Fixit: Bedbugs can hitch a ride on luggage

Q Can bedbugs come home in suitcases or backpacks?

A Yes. To prevent bringing bedbugs home with you, carefully inspect your luggage and traveling goods, paying attention to cracks, crevices, seams and folds of material. Remember that bedbugs can be very tiny and young; unfed bugs may be mostly translucent.

If you find bugs, be careful to contain the infestation. If you do not find bugs, the following steps will still provide peace of mind.

• Bedbugs can hitch a ride on people's clothing, but they are not like lice and will not travel directly on a person. If there's concern about bedbugs on clothing, remove suspect articles and place these items in a plastic bag. If possible, remove clothing in a place with a noncarpeted floor, so bedbugs will have to travel some distance before finding a hiding spot. Wipe a wet cloth over the floor to help contain any bedbugs that attempt to escape.

• There's no need to discard luggage and clothing after discovering bedbugs. Instead, place all suspect items in plastic bags until they can be laundered, washed by hand, heated or frozen.

• Before leaving an infested site, sort items that can be laundered and place them in plastic bags. Separate them as you would for washing: light-colored clothes from dark items, delicate hand-washable items from machine-washable items, etc. Separating the clothing permits easy loading of the washing machine, and you can keep bedbugs from escaping as you try to sort the laundry at home.

• Wash and dry items at the hottest setting the fabric can withstand. If you get them dry cleaned, mention that the items may have bedbugs so the dry cleaner can keep the articles in the plastic bags until just before loading into machines.

• Items that cannot be washed can be heated or frozen, making sure that the core of the articles being treated reaches the target temperature. It's believed that a two-hour core exposure at 120 degrees is the minimum target temperature for killing bedbugs with heat. For freezing, a minimum of 23 degrees must be maintained for at least five days. (Most household freezers have temperatures set between 20 and 30 degrees. If you're uncertain of the freezer temperatures, keep items frozen for at least two weeks.)

• If you are still concerned about bedbugs in your home, contact a professional pest control company for inspection and control measures.

Includes information from Stephen Kells and Jeff Hahn, Entomology Department, University of Minnesota.