What to Do If There Are Bugs on Your Plane
Bedbugs aren’t just for beds anymore. A Canadian family was bitten by bed bugs during a nine-hour flight to London . To make matters worse, the mother saw the bug and knew it was early in the flight, but the crew said there was nothing they could do.
Frequent travelers are used to looking out for bed bugs in hotels , but what about planes? I asked some entomologists and then immediately got on a plane for a five hour flight. (I’m happy to report that I have not seen bedbugs.)
First, the bad news
“It would be difficult to conduct searches on an airplane as a passenger,” says urban entomologist Jody Green, who asks questions about all kinds of bugs at the University of Nebraska annex . Bedbugs hide in cracks and crevices, and you can be bitten without even noticing.
This means that the airline cleaner may not see them either. In the pocket of the back of the seat I found the garbage of the previous passengers; the crew cannot kill bedbugs within ten minutes between the disembarkation of one group of passengers and the beginning of boarding another.
Your worries don’t end when you get off the plane. Bed bugs can get into your luggage, including your purse or laptop bag. Greene says, “The main goal is NOT to bring them home.”
Ok now take it easy a little
This may be a little consolation, but bed bugs do not carry disease or cause serious health problems (although you may have allergies or a bad reaction, like bee stings). Green suggests several things you can do to get rid of them. Protect yourself:
- Cover exposed skin. Bedbugs cannot bite through most clothing, although tights are probably not good enough protection. A Canadian mother in a recent news report found bites on her arms, neck and waist.
- Bring your own seat covers if you’re serious about it. And your own blanket or sleeping bag too.
- Wrap your luggage in plastic. Little buggers can’t get through.
I stopped Green here to tell her that I really don’t want to be a weirdo on a plane with plastic baggage. “I think the same,” she said, so she unpacks her luggage in the garage and examines everything thoroughly before bringing anything into the house.
When checking your luggage after your trip, look for small, poppy or apple-sized flat bugs. Entomologist Joe Bullenger, who answers questions in Ask an Entomologist , points out that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions as soon as you see something crawling; “The most suspected bed bug photos we get sent are not bed bugs.”
If you can catch a bug, store it in a plastic bag (you can put it in the freezer to kill it) and send a photo to someone who can help you identify it. In addition to Ask an Entomologist, many public universities have an extension that answers questions like this. And they can give you advice, as in this detailed infographic , on how to get rid of a bed bug infestation.
One final word of caution: you may not always be sure where your bed bugs come from, even if you know when you first felt the bites. It can take up to 48 hours for them to experience itching or soreness, and some people don’t have much of a reaction at all. Bullenger suggests notifying the airline you flew and any hotels you have stayed at. And here’s a nice thought: “If you bought them at the hotel, you could introduce them to the plane you were flying. In my opinion, it is safer to communicate to both parties. ” So this vile man who brought bedbugs on the plane? Maybe you.