What Causes Bed Bugs to Come?

There has been an explosive rise in bedbug populations for two main reasons. The first is the rise in international travel, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People go to bedbug infested areas and the bedbugs can hitch a lift in a traveler's luggage. The second reason is the banning of the popular broad-spectrum pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, which greatly harmed the environment.

Luggage

• Bed bugs easily slip into luggage, sleeping bags, overnight bags, backpacks or purses of travelers and vacationers because of their flat bodies. Young bed bugs are almost colorless and very difficult to detect. They can even hide inside the traveler's clothes, according to the CDC. Luggage or purses should never be left open in the floor or on a hotel room bed. Travel with plastic trash bags. Place small pieces of hand luggage in the plastic bags when they are kept in a hotel room. Place luggage in large trash bags as soon as you arrive home to prevent the home from becoming infested.

Infested Hotels

• All hotels, motels or bed and breakfasts have a high possibility of infection just because they are exposed to so many travelers from all over the world. Before relaxing in a hotel room or unpacking a suitcase in a hotel room, first check it for bed bugs. Lift the bedding to expose part of the mattress. See if there are any small dark or blood-red spots. These spots are bed bug feces. If there are spots, get out of the room and, if possible, out of the hotel.

Used Furniture and Mattresses

• Used furniture and mattresses left on curbsides or at yard sales may seem like a bargain until you discover that they harbor bed bugs. Bed bugs are so flat that they can even slip into the crevices of photo frames. Never bring home mattresses, furniture or picture frames that have been left on the sidewalk for the garbage, even if they are odorless and seem fine. Used furniture such as couches need to be checked for bed bug feces before they're taken home.

Other Infected Homes

• Entire buildings such as apartment complexes or dormitories need to be simultaneously treated for bed bugs, even if only some rooms are infected. Otherwise, the bed bugs will simply move from the apartment being treated into an apartment that is not being treated. An entire home needs treatment and not just one room, or the bed bugs will just go from one room to another.