How To Clean Your Luggage From Bed Bugs? Here’s How!

How To Clean Your Luggage From Bed Bugs? Here’s How!

It’s terrible to discover you have bed bugs in your suitcase after traveling through several countries.

I wondered if there were any bed bugs in my luggage and wanted to find out more about how to remove them.

Launder your luggage and put all your belongings into a sealed plastic bag. Be sure to empty all the belongings and check for any bed bugs hiding in there.

After unpacking the suitcases, take them outside or into a garage. Vacuum the bags with a brush to altogether remove any dust particles.

Wash the suitcase thoroughly with soap, take a scrub brush along the seams and the pockets, and make sure everything is dry before putting it away. Heat-treating the luggage will make it much easier to dry it.

It’s essential to check for them your luggage when you’re in a place where many people visit and have been, for instance, in a hotel, motel, or bed & breakfast.

Here’s a more detailed way to clean the luggage step by step:

1. Unpack the suitcase: Put all your belongings in sealed plastic bags or trash bags. When going away, be sure to place items that may contain bed bugs in plastic bags, so they won’t be around if any bed bugs are still left in the house. Ensure to unpack your items somewhere where you don’t have bedbugs, for example, outside in your backyard or garage. Avoid bringing any household items into your home before they are cleaned. Cold or hot killing the bugs will remove any unwanted germs
2. Launder the belongings: It’s essential to turn your possessions into the dryer at least once in a while to kill any bugs, eggs, or bed bugs inside. So wash on the highest setting that can deal with them, then put all clean belongings in the plastic bag.
3. Vacuum the luggage: Use your vacuum with maximum power on a brush or the crevice tool. Vacuum everything inside the suitcase before going to bed, and then vacuum it all again in the morning. After you finish vacuuming the bed, you can place the bags in the room and seal them with tape to avoid bed bug escapes. If you have it here, you can also use bug spray and vacuum again. 
4. Wash the suitcase: Wash out all the seams, pockets, corners, and seams with a sponge, and then apply some cleaning products to clean them thoroughly. The best way to ensure no bed bugs is to use a steam heater to heat the luggage. You don’t have to worry about bed bugs anymore because this is how to kill bed bugs. Just throw out your dirty clothes and throw away the suitcase if you suspect that it has bed bugs.

Remember that high heat temperatures are very effective at killing bed bugs.

The pros will help you with any pest control problems. You should contact your state pesticide agency for help if needed.

If nothing has worked for you, or you’re not sure it’s worth it, you might want to try buying a new suitcase.

 The pros will help you with any pest control problems. You should contact your state pesticide agency for help if needed.

If nothing has worked for you, or you’re not sure it’s worth it, you might want to try buying a new suitcase.

How to prevent and protect bed bugs from your luggage

Bedbugs often travel between furniture and items, so they can easily travel from a bed to your luggage. That’s what you have to do to prevent this.

The best way to ensure that your luggage will not get damaged is to minimize the contact between the hotel’s floors and your luggage by placing it on metal racks. Some hotels even have special devices to protect your luggage from touching the floor or carpet.

Living off suitcases on the rack is not the most comfortable and awkward, but that is probably the best way to prevent bed bugs from getting into your bags.

You can also use larger plastic bags or just large Ziploc bags to keep the luggage inside while you are in a hotel.

You should check your room to see if it has any traces of bedbugs before you put out your entire luggage or put the bags on a metal rack.

When you see specks of blood, a dark stain, or red spots in a bed, these could be signs that you have bed bugs in this room. So use a bright light to look closely at the bed, furniture, and floors for tiny blood or red spots specks.

Just look it over before you unpack your suitcase. Don’t unpack if it’s not nice and clean to empty it.

Another way to verify that your hotel room is entirely bug-free is to ask the people at the front desk when your room was last inspected and how they handle bed bugs.

Why do you get bed bugs in your luggage?

Traveling around and often hitching a ride in someone’s luggage is how bed bugs move around, especially when you’re traveling on a plane or train.

They will fly with you and lay their eggs in your luggage if that is where they think there are more hiding places.

Bed bugs are tiny and super-sneaky if you think you have them. Please don’t panic and do the steps above to get rid of them.

Do plastic bags for bed bugs on suitcases work?

Yes, you could use a plastic zip bag to put all of your items in and seal them. That would be an intelligent way to organize everything is protected.

If it’s sealed and plastic, it’s unlikely that the bed bugs could get in.

If you want to get rid of bed bugs, they are an option, but it’s extra work.

Does bed bug spray for luggage work?

This spray has the active ingredient Permethrin. It kills bugs and insects, such as fleas, ticks, spiders, and other insects.

Don’t forget to spray generously for it to work. This one from Amazon does the trick.

Does heat treat luggage bed bugs?

This is true. If the temperature of your luggage reaches 117 degrees to 122 degrees F, your luggage will be safe from the bed bugs and their eggs.

There’s something called a bug-killing suitcase. It heats the suitcases, which supposedly kills the bed bugs.

How to know if you brought bed bugs home

You can easily recognize them. They’re tiny and have a rust-colored body.

Look around your bed, your mattress, the head of your bed, and your furniture.

Another sign is that if you have any rashes or bug bites, not all people will react to bug bites.

Look for red rusty, looking stains on your bed sheets or on your bed mattress that could signify bed bugs.

Conclusion

You can quickly bring home bed bugs by storing your luggage and belongings at an infested hotel. You don’t have to worry about bed bugs. They won’t make you sick, but if you get bites or scratches from them, it can cause a skin infection.

If you get bed bugs in your luggage, do not be afraid, you can eliminate them and clean the bags with the steps I listed above.

Read More:

Checked Luggage In 2022