How To Prevent Bed Bugs?

In order to keep bed bugs out of your life, as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Taking a few key steps to prevent bed bugs from ever coming into your life can potentially save you thousands of dollars and significant emotional stress.

1. Travel light and inspect your room upon arrival

If bed bugs are going to come into your life, the most likely of scenarios involves you traveling somewhere and bringing them back in your luggage.

Bed bugs don’t typically hitchhike on your physical body due to their aversion to warmth, but will take refuge on your clothes or assorted belongings in your bags.  

Entomologist Dr. Waldvogel recommends the following to safeguard your luggage from bed bugs when you travel:

(Click for full size)

• Enclose your clothes and other belongings in plastic trash bags
• Avoid placing luggage on or around the beds but rather use the luggage stands
• Use a steamer or insecticide designed for fabric to spray your luggage
• Place pest strips inside your luggage after use and leave the luggage in your garage or some other isolated space
• Unload stored clothes from trash bags directly into the washer and dryer
• Consider alternative heat treatment options

A lot of advice includes checking the mattress and box spring for bed bugs as soon as you arrive to the room, which is good advice. We even talked to Mike Fischer, owner of Fischer’s Pest Control in Las Vegas who says bed bugs are very common in high tourist areas (like Las Vegas).

However, just because you spot something doesn’t automatically mean it’s bed bugs.

So be careful!

2. Run your clothing and luggage through the dryer (or applying direct heat treatments)

Further emphasizing the points from above, putting the clothes you used during travel directly into the washer and dryer could help eliminate any bed bugs you bought with you. The University Of Minnesota breaks this process into three main steps:

1. Sorting Infested Clothes: Separate dry-clean-only clothes and other clothes into multiple piles. Dry-clean-only clothes can’t be washed but they can be put into the dryer on high heat. Bag up the clothes and migrate (carefully) to the laundry room.
2. Washing And Drying: Empty each bag into the washer/dryer (dryer only for dry-cleaning). Dispose of the transporting bags and seal in separate clean bags.
3. Sorting Clean Clothes: Once the clothes are clean, fold and put away if your home is deemed bug free. If you’re home has bed bugs, separate and/or seal the clean clothes in bags and store until the house is safe.
4. Apply Direct Heat: Alternatively to washer/dryer, you could buy a product that would apply direct heat treatment to your belongings when you suspect bed bugs. These products cut out the need for washer/dryer and usually stand on their own.

Additional Resource On Bed Bug Prevention

• To learn more about preventing bed bugs when traveling, read an excellent article “8 tips to avoid bed bugs when traveling” from our friends at HiTravelTales.com.

3. Avoid second-hand furniture/clothes

Using Craigslist for your second hand furniture purchasing needs may sound like a great idea, but it also begs the question… bed bugs?

I would recommend you entirely avoid second hand furniture or anything else second hand unless you’re heavily aware of the item’s past ownership. But if you can’t pass up a good deal (I know I can’t) Dr. Peek from Oklahoma University put together a couple key ways to go about prevention:

• Sofas And Chairs: Inspect the under the cushions, seams,  push down on the springs, and look under the item for black spots. After you buy, consider using a steamer to heat up the item (bed bugs hate heat) and leaving them in an isolated location with bed bug traps.
• Clothes: For second hand clothes, the same treatment applies as if you were traveling. Wash and dry your clothes with as much heat as possible without ruining the fabric.

What to lookout for with bed bugs?

This picture illustrates black fecal spots “feces” left behind by bed bugs on the corner of a mattress. If you’re buying any furniture second hand, keep an eye out for these spots. Here are a bunch more pictures of bed bugs in case you need to see any more examples of what to look out for!

When buying second hand anything from anyone, you should always ask probing questions as far as item history and/or usage. If you’re buying from a thrift shop, ask them if they do anything to clothes that come into the store. If any sort of heat treatment is involved when new goods arrive, that is good sign.

We’d also recommend checking out our bed bug steamer and vacuum guide to aid in your heat treatments.

4. Be aware of the early signs

Being able to spot the early signs of bed bugs could mean the difference from a full extermination and killing one bed bug to eliminate the threat.  The key is knowing what those early signs look like and what to do about them when you see them. Some early bed bug warning signs include:

Bed Bug Bites

At the start of an infestation, you might get only one or two bed bug bites. But the problem is that they look like and feel almost exactly like mosquito bites, so in the beginning when you’re only getting a few, it’s easy to write them off and to not care. In my experience, bed bug bites, are WAY itchier than mosquito bites, take significantly longer to fully heal, and are prone to scaring.

Stains On Your Sheets

A second early sign that indicates bed bugs would be stains on your sheets. After bed bugs take a bit of your blood, they attempt to escape, occasionally, you might roll over them, or squish them as they make their exit.

Squishing a bed bug full of blood will of course result in blood on your sheets.  This blood should be an early indicator to watch out for. 

That’s not to say every time there is blood on your sheet, it’s bed bugs, but it’s just another early sign to be aware of.