How do I make sure my luggage doesn’t have bed bugs?

Place your luggage on a hard elevated surface – not on the floor, and not on upholstered furniture. If you can't find a suitable surface, put your luggage in a dry bathtub, or leave it in your car until you've done a quick inspection.

Once the items inside your suitcase have been taken care of, it's time to inspect your luggage. Use a flashlight to check seams, folds and pockets for bugs or eggs. Vacuum the suitcase using a brush and crevice tool attachment.

Essential Travel Items to Prevent a Bed Bug Infestation

ThermalStrike Heated Luggage is the world's only luggage that kills bed bugs. The technology is built-in. Simply connect the luggage to the cable, plug it in, and set the timer to begin automatically treating your belongings. All heating and safety components TSA and FAA compliant.

However, in more than ninety percent of cases bed bugs spread with luggage. The little bloodsuckers have an uncanny knack of hitching a lift in suitcases, handbags and lap-top cases. Once introduced into your property, the bugs conceal themselves in the smallest of cracks and crevices and await a chance to feed.

Although bed bugs can survive several weeks without a blood meal, it is likely that any bed bugs in luggage would exit that temporary harborage in search of a host person after a week or so.

Wash everything on a high temperature or sanitary cycle for at least 30 minutes. Placing everything in the dryer on the hottest setting for 30 minutes will also kill bed bugs and larvae. Immediately after you're finished putting clothing in the washer, tie up and throw out the empty garbage bag in an outdoor trash bin.

You may have them for a while, but may not notice them until weeks, or even months later. Bed bug eggs take anywhere from six to 12 days to hatch, and the adult life span can be anywhere from six months to a year. That's why it's important to know these early signs of an infestation.

Most times, clothing, bedding and furniture from a home with a bed bug problem can be treated and do not need to be thrown away. If you decide to dispose of items, they should be carefully sealed in a plastic bag or container first so the bed bugs don't spread.

Protect your luggage from bed bugs by treating the outside seams with Ortho® Home Defense Max® Bed Bug Killer before you leave. When you arrive at you hotel, place your luggage in the bathtub or bathroom of your hotel room. Bed bugs are less effective at traveling up slippery surfaces like tile.

To avoid bringing home an infestation, the first thing you need to do is protect your luggage. Once bed bugs burrow themselves into the crevices and seams of your suitcase, they can stay alive without a feeding for up to four months.

With their tiny size, bed bugs don't need much air to breathe and just enough air can be in a sealed bag to keep them kicking for months. While lack of air certainly is a good start to eliminating bed bugs, trapped inside they will starve to death before suffocating.

Heat is one of the best ways to kill bed bugs. Pest experts use professional heating elements to kill bedbugs. You can also use a steam cleaner with a diffuser to kill bed bugs hiding in fabrics and baseboards.

Bed bugs do not like to climb or stay on smooth plastic materials. Placing small items in plastic containers or in sealed heavy-duty plastic bags will prevent bed bugs from infesting the items. In an infested home, placing clutter in plastic containers will make bed bug elimination efforts easier.

Store dirty laundry inside sealed plastic bags

Studies show that bed bugs are attracted to the odor chemicals in dirty laundry. They will actively climb towards piles worn clothing, even if they're in your suitcase.

It's highly unlikely you'll find a bedbug in your hair since they prefer to hide out of sight away from their host. It's plausible that a bedbug could wander onto your scalp while you're sleeping, but it's extremely unlikely it will want to live there.

Yes, bedbugs can make their way onto airplanes — even in first class. "Bedbugs can survive on planes inside luggage, and any other form of transportation," says Frye.

However, that is not the right call. It feels counterintuitive, but you should continue sleeping in the same bed. Moving to a bed or couch in a different room will spread the bed bug infestation into other areas of your home and make them harder to kick out.

Myth: Bed bugs won't come out if the room is brightly lit. Reality: While bed bugs prefer darkness, keeping the light on at night won't deter these pests from biting you.

Bed bugs can live for as long as 4.5 months or more in an empty house before completely dying off.

If you suspect that you might have bedbugs, it's a good idea to check your mattress and bedding for rust-colored spots — this is what bed bug excrement looks like. Another sign could be shed exoskeletons that look like coffee grounds.

Bed bugs have another defense system that prevents you from feeling you've been bitten. They inject an anesthetic (numbing) and an anticoagulant (stops bleeding) into your skin when they bite. You may not notice you've been bitten until the bite marks appear, which can take from one to a couple of days after the bites.

They are visible to the naked eye. Adult bed bugs are usually brown in colour. When filled with blood, their colour ranges from red to dark brown. They are oval in shape and about the size of a flattened apple seed, 4 to 7 mm in length.

Fortunately, bed bugs should not be able to survive the high temperatures of the washing machine. By setting the water temperature to around 50°C (122°F) or higher and using a dryer on the highest heat setting, you should be able to effectively kill all bed bugs and their eggs.

It is not normal to see bed bugs after treatment especially the same ones. If you still have bed bugs after 3 treatments it is most likely because they are coming into your home again from you frequently visiting a place that has a bed bug infestation.

Hotels usually get rid of bed bugs by reaching out to certified pest control professionals, which provide several means to control the infestation. These methods may consist of vacuuming, steam or heat treatments, and insecticides.