Doctors warn against unpacking your suitcase as soon as you get back from holiday

Most of us source great pride in unpacking our suitcases as soon as we get back from holiday.

After all, if you don’t do it immediately, you run the risk of letting the bag sit, festering, on your bedroom floor for days.

And yet, experts have suggested that a less organised approach is, in fact, advisable if you want to avoid lumbering yourself with some unwelcome tourists.

Doctors point out that hotels and hostels are a hotbed of bedbugs: those most notorious of blood-sucking parasites that are incredibly hard to shake once they set up shop somewhere.

The issue here isn’t to do with cleanliness, but with human traffic. Bedbugs like to install themselves where there is a constant supply of food (aka our blood), and so accomodation settings are an ideal home for them.

Given the number of guests that come and go, the likelihood of pests being transported into such places is pretty high, as IFL Sciencenotes.

And once they’re in, they’re dogged in their determination to stay.

Bedbugs are notoriously hard to get rid of once they install themselves in your home(iStock)

How can we avoid picking up bedbugs?

Experts recommend that when you go on holiday, you keep your luggage in the bathtub.

This may sound strange, but the reasoning is pretty sound: bed bugs avoid places that are easily flooded – they have no desire to be washed down a plughole – and so by placing your bag in a bath, you’re making it harder for them to sneak on board. (Just don’t forget to take it out when you need to wash.)

So when should you unpack?

If you have reason to believe you’ve stayed somewhere infested with bedbugs, you should ideally leave your suitcase unopened for two weeks – during which time the pests will all die.

However, understandably, most of us need access to our belongings sooner than that, in which case, sticking your clothes and washable items on a hot cycle can kill the bugs and their eggs, leaving your home contamination-free.

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