Alberta Health Services says there are some tips the public should be aware of in order to help avoid bringing bedbugs into your home over the holidays.

Health officials say bedbugs are able to latch onto handbags and travel luggage.

In order to prevent the pests from entering your home, officials suggest the following:

  • Take everything out of your bag, purse, backpack or briefcase. Check everything thoroughly for bedbugs. Throw out anything that may hide a bedbug but that can't be cleaned. This may include day timers or notebooks.
  • Thoroughly brush out or vacuum your bag and/or put it in the dryer on hot for 30 minutes. To avoid doing this every night, do not put your bag on a chair or on your bed.
  • Store your bag where bedbugs are unlikely to get to it; e.g. in a sealed plastic bag. A white one is best because bedbugs are easily visible on a white background.
  • Hang your bag in an uncluttered closet. Your bag cannot touch anything that may hide a bedbug or allow one to get to your bag.
  • If staying with family or friends overnight, take clothing that has come directly from a hot dryer to a sealed plastic bag. A suitcase has lots of hiding places and not all of them are cleanable. Pack a bag you are sure is bedbug free.
  • Ensure gifts are stored in a way that isolates them from the bedbugs in your home. Keep gifts sealed in tightly-closed plastic bags without holes. Double bagging is a good idea.
  • Wrap gifts on a bedbug-free surface, like a kitchen table. Once gifts are wrapped isolate them in double plastic bags that are sealed.

And if your home is currently being treated for bedbugs, health officials suggest the following tips to help avoid spreading them:

  • Put the clothes you plan to wear in the dryer for 30 minutes on hot. This should include socks, coat, toque, scarf and mitts.
  • When you take clothing out of the dryer, give them a shake to dislodge any dead bugs still clinging to your clothes. Seal the clothes in a tightly closed, clean plastic bag.
  • Get ready to leave. The last thing you are going to do before you leave is get dressed.
  • Put on the clothes from the plastic bag. Avoid coming into contact with an area infested with bedbugs. Get dressed in a bedbug-free place, like the bathroom, even in the bathtub (Bed bugs are easier to see on a white bath tub).
  • Leave. Do not sit down. Do not brush against anything in your home where a bedbug could be hiding.