Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite

Stay one move ahead of your tiny fellow travellers.

Whether you’re staying at an Airbnb, a timeshare unit or a fancy hotel – business or pleasure – follow these tips on checking your room for bedbugs to ensure that beach sand, fridge magnets and corny T-shirts are the only souvenirs that come home with you.

Bedbugs are small, flat, reddish-brown insects that grow to about 5mm in length. The width of a credit card, bedbugs set up home in cracks and crevices like the seams of mattresses, the inside of bed bases and behind headboards, where they can be in close proximity to their food – blood. They launch nocturnal raids on sleeping humans and pets, sucking up a meal and leaving itchy red welts on exposed skin.

Bedbugs are also skilled hitch-hikers. They stow away in clothing, baggage and other belongings, checking in with guests at even grand five-star establishments. And what checks in, may also check out ...

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