Bed bugs can’t jump or fly, but they can crawl. Bed bugs can find their way into your house by hitching a ride on your clothes or your belongings (or your friends).
These small, pesky insects are capable of traveling from continent to continent, so making it across town from your friend’s house is no problem for them.
Admitting to having bed bugs can be an embarrassing experience; not to mention how unpleasant it is to sleep in a bed with bed bugs.
One bed bug can quickly turn into a full-blown infestation. As a result, when returning home from a friend’s house or a hotel room, you need to be conscientious about not bringing back a single bed bug.
Just a few bed bugs can quickly grow in number and turn your life into an itchy nightmare.
Utilizing a few simple preventative safety procedures can save you from a lot of misery later.
It might be an uncomfortable situation blaming your friends for bringing in bed bugs to your home. Avoid an awkward conversation by employing these safety procedures.
To decrease your chances of a bed bug infestation, try some or all of the options we mentioned above.
Table of Contents
Remove Your Shoes Before Going Inside
Decrease the chances of getting a bed bug infestation from your shoes by taking them off before you go into your house. Encourage your friends to do the same. You may have to deal with some unpleasant smells, but the trade off is worth it!
Further reading: How to get rid of bed bug in your shoes?
Bed bugs are transported by shoes, clothes, luggage and almost anything that you carry with you when you travel.
Don’t worry, you won’t have to explain why you’re having your friends take their shoes off (they’ll likely only think you want to keep your floors clean!). In fact, according to a survey performed by YouGov, 34% of Americans already ask their visitors to remove their shoes.
Shift All Luggage & Belongings To A Designated Location
If you’re worried about potentially bringing back bed bugs from a friend’s home, do not bring any luggage and other belongings into your living area. Instead, leave any potentially contaminated objects in an isolated location like a garage.
Your goal should be to NOT let any luggage or belongings enter into your living area before they are vacuumed or cleaned. (More on this later)
The situation becomes a little trickier when you are worried about potential bed bugs brought in by your guest’s luggage. You don’t have to ask your guest to drop their luggage off in a designated room. Instead, do it yourself; you can even do it under the pretense of simply helping out. However, do it as soon as possible as to not let bed bugs invade your home by crawling into the carpet or other materials in your home.
Even if your designated luggage area becomes infested, it is easy to treat a single isolated area. However, if you bed bugs find their way into your entire home, the infestation might get out of control and force you to call an exterminator.
A few easy preventative measures can save you hundreds of dollars on an exterminator.
Treat Incoming Items For Bed Bugs
Want to decrease the chances of a bed bug infestation even more? Use these 3 treatment options:
1) Heat Treatment
This is one of the easiest options to use. 113°F (45°C) of heat for 90 minutes kills bed bugs. For a quick solution, use a portable space heater (close all windows and doors to seal in heat).
2) Washing
The washing machine is your friend. If it’s washable, wash it to get rid of bed bugs. For example, shoes, bags, purses are usually washable. If you did wind up with bed bugs in your shoes, read our article to learn how to get rid of Bed Bug in shoes.
3) Bed Bug Powder
Alternatively, use bed bug powder. There are a lot of bed bug powder products available in the market. Cimexa dust is our favorite bud bug powder which can be used on almost anything.
Sprinkle bed bug powder on items that were at your friend’s house and leave it for a few hours in an isolated location. While bed bug powder products can’t fully eliminate large bed bug infestations, they can bring an otherwise out of control infestation under control.
4) Bed Bug Monitor
A little extra technology never hurts. Place bed bug monitors under each post of your bed to ensure that there are no bed bugs present.
Visiting Your Friend’s Place
We discussed preventing bed bugs from entering your house, but what if you are visiting someone else’s home?
Bed bugs can spread both ways; either by hitchhiking on your friend’s belongings or your own. When visiting a location that has a bed bug infestation, you might very easily bring bed bugs back to your own house.
To recap, here is what you need to do:
- Wash all clothes and shoes you are bringing back from your friend’s house or anywhere else you visited; and
- Put items in a separate room and use the above mentioned techniques to kill as many bed bugs as possible.
REMINDER
These techniques aren’t guaranteed to eliminate every bed bug but they can significantly decrease the chances of an infestation. BIG TIME!
Conclusion
Implementing the above preventative measures will decrease your chances of getting a bed bug infestation in the first place and save you hundreds of dollars on an exterminator.
Bed bug treatment is one of the most expensive procedures in the pest control industry.
Have any questions? Or suggestions that we can add? Feel free to contact us!