Bed bugs post #2

What can you do to prevent a bedbug problem?  If you never travel, you might be able to avoid the problem.  But if you are travelers like us, the key is to become informed consumers.  According to WebMD, “Look for the bugs themselves or their bloodstains, especially along the seams of mattresses. Further, look for dark spots of insect waste where bedbugs might crawl into hiding places on furniture, walls, and floors.”  http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/slideshow-bedbugs

When David went to talk to the local exterminator company, he/we learned a lot about bed bugs.  There are several products available to protect yourself and your luggage.  There are preventive sprays.  There are large luggage size plastic bags in which you can enclose your suitcase. There is even a large heater which a person can heat their luggage to kill any bed bug hitch-hikers. 

Here are some of the recommendations we follow:  we bought the preventive bedbug spray and sprayed our luggage and let it dry thoroughly.  We plan to reapply it periodically.  When we enter a hotel room, we place the suitcase on the wooden luggage rack (not the bed or even the carpeted floor.)  We inspect the seams of the mattress/mattress cover for bed bugs or their signs (dark spots of animal waste or reddish brown specks which are from blood).  Look at cracks of the bed frame/head board.  Bed bugs may be hiding in couches and chairs and between cushions.  

We’ve never found any of these signs.  If we ever do find any of these signs, we will take our luggage and march down to the hotel office and tell them what we’ve found.  We will not stay in a bed bug infested room.  We will ask what other accommodations can be made for us.  Pictures of bed bugs (magnified) can be found at http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/slideshow-bedbugs.