By Kari DePhillips

The next time you’re on a hot and heavy date, remember that before you decide to take the party to a stranger’s bedroom, there is one little reason that the kitchen counter might be the better venue for that impulsive fling: bedbugs.

In the past months, there has been an increase in incidents of bedbugs in America – and there is no indication that the situation is getting any better. Here are some tips on how to make sure that your romantic encounters in 2011 leave you sleeping tight without the pesky bug bites:

• Scope out your date’s hot bod. Does it look like your date just visited the Amazon…and got eaten alive by the strange bugs there? If he looks like he’s covered in fleabites, look around his place for pets. If Fido’s nowhere to be seen, you may be in bedbug territory.

• Asking doesn’t hurt. Before you get into a strange bed at someone’s house, you should ask if the person has bedbugs. There are casual ways that you can bring it up – such as:

• “Do you have any beer? What about bedbugs?”

• “I’m allergic to certain fabric softeners…what kind do you use and when was the last time that you washed your sheets? You didn’t happen to find any bedbugs then, did you?”

• Search the bed for signs of bedbugs. Before jumping into the sack, check the sheets for dried drops of blood. Bedbugs’ bites bleed a little and when there is a major infestation there will be specks of blood in the sheets. Make sure you check the frame of the bed and between the mattress and the headboard if the romantic tryst takes place during the day. Bedbugs hide in these areas during the day. If you get caught, you can always play the “I think I dropped my watch in between your mattresses” card.

• If you get bedbugs, act quickly. One (really gross) word: infestation. If you have them at your home make sure that you take the necessary steps to eradicate them. The use of pesticides and plastic wrapping your mattresses can be a good start to getting rid of the pests, but many suggest that you bring in the professionals when dealing with these resilient little buggers.

Due to the recent explosion of bedbugs in big cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, you might want to take these steps to reduce your chances of exposure. Yes, you may look like a crazy person as you scope out the sheet situation at your date’s house, but at least you won’t have creepy critters crawling all over you.

*To find more information on bed bugs: 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.