{"id":476,"date":"2012-07-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/bedbug-free-travel-with-pets\/"},"modified":"2012-07-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T00:00:00","slug":"bedbug-free-travel-with-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/bedbug-free-travel-with-pets\/","title":{"rendered":"Bedbug-free travel with pets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bedbugs: no insect grabs as many headlines. But you can keep them from grabbing headlines atyour<\/em>\u00a0house by making sure your pet doesn\u2019t pick any up on the road. And it\u2019s not that difficult or pricey.<\/p>\n

Jeff Ehling\u2019s Action 13 piece<\/a>\u00a0on protecting pets from bedbugs on the road featured several commonsense tips for bedbug-proofing your cat or dog \u2013 but first, he talked about whether a vacation infestation is even something you need to worry about. Well, unfortunately\u2026it is. A research entomologist, Jeffery White of Bedbug Central, told Ehling that \u201cany pet\u201d could become a \u201cfood source\u201d for a bedbug, including birds and rodents \u2013 and Ehling also cited a fairly disturbing survey that found 67 percent of pest-management businesses have treated hotel rooms for bedbugs. (Note: that means two thirds of the companies\u00a0treated<\/em>\u00a0the problem \u2013 not that two thirds of hotel rooms\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0the problem. That\u2019s how we read it at first, and we totally vowed to sleep in the car for the rest of our lives until rereading the stat.)<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve all heard the icky stories about hotel-room bedspreads and, um, underwhelming attention to cleaning detail anyway, so, as much as we might want to believe that our vacation digs are spotless, it\u2019s totally possible that a previous occupant brought in bedbugs \u2013 and the little jerks are now looking for a ride out of town. Pet hair is perfect for that. Good news, though: according to the\u00a0American Veterinary Medical Association\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Kimberly May, the pests don\u2019t usually \u201clive on pets long term,\u201d and also don\u2019t pose as much of a biting problem as fleas and ticks.<\/p>\n

Still: nobody wants \u2018em around. How to make sure Rex doesn\u2019t pick up unwanted passengers, and then infest your house:<\/p>\n

Inspect hotel rooms and other lodgings.<\/strong>\u00a0Do this before you bring your pet inside. It might take a few minutes, as White told Ehling that you\u2019ll want to check the out-of-the-way spots bedbugs prefer, like the headboard or the box spring. But you won\u2019t need a magnifying glass or specially-trained beagle; you can see bedbugs with the naked eye.<\/p>\n

Monitor your pet\u2019s bedding.<\/strong>\u00a0This is where an ambitious insect is most likely to hitchhike, so before you leave, treat your pet carrier with a repellent spray (make sure it\u2019s pet-safe, or ask your vet for a recommendation). On the road, eyeball the bedding regularly \u2013 and maybe confine it to the bathroom, where bugs are less common (and easier to spot). Check it each time you leave a hotel or rental, before you put it in the car \u2013 and before it darkens your doorstep at home, launder it in the hottest possible water. If the outside of the mattress is torn, giving critters a place to burrow and\/or hide out, get rid of the entire shebang. If you can afford it, you might consider keeping a second carrier and\/or set of bedding just for trips.<\/p>\n

Monitor your pet.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019d do this anyway, and again, bedbugs aren\u2019t known carriers of disease \u2013 but their bites will annoy your pet, and if you see them, you can fight them. Ehling\u2019s piece suggests making a pit stop at the groomer\u2019s even before you get home and unpack, for a quick shampoo and de-bug before Fido flops down on the couch.<\/p>\n

Ehling adds that flea and tick sprays aren\u2019t proven to fight bedbugs \u2013 but they can\u2019t hurt, and will of course guard against other parasites that WOULD do harm.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not trying to add to anyone\u2019s bedbug-anoia here \u2013 sometimes, all worrying about bedbugs does is give you phantom itchies \u2013 but when it comes to pets and travel, it seems pretty easy to stay on top of any problems. If your pet picked up a bedbug or fifty on the road, or if you\u2019ve got any prevention tricks, please share in the comments!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/shine.yahoo.com\/pets\/bedbug-free-travel-with-pets.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bedbugs: no insect grabs as many headlines. But you can keep them from grabbing headlines atyour\u00a0house by making sure your pet doesn\u2019t pick any up on the road. And it\u2019s not that difficult or pricey. Jeff Ehling\u2019s Action 13 piece\u00a0on protecting pets from bedbugs on the road featured several commonsense tips for bedbug-proofing your cat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2,25,26,27,34],"tags":[239,120,109,110,2632,2633,540,121,78,95,36,99,237,231,2533],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-associates","category-empower-network","category-empower-network-review","category-general-blog","category-online","category-testimonials","tag-philippines","tag-a-new-lease-on-life","tag-affiliate-marketing","tag-affiliates","tag-bedbug","tag-bedbug-free","tag-behaviour","tag-blog","tag-dogs","tag-empower","tag-empower-associates","tag-empower-network","tag-empower-network-review","tag-empowerment","tag-pets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/simonlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}