The article suggests hospitals as a source of some recent bed bug infestations in Swansea, South Wales:

Marc Everitt, the owner of Swansea-based pest control firm Pest-Ex, said: “No-one is safe – bedbugs don’t go by postcode and they can affect anyone. We have seen a massive increase recently.”

Mr Everitt said he had also dealt with a number of infestations that had broken out after people had stayed in hospitals.

“We’ve had cases where elderly people have returned from hospital and have suddenly found that they’ve got an infestation,” he revealed.

“It’s difficult to prove a direct link. But the evidence suggests that that’s the place the bugs are being brought back from.”

He added: “The problem is that even if you don’t have them, you can catch them off your neighbours and so they spread very quickly and very easily.”

Watch the horror as bed bugs cross the UK and Ireland via our Clustrmap of readers’ locations.

Anyone planning a return from the hospital might do well to follow some of the recommendations in our travel FAQs for not bringing bed bugs home: here, and if you are pretty sure you were in a place that had bed bugs, then also read this.

Yes, people staying in hospitals often have much more serious things to worry about than bringing bed bugs home, and it’ a shame they have to think about this as well as staph infections, and whatever they went to the hospital for in the first place. I can only imagine having to deal with bed bugs after a serious illness, injury, or surgery: prepping for treatment, exposure to pesticides, the cost — what a nightmare.

We have sometimes heard people on the Bedbugger Forums consider whether they got their bed bugs during a hospital visit. In related news, this article details a bed bug infestation in a Canadian pediatric unit, and this article mentions how Cincinnati’s Pamela Mackey came home from a hospital, opened an envelope they’d given her, and found a bed bug inside.

• What do you wish people knew about bed bugs?
• Bed bugs at Maryland’s Hashawha Environmental Center
• The Times (UK) on bed bug epidemic in the USA
• bed bugs clear Port Jervis, NY Hospital’s mental health unit

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First, learn a little bit about the enemy. Read the Bed Bugs 101 FAQs on this site, and use the links to bed bug photos to learn what bed bugs look like at different life stages.

Click to download this PDF of this comprehensive article by entomologists Steven Kells and Jeff Hahn of the University of Minnesota, which describes the steps you should take if you’ve been exposed to bed bugs. Remember you have the most chance of avoiding bringing bed bugs home if you take the necessary steps before getting in your car or going to your home or anyone else’s home. It is possible to spread bed bugs to your car as well as to other locations. Following the steps in the PDF carefully as soon as you realize the exposure to bed bugs means you probably won’t bring any with you.

If you already are home before you realize the problem, do follow the same steps listed in the PDF regarding inspecting luggage (do it over the bathtub so you can see the bugs and kill them easily) and cleaning luggage, clothing, and other items. If you are home before you realize the problem, and you brought possibly infested items in (including the clothing you’re wearing as well as any luggage), then you should quickly do some major cleaning where the luggage has been brought in and where you sleep (vacuuming, steaming, etc). If you brought home a bed bug or two and have not found them, it is sometimes possible to get rid of them before they take root. Even if you don’t find any bed bugs, and you’ve done all the cleaning and followed all the other steps in the PDF, you might consider taking some time to declutter, so that if you do have any bed bugs, the signs will be more visible. You should be on the alert for several months.

Once home, if you do find bed bugs or signs of bed bugs in your luggage, clothing or in any rooms, call a PCO right away (we have a FAQ on choosing a good one who knows bed bugs). Save any samples to show them.

Finally, if you got your bed bugs in a hotel, hostel, or other accommodations, please do leave a review on Tripadvisor.com, to warn others of your experience.

A note about using freezing temperatures to kill bed bugs: Kells and Hahn and Michael Potter have slightly different ideas about the temperatures and length of time needed to kill bed bugs. According to Michael Potter’s article from the January 2007 PCTOnline, Steven Kells is apparently researching the method of “leaving things out in cold weather,” with the inevitable fluctuations in temperature. For now, until we have definitive data, I’d err on the side of caution and go for colder temperatures and longer time frames wherever possible.

• FAQ: How can I avoid bedbugs while traveling?
• More bed bug research: Stephen Kells at the University of Minnesota
• FAQ: Leaving stuff out to freeze, walk-in freezers, etc: how cold and how long?
• Possible travel solution for bed bugs?

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