My friend is understandably upset. Her landlord stopped by this weekend. Bed bugs have been found in one of the units in her apartment complex. Not in her building, thank heavens, but close enough to cause concern.

Of course, my friend is worried about getting bed bugs in her home, but she is more concerned about how this might affect her job. She works as an aide to hospice patients. Should bed bugs spread to her apartment building, she is extremely worried about spreading them to her patients. Skin breakdown is a serious problem for people who are bedridden. For her patients, bed bug bites could cause not only extreme discomfort, but bed sores, which are both painful and very slow to heal.

My friend is afraid that if she tells her employer, she won’t be scheduled to work. Since she supports a four-year-old son, she can’t afford to lose any income. But she wants to be fair to her employer and patients. My friend went round and round all weekend trying to decide how best to handle the situation. This is what she decided to do:

• Be proactive. She bought bed bug-proof mattress covers for the two beds in her apartment and encased both her mattresses and box springs. (Click the post title to find out more about mattress encasements.) Since my friend has a limited budget, this will protect her mattress from bed bugs by sealing them out. It will also make it easier to spot and kill bed bugs if they invade her apartment. Not only will the little buggers show up against the cover where they can be vacuumed up or smashed, but they won’t be able to hide in her bed.
• Minimize socialization. She made the decision to minimize social contact with other people in her apartment complex. Not an easy decision for a 26-year-old single mom, but a wise one. Bed bugs are easily spread on clothing and an infected friend could unwittingly bring them into her apartment. Or she could become infected visiting a friend in an infested apartment. Since bed bug activity may be hard to spot in the early stages of an infestation, my friend made a wise, if difficult, choice.
• Daily inspections. She carefully inspects her body (and her son’s) for welts and her bed for dark smears — both evidence of bed bug activity — every day.
• Tell your employer. She did tell her employer who, largely because of the proactive measures she had already put into place, was more supportive than she expected.

If bed bugs spread to her unit, my friend will have to take more drastic steps to protect herself; but for the time being, with the menace two buildings away, she is doing all she can to ensure that neither she nor her patients become infected.

Don’t let bed bugs spoil your summer vacation. When you get to your destination, before you even take your luggage out of the car, inspect your room. If you arrive by taxi or hired car, keep your luggage tightly closed and place it in the middle of the floor away from furniture or walls where bed bugs may harbor. If you’re traveling with the family, limit potential exposure by having the children wait in the car or lobby while you inspect the room.

How to Have a Bed Bug-Free Vacation
Scouting the Enemy
What to Do When You Arrive at Your Destination

• Know your enemy. Here’s what to look for:
  Shed skins – Like snakes, bed bugs shed their skins as they grow, so look for tiny, dry husks.
  Spotting – Black dots indicate fecal spotting.
  Live bugs – Bed bugs are small, flat oval bugs about the size of a pencil eraser when full-grown. Color is light brown when young, turning dark brown with maturation.
• Muster the troops. You don’t want to injure yourself or damage the property, so enlist the management’s aid in inspecting mattresses and moving furniture away from the wall.
• Inspection. Grab the disposable gloves and flashlight you packed and give the room a thorough inspection.
  1. First take a look at the walls, particularly near door frames and air vents. When a room becomes heavily infested, bed bugs will seek to expand their territory, congregating in these areas.
  2. Bed bugs like to hide in cracks and crevices so check the baseboards behind the bed, dresser and nightstand. Completely remove and look inside and underneath drawers.
  3. Remove bed linens and inspect the mattress, particularly along seams, rolled edges, handles and tags.
  4. Check behind the headboard and anywhere the mattress abuts the wall.
  5. Check dust ruffle seams.
  6. Look underneath the mattress and at the box springs, especially where the dust cloth is stapled to the frame and around plastic corner guards.
  7. Check all furniture and objects in the room, particularly in cracks,crevices and undisturbed places.

If the room passes muster, you’re likely to have a bed bug-free vacation. However, in early stages, bed bugs are so tiny, you may not be able to detect their presence. You may want to take a few extra precautions:

• Keep your possessions in your suitcase and keep it closed and zipped as much as possible.
• Keep your luggage off the bed, away from walls and off luggage racks.
• A glass table with metal legs is the safest place for your possessions.
• Push the shower curtain to the side and hang clothing in the middle of the rod.

Next time: Moving out: Packing tips for coming home.