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Caption: Signs of a heavy bed bug infestation on the bottom of a box springs. Photo: Lou Sorkin

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Caption: A screenshot showing the comparison tool of the Proof app.

Youre packed for your trip, your boarding passes are downloaded and then that little moment of terror hits. What if the hotel youre going to stay in has bed bugs? Its a real concern, but by being vigilant, you can reduce your chances of bringing home some unexpected souvenirs.

I dont put a lot of trust inonline hotel bed bug ratings or reports; infestation status can change from day to day, and there is no reliable way to verify that reviews are not fake.

Heres how I search for bed bugs when I arrive at a new hotel. I cant promise this is foolproof, but knowing how one slightly-paranoid entomologist deals with the threat of bed bugs might be useful to some readers.

Tools you will need: A flashlight, or the flashlight feature of your phone. Use your phone to take photos of anything suspicious.

What you are looking for: Bedbugs hang out near their food sourceyou. After feeding, bed bugs poop, creating tell-tale brown stains of your clotted blood. You typically wont see bugs they are fairly tiny and can scurry quickly but you will see these stains. You can find many itch-inducing photos hereto help you know what to look for.

1. Put your luggage in the bathtub when you arrive.Luggage is amajor way that bed bugs are moved from place to place. The bathroom has the fewest places for bed bugs to hide, and is the most vigorously cleaned part of a hotel room. If you actually find something suspicious in your search, you can grab your bags out of the tub and run away without risking contamination.

2. Tear the place up.Pull the bed away from the wall, if possible.Headboards fastened to the wall next to the bed are a great place for a flat little insect to stay.Shine your flashlight behind headboards and under beds.Strip the bed, right down to the mattress and bed springs to see whats underneath the sheets and mattress pad. Lift the mattress and box springs up and look underneath. If its a platform bed, inspect carefully under the springs and around the base.Pay special attention to the seams of mattresses and the box springs.These are spots the bugs like to hide in.

3. Check your sheets the next morning.When you get up the next morning, look for little blood stains or tiny rusty spots on your sheets.Reactions to bed bug bites vary widely, from no reaction at all to lots of swelling and redness. You may be one of the people that doesnt react with itching to the bed bug bites, so the presence of bites isnt always a reliable check.Bed bugs sometimes bite ingroups of three but so do fleas, so that isnt always definitive. Dont use luggage racks, closet shelves, or drawers during your stay unless you feel confident that they are bed bug free.

This video is an excellent walkthrough of what should be your standard drill when you travel. Bookmark it. At the end, there are also some good tips for how to negotiate with your hotel if you actually find bed bugs.

Bed Bugs: Theres an App for that.

Itd be handy if you could have all of this info on your phone so you dont miss any steps, and had photos of bed bugs and bed bug poop spots to compare to. Several different apps are on the market at prices ranging from free to $10 bucks.Every app I looked at was put out by a commercial entity, with the purpose of selling you something.

Most also had epically bad user interface (UI) design and graphics; it seemed like pest control companies just ported their vintage 1996 websites into a phone app. Im afraid I must also report there was some use of Comic Sans Fonts.

The problem with a commercially-created phone app is privacy. You hand over a lot of personal information when you install an app. I honestly didnt see much in terms of value added that would make it worth downloading any of these apps. I found joke apps pretending to be bed bug detectors for the purposes of freaking your friends out, and some highly bogus ultrasonic repelling apps that suggest they turn your phone into a sonic threat to bugs of all kinds. There is no evidence that bed bugs or mosquitoes are repelled by ultrasound. Dont waste your money.

Only one app stood out as slightly useful:Bed Bug Proof. (Important caveat: every few screens they try to sell you their product, a neem spray called Proof.) The inspection walk-through is a good overview, and if you give the app access to the photos on your phone, you can access a photo comparison tool. The user interface is clear and easy to use.

Happy Hotel Hunting.

Additional Bed Bug Resources:

Homepage Image: Gilles San Martin/Flickr

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How to Search Your Hotel Room for Bed Bugs | WIRED