How many times have you dumped your gym bag and yoga mat in the bedroom or on the floor, before running back out to pick up the kids from soccer practice or heading to a meeting Any bed bugs that hitched a ride from gym are now in your home...
Whether you find your inner peace through bikram yoga, Pilates or pumping iron at the gym, nothing ruins your motivation like finding bed bugs. Coming across these insects will definitely interrupt your ‟namaste” moment. Even worse, imagine taking them home with you, on your gym clothes, running shoes or yoga mat, potentially causing a bed bug infestation that is the literal stuff of nightmares. Yuck!
To preserve your peace of mind while you’re out practicing a healthy lifestyle, here’s a quick look at the connection between bed bugs, bikram yoga and locker rooms or gyms. We’ll also provide some helpful links to answer vital questions like what causes bed bug infestations, how to stop bites from itching and, moreover, what to do about getting rid of bed bugs.
Hot Yoga Studios, Gyms and Bed Bugs
Insect identification is probably the last thing you’re thinking of while you’re aligning your chakras, practicing an active lifestyle or getting ready for swimsuit season, but unfortunately, it’s something you should get good at if you like attending fitness classes. Any public location – like a yoga studio, health club or recreational center – can be a potential ‟hot spot” for bed bugs. That’s because bed bugs hitch rides from infested homes, apartments, offices and hotels on your classmates’ clothes, gym bags and other personal belongings – yoga mats included. So, how do you get bed bugs? Simple: They crawl from one person’s infested items to yours, kind of like travelers catching a connecting flight. Then, the bed bug bites begin.
Making matters worse is the fact that many people go straight from their workout to their homes without taking the proper precautions. How many times have you dumped your gym bag and yoga mat in the bedroom or on the floor, before running back out to pick up the kids from soccer practice or heading to a meeting? Any bed bugs that hitched onto your belongings in the gym are now roaming around your home, waiting to feed on your family and begin their infestation.
If you are concerned about bed bugs in your workout space, you should ask the employees what they are doing to limit your risk of exposure. Studios, locker rooms and gyms are also breeding grounds for certain parasites, bacteria types and dust mites. For steps on what you can do to facilitate cleaner gym environments, check out bedbugs.com or your county health department’s website.
Your Daily Bed Bug Mantra – Vigilance
So, whether it’s hot yoga, spin class or lifting weights, the Terminix® guru advice remains the same: stay vigilant. Here are some smart precautions that you should take.
Keep all of your towels, shoes, clothes and personal items isolated in a sealable plastic bag while you’re at the health club. Don’t expose anything – whether it’s out in the open, in lockers or on the floor – during your class, especially your shoes and gym bag.
After class, carefully inspect your yoga mat, clothing and other belongings for bed bugs. You can find out what bed bugs look like bed bug checks on your kids when they come home from sleepovers or movie outings. Infestations can be difficult to remove, often requiring multiple treatments.
So, practice your standing separate leg stretching pose as you search under beds, along mattress seams and inside of bed frames at hotels. Learn how to stop bites from itching and how to get rid of bed bugs should they ever break through your defenses.
But most of all, remember to share the light on Facebook and Twitter with your friends and family. The higher the population of enlightened exercisers in your community, the lower your risk of visiting an infested workout space. Together, we can remove bed bugs from the fitness lifestyle.
