The very thought of bed bugs is enough to make any traveler's skin crawl.

Orkin pest control recently released its annual ranking of the worst U.S. cities for bed bugs, with popular destinations like Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, among the top 10, but that doesn't mean you should avoid visiting.

Orkin entomologist Benjamin Hottel tells USA TODAY wherever he goes, "I just assume when I'm going that there could be bed bugs there, and I take precautions."

Here's how to protect yourself from bed bugs when you travel.

You can look for bed bugs around headboards and mattresses.

However, if the mattress has a bed bug-proof encasement, Hottel suggests leaving that alone. Some hotels use the encasements as proactive measures, but others may have had prior infestations.

"Bed bugs can last over a year without feeding. And so, per chance that there was an infestation within the last year there and they put an encasement on, you wouldn't want to open that up," he said.

He doesn't suggest messing too much with headboards either if they're fixed to the wall.

"You could bang on it if you wanted to," he said. "If there were bed bugs behind it, they may scatter out of it. That's something that you could try. You could try to take your phone light and peek behind it."

Orkin has an acronym, SLEEP, to help travelers protect themselves from bed bugs: