The thing is, there isn't a LOT the albergues can do, but there are SOME things.
The first thing is to educate people. Unless they've been on this forum, most folks don't have a clue what the heck a bedbug is, or that it exists, until they're bitten! Like I said, I think each person walking the Camino should have to take a class. Or perhaps some group might print up some pamphlets to hand out on bedbugs, what to look for, how to avoid them, and how NOT to pass them along!
One way people have kept the vermin down is to put little "lids" of poison under each leg of the bed - so they can't crawl up the bed without going into the poison. This has worked very well, where they've used it, and is cheap. You can use any type of lid that will hold a powder or liquid.
I have seen over and over on this forum instructions for NOT putting your backpack on the bed. But to me, that is one certain way to get the bugs, which crawl on the floor, then up the beds. I hang my pack from my bed, always taking a top bunk. If anyone complains, I put the mochilla into a black plastic garbage bag and cinch it with a bungie cord and THEN hang it from the bedpost. But I am NOT putting my mochila on the floor... no way!
I wish whoever is in charge of the Camino (if there is such an entity) would make the albergues act more responsibly when they do find the bugs. In the albergue in Astorga (not the municipal) the guy KNEW there were bedbugs and still checked people in! He sheepishly gave me back my money when I found the bugs and wanted to make exit. To me, this was a bad attitude because like I said in my blog, you could pretty much trace very instance of bedbugs along the Camino back to that particular albergue. Maybe the whole Camino community should get together and descend on the bad guys?
Anyway, for folks who aren't allergic to the poisons, it's not a huge issue.
And honestly, since being educated I haven't been bitten, and hope not to be.
But I sure feel sorry for the masses whose giant red welts show they've been in buggy territory! :lol: