Recently I've seen reports in the media about bed bugs. They seem to
be becoming more frequent.

When you travel -- don't bring them home.

"The Bed Bug Registry is a free, public database of user-submitted bed
bug reports from across the United States and Canada. Founded in 2006,
the site has collected about 20,000 reports covering 12,000
locations."

http://bedbugregistry.com/

Watch out for the North East and Florida.