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RE: BEDBUGS: what precautions can we take? BC :arrow: xm 8)
 
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Camino Preparation Guide
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Prevention is better than cure.
Keep things clean - yourself, bedding, clothes.
Shake out your pack contents - check for signs of b.b. pooh - little dots of stain -
Some like to spray, to each their own.
Given the problem - to protect yourself - an anti allergy lining bag prevents bugs getting through.
Long sleeved shirts help too.
Treat bites, Tea Tree oil seems to be quite effective/Antiseptic cream also.
:lol: :lol:
 
Hi dawn.

I've never experienced any either. But I appreciate the information, particularly, very very particularly, coming from a reliable source as AGACS. Also, I choose prevention vs remediation, as shared.

To "worry about it if it happens," well, it'll be kind of late.

I do believe that thoughts create reality, to a large extent, as I like to entertain: possibilities of all sorts, curiosity, knowledge, exceptions to rules, ellypsus to absolutes, and...

It's very healthy and loving to learn about one's well-being. Without obsessing over it, of course.

BC :arrow:

xm 8)
 
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I remember last year when I got all itchy and felt like I'd been bitten about a million times... Pretended I'd not been bitten and a few days later I wasn't itchy anymore! Oooooooh the power of the mind!
 
I walked with a Canadian woman for a few days last fall and she was bitten by bedbugs. She took everything she had (I mean everything. She stood by the washer/dryer with a blanket from the albergue wrapped around her.) and washed it and then sprayed her backpack with something they had at the albergue for bedbugs. After that she was fine.
 
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I got bed bugs in a "clean" private albergue located a few km past Astorga.

I was very uncomfortable for 3 days. I cleaned my abdomen twice a day (!) with alcohol pads and showered as often as possible. I stopped in a hotel, washed EVERYTHING and spraid with bugs reppelant.

The rest of the way was ok.

I do not think you can prevent bed bugs. It is a question of luck I guess.
 
I do not think you can prevent bed bugs. It is a question of luck I guess.
Click to expand...


Ulysse, I kinda feel the same way. Hope my luck hasn't run out :!: BC :arrow: xm 8)
 
I think it really is just a matter of luck. The woman I was walking with got them and I didn't . We stayed at the same places but I guess one bed had bedbugs and another one didn't.
 
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bed bugs and fleas

How can one be sure it's bed bugs? I get bitten a lot abroad by mosquitoes and fleas. Fleas just love me. Fortunately they often jump off again when you are on the move - although last year in France I got bitten by a flea/fleas for a week - we moved on and the flea disappeared but I got eaten by mosquitoes during the second week.

But I guess the same precautions and remedies are valid for all.

I can recognise flea bites - they tend to bite you in warm spots like under your watch strap and round your waist band and they usually leave two or three bites along a line of a few centimetres. I suppose if I get bitten in a different pattern and it doesn't seem to be mosquitoes then I'll know it's 'la punaise des lits'/chinces.
 
Yuk, that's really cheered me up! What with my companions swollen knees, my aching shoulders,being unsure about finding accommodation and not being able to get my pack weight down below 8Kg (without the water!). . . after months of excited preparation, I am now feeling really really nervous . . . we are off on Wednesday!
 
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I have posted this somewhere else (under sleeping bags, or something similarly misleading), but this week I found a product in a pharmacy - as yet untested, that claims to treat clothing and other fabric for up to 2 weeks - killing biting insects on contact.

It is Bugproof Clothing Treatment from Nomad Medical 3-4 Wellington Terrace, Turnpike Lane, London N8 0PX. No telephone or website listed on the pack, alas. I bought it in an independent pharmacy in Weymouth, but presumably the company would be able to give you a supplier near you. It cost £5 for 100mL (actually, I get a discount in pharmacies, courtesy of being a community nurse, so it may be slightly more), which is enough to treat a shirt, pair of trousers and socks. I aim to treat my (home made) silk sleeping bag. It contains permethrim, for those that worry about these things (it is also used to treat head lice, scabies and crab lice...).

I am all for the power of the mind, and the advantages of positive thinking, but also like to lay my head down at night without the lurking suspicion that the less endearing arthropods of the class Insecta are after my blood.

Let your Camino be bugless!
 
Thanks pjdine - I'll see if I can get hold of some. And, ta xm, I will endeavour to keep cheerful . . . (does anyone else remember Mona Lot: "It's being so cheerful as keeps me going"?)
 
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Windeatt, tell us re: Mona Lot: "It's being so cheerful as keeps me going"? Don't know who she is. Best, xm 8)
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Yeap, that's me ... and the red dots go under my arm.

It may help others identify the beast instead of worrying, like I did, what kind of disease I caught.
 
Sorry to hear that. How did u treat it?

BTW friends, just read an article to the effect that AGACS reported that there may be an epidemic of bed bugs on the Gailican tract of the Camino Frances, this summer. Please do not be alarmed, become obsessed, or change Caminos and plans over this. Just be aware.

Best, xn 8)

 
A moral dilemma: I am treating all my bedding with the 'knock 'em dead' fabric treatment described above. But the only way to really find out if it works is for me to undertake a controlled experiment...with my two companions as the control. Should I tell them about it, so they can treat their stuff, or sneakily conceal it from them and wait for their howls of anguish?

Hmmm...

Pip
 
Camino Preparation Guide
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
The only treatment I used was to wash at least once a day and keep the spots clean with sterile pads containing alcohol.
 
Where u able to continue walking? How long to cure? Best, xm 8)
 
I never stopped walking and after about 4 days the red dots started to fade away.

I did more than my share of belly scratching as this thing itches quite a bit... like a few dozens mosquito bites that last forever. I felt really embarassed when taking my shower in the refuges as people do not quite know what the problem is and some might even think it is contagious !
 
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Well, u have increased our awareness on this issue. Thanks, Ulysse. Best, xm 8)
 
xm said:
RE: BEDBUGS: what precautions can we take? BC :arrow: xm 8)
Click to expand...

What about using a thin insulated survival cover under the sleeping-bag? It is large and long enough (1.40x2.20m) and very light, 55gr. Furthermore, it could be useful in extreme weather conditions (cold or hot) The only problem is the noise when lying on, fellow pelgrims without earplugs won't appreciate it!
Jupp
 
I learnt enough survival Spanish to cover the basics, and one of my phrases was "Do you have bedbugs?" My daughter translated it for me . She laughed so much, saying "It is hard even to be rude in a few words in Spanish, let alone to try to ask something like this is in a way that doesn't offend!". I had my elaborate sentence, though, in case I felt I needed it, used it a couple of times, learnt a bit of Spanish from the replies! Fortunately, in the winter there are no bities of any kind.
 
Camino Way markers in Bronze
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
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