After Travel: Keeping Hotel Bed Bugs Out of Your Dayton Home

At the hotel

• Luggage on the rack or in the bathroom, never on the bed or carpet.
• Check the mattress seam and headboard before unpacking. Ohio’s hotel statute: no bedding “infested with vermin or bedbugs shall be used on any bed in any hotel” (ORC 3731.13). Montgomery County’s Transient Accommodation Program licenses and inspects hotels and motels (937-225-4460). Found something? Different room, different floor, and tell the desk.

At home

1. Unpack on a hard floor away from bedrooms.
2. All clothing to the dryer on high for 30 minutes before washing. OSU: “Tumble dry infested clothing or bedding on high heat (≥130 F) for 30 minutes.”
3. Vacuum the empty suitcase seams with a HEPA vacuum; seal the case in a bag until the next trip.
4. Inspect shoes, toiletry bags and books; bag what you cannot heat.

Why the sealed bag

A bug in a suitcase can wait months (OSU: six months or more without a blood meal). A sealed bag in the garage is one you can forget safely.

Bites within two weeks of a trip

Inspect the bed first. A trip followed by bites is the one pattern that earns an immediate look at the seams. Where to look →