My personal bedbug tip is: prevent them from hitching rides in your suitcases, by opening and unpacking your suitcases away from the beds, in your hotel room's vestibule. The good news is that bedbugs do not transmit disease.
In his August 22, 2011 eNewsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil offers the following bedbug tips:
What to look for:
oval, flattened, brown, wingless, 1/4 inch long, that produce welts on skin
blood and orangish-brown spots of bug feces on pillows and sheets
unpleasant, pungent odor, in or near bed
check behind hotel bed frames, and under mattress covers, and mattresses for orange-brown fecal spots;
when you get home from your trip, wash clothes in hot water, and store suitcases in hot car trunk or attic
at home, use mattress covers designed to suppress bed bugs (some hotels, but not all, hotels use them; our job is to verify which hotels have them on all their beds)
Dr. Weil reported that getting rid of bed bugs isn't easy, because they seem to be developing resistance to pesticides. Since bed bugs cannot survive extreme heat, ask a professional exterminator to try pumping hot air into your bedroom, before using stronger pesticides.
