Life doesn’t end if your home or apartment is invaded by bed bugs. You will still want to visit with friends and family. Or you may just need to take a vacation away from the problem.

There are a few simple precautions you can take to limit the possibility of spreading bed bugs when you travel. Bedbugger.com offers some traveling tips from people who have been there:

• Become a minimalist. Take the absolute least amount of stuff possible. Repeat outfits, mix and match, wear the same pair of shoes with everything. If you’re going on vacation, plan to visit a laundromat every few days. It’ll give you a change to read those guide books you picked up.
• Travel light. Don’t take a suitcase unless you really have to. Pack your clothes into zip-lock bags hot from the dryer. Put all the zip-locks into a larger plastic bag and carry them that way. Zip-lock now sells huge storage bags with handles that make perfect “suitcases.”
• Deep six the cosmetic bags and travel totes. Carry toiletries in zip-lock sandwich bags. Don’t take your hairdryer or curling iron, borrow from your friends.
• Keep your stuff in your car while you’re visiting. Use your car trunk as a dresser, taking out of your car just what you need. Store your dirty clothes in a plastic bag in your car. Keep your coat in the car too. If it’s winter, you won’t die from exposure walking the 20 feet from your friend’s front door to your car. The point is, the less you take into someone else’s house, the less the chance of carrying in a hitchhiking bed bug or two.
• Bake the bugs. If it’s summer, load your stuff into the back seat of your car a day or two before your trip, park in full sun with the windows rolled up tight, and let it bake. The heat will help destroy any stray bugs that might have sneaked into your stuff while you packed.
• Buy fresh. Don’t take magazines, books, maps or guide books from home. Buy fresh after you leave home.
• Say it with flowers. Don’t carry hostess gifts from your home to your destination. You may wind up giving your family or friends a little gift no one bargained for. Purchase gifts en route or shop ahead and arrange for them to be shipped directly from the retailer. Of course, you can always have flowers delivered.

By taking a few simple precautions, you and your friends will enjoy your visit — and remain bed bug free! For more information on bed bugs and how to get rid of them, click the post title. If you have bed bugs, Stern Environmental Group is the expert in bed bug eradication — guaranteed. You’ll sleep well tonight when you get “Stern” with your pests.