Bed bugs may be tiny pests, but they can have a big impact on your household. While there are plenty of methods and products to treat a bed bug infestation once it’s begun, there are also several methods to prevent the introduction of bed bugs to your home from happening in the first place. The best offense against bed bugs is a good defense—so here are a few ways to defend your home from these parasitic pests.

While many people associate bed bugs with hotels, any public place with lots of foot traffic can spread bed bugs, including public transportation, waiting rooms, and yes, hotels. There are steps you can take while staying in a hotel that can prevent taking bed bugs back home with you.

Bed bugs can be introduced to your household by hitching a ride on you or your pets. To prevent this, make sure to bathe your pets regularly and inspect them for signs of bed bugs bites. Don’t forget to check pet beds and carriers for bed bugs as well.

Prevent Bed Bugs When Traveling

When traveling, check your hotel room intently for any signs of bed bugs, including headboards, mattresses, and dressed drawers. Make sure to wash all clothing upon arriving home from a trip, and when traveling use a large plastic zipper bag inside of your luggage to store your clothes. When selecting a piece of luggage, opt for hard cases instead of fabric suitcases, as it offers bed bugs less places to hide, and never lay luggage on a hotel room floor, but instead place it on top of a dresser. When bringing luggage back from a trip, you can also store it in a less hospitable environment, like a garage, so any potential bed bugs are contained to that area.

Used Furniture

Bed bugs can be introduced to your home by infesting an item you bring inside. These pests can remain dormant or hide on secondhand belongings. When buying furniture or clothing secondhand, be sure to check crevices for signs of bed bugs and clean all items immediately. Bed bugs can hide around the bottom of bed frames or the seams of couch cushions. By steam cleaning all items before they enter your home, or washing and drying clothing, like stated before, you are using a proactive method to prevent bed bugs from spreading into your home.

Does Cleanliness Matter?

It is a commonly held myth that bed bugs infest places that are unclean, but that is not the case. Bed bugs are attracted to the carbon dioxide humans exhale, and their sole food source, the blood of humans and animals. A significant contributing factor to the issue of bed bugs is the stigma that surrounds their infestation. Many people view a bed bug infestation as being a sign that they keep a “dirty house”, but uncleanliness is not what attracts bed bugs. Just by people living in a home, bed bugs are attracted to it. While bed bugs may not have been introduced to your home because it is dirty, there are other environmental factors you can put in place to prevent bed bugs from infesting your household.

Clutter or crowded spaces do not cause bed bugs, but do provide hiding spots for the tiny pests. Removing clutter prevents bed bugs from having a place to hide, and makes it easier to detect them before they can gain a foothold in your home. Vacuuming on a scheduled basis prevents bed bugs from hiding in carpet fibers. General cleanliness can prevent the inhabitation of many pests that can introduce bed bugs to your home, like mice or rats, so by preventing a rodent infestation, you also prevent a bed bug infestation. Make sure to seal cracks that could provide hiding spaces for any pest, be it rodent or insect, and install door sweeps to prevent bed bugs from hiding under or around door frames.

Products To Help Prevent Bed Bugs

There are specialized products to prevent bed bugs from infesting your home. While some households use professional exterminators, they can be expensive and take a few tries to fully exterminate the pests. While some people swear by essential oils to repel bed bugs, others use mattress protectors and bed bug interceptors around their bedframes as a precaution. If you choose to purchase bed bug preventive mattress liners, make sure to carefully check the teeth of the zipper. A zipper with teeth spaced too far apart can allow juvenile bed bugs, also known as nymphs, to escape and continue to spread throughout your home. It is also wise to buy mattress protectors and sheets in a light color so bed bugs are easier to spot.

The easiest product you can use to prevent a bed bug infestation is your everyday plastic garbage bag. Not only can you use them to protect clothing while traveling, but plastic garbage bags are crucial in treating bed bugs and isolating infested items. If you are worried about bed bugs but do not currently have an infestation in your home, you can use plastic bags to carry items to your dryer and use its heat to kill any possible bed bugs hiding in your linens, while the plastic bag prevents spreading any bugs while transporting them. There are even dissolvable bags that you can place possibly infested bedding in and throw directly into the wash, further preventing the spread of bed bugs.  Take care if using a shared laundry facility, and transport your laundry home instead of folding it at the laundromat, where other patrons could be washing infested items. If you have an infestation, make sure to bring new plastic bags for clean clothes, and dispose of the bags used to bring your items with you.

A bed bug infestation can be a costly nuisance to an absolute nightmare, but there are many steps you can take to prevent bed bugs from ever taking up residence in your home. By preventing the introduction of bed bugs, providing an environment less hospitable to bed bugs, and using products that prevent an infestation, you can stop a bed bug infestation before it ever begins.