Tips for travellers

How to protect myself from bedbugs, when travelling?

Protecting yourself from bedbugs during travelling is almost impossible. They are hard to see in daylight, because they hide well into the bed frame, behind skirting and inside cracks in the wall. Usually, bedbugs are only suspected after the bites start showing up.

What if bedbugs travelled back with me? How to get rid of them?

An adult bedbug is very difficult to get rid of, but the unwelcome visitors are usually the sticky bedbug eggs. However, extermination should be carried out, so that the possible adult bedbugs also die.

From textiles, bedbug eggs can be destroyed by washing them at +60 °C, if the textiles can be washed in that temperature.


In addition, the warmth of a tumble dryer destroys bedbugs. In heat treatment, a direct heat of +45 °C destroys all the development stages of bed bugs in two hours, and at a temperature of +60 °C, in half an hour. A chemical wash destroys all the bed bug’s stages of development.

If the temperature is freezing outside, the luggage can be taken out onto the balcony, for example, and opened up, so that the cold can reach the bedbugs or their eggs. A bedbug dies in one week at a temperature of -18 degrees Celsius.

What other pests or parasites could I catch on my travels?

In regard to pests that you may unwittingly carry back in your luggage, food pests may be travelling in any food products, whilst cockroaches, for example, could be hiding in your luggage. For example, it is good idea to freeze any spices or nuts before using them, and leave them in the freezer, at a temperature of -25 °C, for a week.

Some wood-eating pests have also been discovered hiding in wooden products, when holes have suddenly appeared in the products, with sawdust being found nearby.  However, pests can also be hiding in products bought from Finland.