Traveling this summer? Check for bed bugs before making yourself at home
Don't let the bed bugs bite, New Jersey.
You should take that mantra more seriously during the summer months. As travel increases, so do the opportunities for these blood-loving pests to move from one location to the next, including your home.
Bed bugs are essentially hitchhikers. Once you're in a hotel room or rental home that's infested, they latch on to your clothes and/or belongings and end up wherever you do.
According to Dean Averna, CEO of New Jersey-based BedBug Chasers, it'd be wise to do a quick scan of an unfamiliar room before setting yourself, or your bags, down.
"Pull that cover back, pull the sheets back," Averna said. "You want to look around the seam of the mattress."
But bed bugs also tend to hide in areas around the bed, Averna said. Check the baseboard molding in the room, as well as the bed's headboard.
"In addition to the bugs, what you really need to look for is fecal spotting," he added. "If you see what appears to be ballpoint pen dots around that headboard, that should be your trigger."
Bed bugs aren't know to spread or transmit diseases, but their bites can definitely be a pain. Averna said a bed bug's traditional mark is two or three bites in a row - "breakfast, lunch and dinner."
A woman's recent Facebook post that went viral blamed Harrah's Resort Atlantic City for several bed bug bites on her body.
"Out of an abundance of caution, any rooms that may have had an issue have been taken out of service and are undergoing a precautionary deep cleaning," Harrah's said on the Facebook thread.
If you're suspicious of bed bug activity in your home, extreme heat and washing linens are usually suggested as a solution. But those approaches don't always guarantee a clean sweep.
Averna said professionals can use the help of canines to determine a home's problem, and pinpoint the location.
"The dog is able to pick up on the pheromone scent of both the bug and a viable egg," he said.
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