The case in summary: Bed bugs are on the rise again after the pandemic due to increased travel activity. The insurance company and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health encourage you to check beds for bed bugs to prevent their spread. If bed bugs are discovered, it is recommended to change hotel rooms and not unpack all your luggage. Clothes and luggage can be frozen to kill any bed bugs. It is recommended to check whether household and travel insurance covers outbreaks of pests, as control can be expensive. It can take time before you notice that you have bed bugs. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – The risk of bringing in bed bugs is constant, and it is accommodation that is most at risk, says researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Anders Aak. In recent years, they have registered around 3,000 treatments for bed bugs in Norway. The incidence is greatest where there is a high flow of people. During the corona pandemic, there was less travel activity and the number of bed bug attacks was thus lower than it had been for many years. But when society reopened, the bedbugs began to spread again. – Now we have started traveling and staying in hotels again, and then we see that it is increasing again, says Aak. 80 per cent of the population have planned to go on summer holiday this year. This is shown by a survey Kantar has carried out on behalf of NHO Reiseliv. Despite both increased travel and the number of bed bug exterminations, FHI hopes that the trend will reverse. And that’s where you and I come into the picture. – If people examine their beds and check that there are no bed bugs there, then you won’t get them home either. Then the problem will be reduced over time, as we saw the effect of during the pandemic. But where to start looking for the bed bugs? Aak believes that good information work can help prevent bed bugs in the home. Photo: Maria Kommandantvold / news In a video on Facebook, biologist and subject specialist at Norsk Hussopp Forsikring, Maren Trones Christiansen, shows you exactly that. – Bed bugs are something you don’t want to bring home. It is unpleasant to be bitten, and it is expensive to get rid of it, she says in the video. And the work starts as soon as you enter the door of your hotel room: Examine the bed Maren Trones Christiansen recommends placing your luggage in the bathroom and starting a small check as soon as you enter the room. – You are most likely to find bed bugs in the seams of the mattress. But the bed bugs can also be found in bedside tables, wardrobes and other places in the bedroom, says Christiansen. – Bed bugs are nocturnal. This means that they hide for large parts of the day. Especially when it’s bright. And when you go to bed, they crawl out. Photo: Norsk Hussopp Forsikring If you find small, black spots, it may be faeces from the bed bug. – Check the room as soon as you arrive. And should you find bed bugs, you should definitely ask to change hotel rooms as soon as possible before you start unpacking. Do not unpack all your luggage If you search the room with a flashlight and magnifying glass without finding any bed bugs, you can collect your luggage. Ingeborg B. Engh, building technical advisor and subject manager at Huseierne, temporarily advises people to be careful where they store their suitcases. Engh recommends using the flashlight on your mobile phone when looking for bed bugs. – Check under the sheets and the edges of the bed. Lie down on the floor and look under the bed to see if you can find any cracks where they can hide. Photo: The homeowners – Leave your things in the suitcase and close the zip on the suitcase or bag to prevent bed bugs from crawling in there. Some people put their luggage in the bath, says Engh and adds: – There is much less risk of bed bugs in the bathroom than in the bedroom. Furthermore, Engh recommends being careful about where you put your clothes. – The best thing is to have everything together in the suitcase. If there is something you want to hang up, I would hang it in the wardrobe and close the doors. But I wouldn’t put any of my clothes on the bed. It is not wise. Even when you get home, there are precautions you may want to take. Freeze clothes and luggage – It is a difficult process to get rid of the bed bugs once you have them in your house, says Maren Trones Christiansen. Bed bugs are resistant to several insecticides and can hide in inaccessible places. But there is advice: – You can, for example, send clothes and household goods in the freezer. Often you also need a professional pest control company to carry out treatment. – It is very invasive to carry out that fight. And it can be quite expensive. I myself have insurance that covers it. Bed bugs are reddish brown and have an oval and strongly flattened body shape. Adult bed bugs are between 5 and 6 millimeters long and 3 millimeters wide. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news Ingeborg B. Engh recommends freezing the entire suitcase if bed bugs are suspected. – You can freeze the clothes and put them in plastic bags that you tie up. If you leave them in the freezer for three days at minus 18 degrees, the bed bugs die. Take out insurance Maren Trones Christiansen encourages everyone to check whether household and travel insurance covers outbreaks of pests. – If you don’t have cover for it, you have to shell out around 30,000 for a fight. Myths about bed bugs: Biologist and subject specialist at Norsk Hussopp Forsikring, Maren Trones Christiansen, debunks myths about why and where you can bring bed bugs with you: – Many people think that bed bugs are connected with cleanliness, but that has nothing to do with it, says Christiansen and adds: – If you stay in an expensive five-star hotel, an Airbnb, or a cabin in Norway, you can take it with you wherever you travel. Norsk Hussopp Forsikring notices progress and has more customers reporting bed bugs But according to Christiansen, people only start reporting bed bugs in August and September. – Those who have brought bed bugs with them may only bring one or two home with them. And then you don’t notice that you have bed bugs at first, but as time goes by and they multiply, you will over time start to notice more and more bites. Published 10.07.2024, at 19.36
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How to protect your home – news Nordland
