How Do You Avoid Bed Bugs? Essential Tips for a Pest-Free Travel Season

American Pest shares prevention tips for travelers to avoid bed bugs during Bed Bug Awareness Week

With the summer travel season underway following Memorial Day weekend, many of you and your friends and family will be taking long trips and weekend escapes. While it’s nice to bring back mementos and vacation keepsakes, there is one thing you don’t want hitching a ride back home with you or your family — bed bugs.

Bed Bug Awareness Week (June 1-7, 2025) offers an opportunity to learn about these pesky critters and how to detect, prevent, and treat infestations effectively. If you’re heading out of town this summer, American Pest experts have rounded up a few tips to help you avoid bringing any unwanted travel companions like bed bugs back home.

Steps to Avoid a Bed Bug Infestation

• When entering hotel rooms, immediately place your luggage and personal belongings in the bathroom area, ensuring they rest on either a tiled floor or an elevated surface rather than on the carpet or the bedspread to help avoid bed bugs getting into your luggage.
• Inspect for bed bugs by checking all potential hiding areas — pulling back bedsheets and examining mattress seams, particularly the corners, for any stains or spots.
• Inspect the entire room, including behind the headboard, baseboards, pictures, and even torn wallpaper, inside dressers, drawers, closets, in-between sofa cushions and chairs.
• Use a small flashlight for better visibility if lighting is dim.
• Look for signs of bed bugs such as bloodstains on bedding, tiny dark fecal spots, or a sweet, musty odor, and request to change rooms or establishments immediately. Do not stay in an adjacent room.
• After returning home, be sure to vacuum and inspect suitcases outside before bringing them indoors.

How Do I Know if I Have Bed Bugs?

While signs of bed bugs aren’t always obvious, there are things to look out for. Just because you have them doesn’t mean they came from wherever you stayed while traveling. Bed Bugs are also found in public spaces.

I’m Noticing Bug Bites. Is this a Sign?

Although bed bugs are not known for spreading infectious diseases to humans, bites from these little blood suckers can cause extremely itchy skin reactions. Bed bug bites often appear as swollen, red marks, frequently in a line on the face, arms, and hands. Reactions to bed bug bites can vary: some individuals develop red or purplish marks without irritation, while others with allergies may experience more severe skin reactions. It can take between one day and two weeks for bite marks to become visible.

Bed bug bites can also be difficult to tell apart from other bug bites wounds and skin conditions, such as:

• Mosquito or flea bites
• Hives
• Fungal infections of the skin.
• Eczema

While bites alone won’t confirm whether or not you’re dealing with a bed bug infestation, a single bed bug sighting often indicates a larger problem. If you suspect bed pests, have a licensed pest control specialist inspect your home or the affected area as soon as possible to confirm and take steps to eliminate bed bugs to avoid widespread infestation.

To learn more about bed bugs or to schedule an inspection, contact us today.