to about one-quarter of an inch in length when fully mature.  They have an oval shape and look like very small watermelon seeds.  Their color can vary from a translucent yellow to a dark reddish brown.  If they have just dined on a person’s blood they may appear dark brown or black in color. 

How easy are they to detect?

Most travelers are not aware of bedbugs until they see the red bite marks on their bodies and start scratching their itchy wounds.  Bed bugs can be extremely difficult to find if the infestation is light.  Their eggs are very tiny and about half the size of a grain of rice which are even harder to see.  To make matters worse they tend to be nocturnal so they are waking up and looking for a blood breakfast when most vacationers are going to sleeping.

When you check into your room it is advisable to roll the bed sheets, blankets and comforters all the way down to see if you can find any bed bugs.  A tell tale sign that they are there are dark fecal spots or drops of dried blood on the linen, pillowcases, or in the seams around the mattress or box springs.  You may also find what appear to be shells of bed bugs which are in fact the skins that they shed as they mature. 

If you find any sign of their presence, call down to the front desk and ask for another room.  You may be able to get a discount on your room for the upsetting experience and inconvenience.

However, know that bed bugs do not reflect on the cleanliness of hotels and resorts.  These insects do not eat crumbs or dirt, or anything we may associate with unsanitary hotel room conditions.  They only feed on blood. 

In terms of a vacationer’s health, current research indicates that these insects do not appear to spread disease even though they can harbor well over twenty-five different pathogens. 

Not everybody gets bitten by bed bugs 

Sometimes, if there are two travelers sleeping in the same bed, only one may get bitten.  However, bed bugs do not discriminate.  Given a chance they will gladly dine on anyone’s blood.  Bed bugs are attracted to the heat of our bodies and the carbon dioxide that we exhale when we breathe.  They also release chemicals to attract and find each other.  These night crawlers move fast and are excellent climbers.  They can quietly tag along in a traveler’s luggage or on their clothes. 

If you plan on traveling during the holidays, or if you travel frequently for work, check out the products on our Products pages of our website.  Check out the PackTite Portable Heat Unit and the Bug Zip Large Encasement Bags.  The bags are also great to help keep your roll- aboard luggage segregated from other travelers' bags in the overhead compartments.  You may not have brought back any hitch hikers, but the bags next to yours may have many critters!

A lack of public awareness is one of the reasons we’re seeing a resurgence of these critters.