Short answer is that bed bugs travel. If visitors bring bugs in they are going to be there. Same thing with mites. Scabies go through nursing homes and anywhere with large amounts of people. Common in prisons too. Easy to get and hard to eradicate.
The same thing that causes bedbugs anywhere...picking up either the live bug or the eggs and transporting them
the nicest hotels in NYC have had bedbugs...even the best department stores!
there was a documented case of a woman picking up a bug on her winter cost on a bus.
putting your purse down in an area infested can turn you into an unknowing carrier.
there just isn’t anyway to know the answer. There are behaviors that are risky...like buying used furniture. If you buy used clothing..wash it in the hottest water and dryer in high heat for 20 minutes. Destroy the bag you brought it in. Same goes for used plush toys...or anything that can harbor a bug.
My momma is in assisted living and she had bedbugs for seven months! We found out that my brother and sister were bringing them into her apartment because they both had them at their own houses. Here we were trying to figure out where they were coming from and nobody said a word or did anything about their own houses that they had bugs. Momma spent over $7000.00 in getting rid of them. New box springs, mattresses, pillows, comforter, couch, pillow protectors, mattress pads and etc. Assisted living would charge us $450.00 each time the bug man had to come spray. I even had to go to the extreme of banning everybody from the assisted living facility to keep the bugs from coming back. The last incident after I drove five hrs to Alabama to wash Momma's clothes and put her up in a hotel - no sooner that I got back in the car momma went and spoke with somebody at the facility to allow my brother back in - he was banned - momma ended up getting bugs again. Nurse called me and I told her to call my brother. He can clean it up and be charged the $450.00.
the nicest hotels in NYC have had bedbugs...even the best department stores!
there was a documented case of a woman picking up a bug on her winter cost on a bus.
putting your purse down in an area infested can turn you into an unknowing carrier.
there just isn’t anyway to know the answer. There are behaviors that are risky...like buying used furniture. If you buy used clothing..wash it in the hottest water and dryer in high heat for 20 minutes. Destroy the bag you brought it in. Same goes for used plush toys...or anything that can harbor a bug.