Decontamination post Camino

[DavidConnor]

We have just completed the Camino Frances from SJPDP in 2015 and stayed in 38 albergues/casas. I was bitten on 3 occasions by bed bugs and saw them only once (an experience I never wish to repeat!!). All the albergues/casas in which we were probably bitten were spotlessly clean, including the one in which we saw them overnight.

We pre-sprayed our rucksacks with permethrin and used silk sleeping sacs impregnated with insecticide. We also used insect repellant on our skin.

We have assumed our packs were compromised and wanted to tumble dry them but found little advice available - hence this post.

We successfully tumble-dried (without shrinking):
1. Rucksacks (remove the stave first at the back)
2. Travel towels
3. Sleeping sacs
4. All clothes with woollen socks the only casualty
5. Wallets/money belts

Other items we immersed in boiling hot water with a multi-purpose cleaner. It doesn't seem to have melted the seams on my dry bag and next time I think I would risk tumble drying.

Electronic items wiped with hot cloth...

One sleeping bag we threw out (old and cheap). The other is double bagged in quarantine for 6 months.

Only time will tell if this keeps us bed bug free. We are going to quarantine our packs anyway by putting them in plastic bags in the UK for a year in the garage (6 months recommended but cold in UK winter). This blog has good advice http://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com.es/2011/06/dont-let-bedbugs-bite.html?m=1

Will let you know how we get on! Take home message - you can get away with tumble drying most things!

Buen camino!

 

[Seabird]

Thank you for this useful post. Although I wish for all peregrinos that it becomes un-needed advice.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

You could just bag up everything and put it in a chest freezer for a couple of days. That zaps em all.

 

[CaminoDebrita]

I

You could just bag up everything and put it in a chest freezer for a couple of days. That zaps em all.

That's such great advice, and easy. Just wish I had room in that freezer...perhaps it's time to get rid of the old fudgesicles!!

 

[mountaingoat999]

We have just completed the Camino Frances from SJPDP in 2015 and stayed in 38 albergues/casas. I was bitten on 3 occasions by bed bugs and saw them only once (an experience I never wish to repeat!!). All the albergues/casas in which we were probably bitten were spotlessly clean, including the one in which we saw them overnight.

We pre-sprayed our rucksacks with permethrin and used silk sleeping sacs impregnated with insecticide. We also used insect repellant on our skin.

We have assumed our packs were compromised and wanted to tumble dry them but found little advice available - hence this post.

We successfully tumble-dried (without shrinking):
1. Rucksacks (remove the stave first at the back)
2. Travel towels
3. Sleeping sacs
4. All clothes with woollen socks the only casualty
5. Wallets/money belts

Other items we immersed in boiling hot water with a multi-purpose cleaner. It doesn't seem to have melted the seams on my dry bag and next time I think I would risk tumble drying.

Electronic items wiped with hot cloth...

One sleeping bag we threw out (old and cheap). The other is double bagged in quarantine for 6 months.

Only time will tell if this keeps us bed bug free. We are going to quarantine our packs anyway by putting them in plastic bags in the UK for a year in the garage (6 months recommended but cold in UK winter). This blog has good advice http://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com.es/2011/06/dont-let-bedbugs-bite.html?m=1

Will let you know how we get on! Take home message - you can get away with tumble drying most things!

Buen camino!

David

very good report (military standard)might sign you up

if you have a "down" bag you can with the modern Tec ones,tumble dry them .. I own a very expensive Terra nova down bag and use this for caminos...each time I wash it ,then tumble dry increasing the heat. then air it for a week

with my rucksacks I strip them as much as I can, I use a osprey 70 for caminos ....then put it in a very hot bath and put weights on the bag to make sure its submerged.....vital to check the back mess system carefully,you can remove on some bags the belt system and as you know the spine board

most domestic frezzers are not always cold enough to eliminate......I take a poly-cotton fitted sheet with me.(everywhere) wash first then spray with flea spray from supermarket,cheaper and contains permerthin...place this on bed with pillow case and put sleeping bag on top

the rucksack transport service I do not use due to all the bags being together...same in cafe's and albergue I keep my rucksack away......I also camp a lot in casa gardens or albergue gardens.........no bed bugs then.......as you say the places were clean...........proves its the pilgrims transporting them around......I never name albergue that have bugs one day and gone the next...get repeat infected, can really effect business.....and its the pilgrims who bring them

also if you travel a lot,coach /plane it has been known for bugs to transfer to your rucksack inflight in the hold or in the underside of coach in the baggage compartments.. I have my rucksack shrink wrapped (secure wrapped)much to the dislike of going through airports in the states

upon returning home.....all my kit stays outside when I get home so I can bring each item inside one at a time to take further take precaution for cleaning and storage...

I had bed bugs really bad on one camino...........seen a few also this year and last.........

Good travels & bug free

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I thought it was 3 weeks in the freezer, not just a couple of days. I freeze my boots, back pack and sleeping bag. Best use I have found for that basement freezer which otherwise seems to only be good for getting me to forget thr food I have put in it

 

[Dutch]

Go to a spa and stick all your stuff in a 90 degree (celcius) sauna. They will die for sure

I've seen alot of bedbug bites this camino. More than before.
Im also amazed how not serious soms people take at. They are mote concerned about the 6 euros they must spend on washing and drying than anything else. Some just dont bother at all. Disgusting!

 

[mountaingoat999]

Go to a spa and stick all your stuff in a 90 degree (celcius) sauna. They will die for sure

I've seen alot of bedbug bites this camino. More than before.
Im also amazed how not serious soms people take at. They are mote concerned about the 6 euros they must spend on washing and drying than anything else. Some just dont bother at all. Disgusting!

Dutch
made me laugh,"more concerned about 6 euros"a lot of TEC clothes you can only wash to 30 c....problem I had when I was really badly bittern ..I took a day off and we attempted to stay in a hotel after coming back form the urgencia centre and they said no way,quickly reaching for the phone...to warn other hotels

if a Hotel or private albergue get;s bedbugs it only takes one person to go on trip advisor and there doomed.....so it is serious to them..,on the other hand I have seen pilgrims happily sporting how many they have while waiting to queue for the albergues .(making me itch now) some people they never bother.

 

[mountaingoat999]

I thought it was 3 weeks in the freezer, not just a couple of days. I freeze my boots, back pack and sleeping bag. Best use I have found for that basement freezer which otherwise seems to only be good for getting me to forget thr food I have put in it

I hear three to four weeks also
when I first got bed bugs on camino really bad I put all my gear in a bin bag and took a bus to Ponferrada wearing only icebreaker under wear and flipflops with credencial and passport around my neck in aqua holder and wallet in hand.

walked into a very good outdoor shop in Ponferrada and said everything that manikin is wearing I want please..boots .rucksack. the lot..funny now.

 

[Dutch]

So a hotel refused you? Really?
Did you say: hi, a double room please for me and my itchy friends, please ?

 

[mountaingoat999]

So a hotel refused you? Really?
Did you say: hi, a double room please for me and my itchy friends, please ?

Dutch

I was with my Spanish girlfriend, her mother and her mothers friend.......she told the Hotel manager I had been bittern by Chinche (bed bugs)while with was viewing this really nice room...with me standing there in icebreaker underwear with light bandages over my bites that I had made worse by scratching .

He suddenly said it's full it's full you have to leave...

 

[C clearly]

I thought it was 3 weeks in the freezer, not just a couple of days. I freeze my boots, back pack and sleeping bag. Best use I have found for that basement freezer which otherwise seems to only be good for getting me to forget thr food I have put in it

The time depends on the temperature, to some degree. Better to be safe that sorry. When we got a new fridge I checked the size of the freezer, thinking of my backpack. It fits but not when full, or not with a turkey! Also when the new fridge arrived I immediately checked the temperature. It should go down to minus 15-17, which it does!

 

[Felice]

I got bitten in 2014. When I arrived in Pontferrada and told the hospetileros that I had been bitten, they insisted that I put everything - including my rucksack, down sleeping bag, silk sleeping bag liner and a very precious silk scarf from Aleppo - in the washing machine at 60 degrees. No way was the silk stuff going in. So I went off to the laundret in the centre of town and tumbled everything at 85 degrees C for 45 mins, as I'd read that you can do that to delicate stuff PROVIDED that it is DRY when it goes in. Silk and down stuff was fine. Only problem was that the velcro fastening on my rucksack caught the edge of something and frayed it badly. Stupidly, I'd let my rucksack go off with my clothes for washing, and it came back, still damp, with a warped stiffener.

I'd also read that even merino wool things can be tumbled at high temps if they are dry, but did not test that one out.

I threw a lot of stuff away before I left Santiago, including my poor old rucksack. Wish I had not thrown that as I later found out that Low Alpine could probably have repaired it. But I was too worried about all the little snug places that a bug could have hidden.

When I got home, I too was very fearful that I had brought the critters back. And it turned out that I had indeed brought one back. When I opened my purse to take out the euros a couple of days later - there was a small bug. Needless to say the purse got thrown straight away. I lived the next few months dreading the appearance of the tell tale signs, but I seem to have been lucky, because none appeared.

When I walked to Muxia in June this year, I made sure my rucksack was never left on the floor. I brought a piece of string and hung my bag from the bed frame each night. Escaped that time.

I agree that many people do not take bed bugs seriously. I could hardly contain myself when a group of people on a nearby table were complaining about being thrown out of a hostel when one asked if the washing machine had a 60 degree cycle. They were being so selfish.

 

[Pruden]

Go to a spa and stick all your stuff in a 90 degree (celcius) sauna. They will die for sure

I've seen alot of bedbug bites this camino. More than before.
Im also amazed how not serious soms people take at. They are mote concerned about the 6 euros they must spend on washing and drying than anything else. Some just dont bother at all. Disgusting!

You are right !!! Spaa will kill them !

 

[Pruden]

I got bitten in 2014. When I arrived in Pontferrada and told the hospetileros that I had been bitten, they insisted that I put everything - including my rucksack, down sleeping bag, silk sleeping bag liner and a very precious silk scarf from Aleppo - in the washing machine at 60 degrees. No way was the silk stuff going in. So I went off to the laundret in the centre of town and tumbled everything at 85 degrees C for 45 mins, as I'd read that you can do that to delicate stuff PROVIDED that it is DRY when it goes in. Silk and down stuff was fine. Only problem was that the velcro fastening on my rucksack caught the edge of something and frayed it badly. Stupidly, I'd let my rucksack go off with my clothes for washing, and it came back, still damp, with a warped stiffener.

I'd also read that even merino wool things can be tumbled at high temps if they are dry, but did not test that one out.

I threw a lot of stuff away before I left Santiago, including my poor old rucksack. Wish I had not thrown that as I later found out that Low Alpine could probably have repaired it. But I was too worried about all the little snug places that a bug could have hidden.

When I got home, I too was very fearful that I had brought the critters back. And it turned out that I had indeed brought one back. When I opened my purse to take out the euros a couple of days later - there was a small bug. Needless to say the purse got thrown straight away. I lived the next few months dreading the appearance of the tell tale signs, but I seem to have been lucky, because none appeared.

When I walked to Muxia in June this year, I made sure my rucksack was never left on the floor. I brought a piece of string and hung my bag from the bed frame each night. Escaped that time.

I agree that many people do not take bed bugs seriously. I could hardly contain myself when a group of people on a nearby table were complaining about being thrown out of a hostel when one asked if the washing machine had a 60 degree cycle. They were being so selfish.

Well done !
Never give up your Caminos because bed bug!

 

[Dave C.]

Are bed bugs a problem in the winter/spring, or mainly during the summer months? Also, I have not read about mosquitos. Is there any need to bring bug spray?

 

[mountaingoat999]

Are bed bugs a problem in the winter/spring, or mainly during the summer months? Also, I have not read about mosquitos. Is there any need to bring bug spray?

Dave
you can still get them in heated building in winter. I have seen people who have been bite on one occasion
permerthrin you get from REI 24 OZ

A few days before you go spray outside of sleeping bag and rucksack..smell goes away once dry. should last the whole camino...if you do get bites anti-histamine to reduce the itching.

don't worry about mosi.. I have seen a few places with annoying clegs really big flies around villages with farm stock....on with the midge net and no problem

 

[Dave C.]

I treat all of my stuff with permethrin. I still have a full bottle for retreatment in the Spring. How about mosquitos or biting flies? Any need for repellent?

 

[mountaingoat999]

I treat all of my stuff with permethrin. I still have a full bottle for retreatment in the Spring. How about mosquitos or biting flies? Any need for repellent?

I just added to my post before with answer ..about flies and mosi

like you and I my head shaved, mine is shaved completely each day and once you get a bite on the head its not nice when I shave.

it was

 

[Dave C.]

I just added to my post before with answer ..about flies and mosi

like you and I my head shaved, mine is shaved completely each day and once you get a bite on the head its not nice when I shave.

it was

Funny!! I am just a balding 50 year old. I have not given up yet!

 

[mountaingoat999]

makes for a great landing strip for flies having a shaved/balding head......unless you put good amount of suncream on then there not airborne anymore.

 

[mla1]

I got a few bites on the Le Puy route this spring. Cleaned everything possible while over there. When I got home, I changed clothes in the backyard before going in the house, bagged everything else and put it in a chest freezer for a week. Did lots of research at the airport while waiting for flights and it seems that, if the freezer is cold enough, 4 days is enough.

I had not heard that silk and wool could go in a dryer if they were dry. That's super useful!

I got the bites in an albergue where you are assigned your bed. I had seen that the bed did not look super clean - but it was the last bed available, after a very long hot walk and I really needed a shower to cool down. So I didn't say anything at the time - despite wondering. Lesson learned.

As someone else mentioned above -- the albergue it self was spotless. And they did take measures to prevent bugs (big plastic sacks for the packs). But the place was very crowded. My guess is that the disposable mattress cover on that particular bed may have been missed by accident in the cleaning. It did look like it had been used - there was definitely 'stuff' visible on it. The other lesson I learned was to check the mattress when I have my glasses on!

 

[mountaingoat999]

I got a few bites on the Le Puy route this spring. Cleaned everything possible while over there. When I got home, I changed clothes in the backyard before going in the house, bagged everything else and put it in a chest freezer for a week. Did lots of research at the airport while waiting for flights and it seems that, if the freezer is cold enough, 4 days is enough.

I had not heard that silk and wool could go in a dryer if they were dry. That's super useful!

I got the bites in an albergue where you are assigned your bed. I had seen that the bed did not look super clean - but it was the last bed available, after a very long hot walk and I really needed a shower to cool down. So I didn't say anything at the time - despite wondering. Lesson learned.

As someone else mentioned above -- the albergue it self was spotless. And they did take measures to prevent bugs (big plastic sacks for the packs). But the place was very crowded. My guess is that the disposable mattress cover on that particular bed may have been missed by accident in the cleaning. It did look like it had been used - there was definitely 'stuff' visible on it. The other lesson I learned was to check the mattress when I have my glasses on!

mla 1

I would check on the spec on tec clothes first......
I put some north face Tec underwear £50 a go three pairs and there were shrunk on a modest heat setting
check the makers website for the actual facts

Cheers

 

[leeann31]

Does anyone know chemical ways to guarantee killing the critters on clothes and pack (in the case of an infestation)? I am pretreating with permethrin, but if I get them, I have quite a few items that will be positively destroyed with heat (merino wool items that I would hate to ruin as they are wonderful and not cheap).....

 

[mountaingoat999]

Does anyone know chemical ways to guarantee killing the critters on clothes and pack (in the case of an infestation)? I am pretreating with permethrin, but if I get them, I have quite a few items that will be positively destroyed with heat (merino wool items that I would hate to ruin as they are wonderful and not cheap).....

permerthrin makes it uncomfortable for them so they go else where, it does not kill them.

as you say merino wool will be destroyed. had this happen to me.....

Deet is meant to kill the eggs so they say...I do not like to use Deet

because you in transit all the time its the adult you are fending off..so protect you kit as you are doing and you should be fine..I have never had bed bugs when I use a sheet
because sometimes your arms can touch the bed.



to answer you question other than hot washing......hot air or steam ....like a steamer will kill eggs and bug quickly not helpful to you....hair dryer will know on high would suffice (people use them on camino) not the best practical solution but effective

best practice for infestation in pack etc is to immediately inform the owner of the albergue/hotel

precaution : separate all your clothes into bags for example those food sandwich bags you can seal and reuse.

only take out change of clothes when needed.. for use after your shower..

people bring bed bugs onto the camino

 

[margareta söderberg]

Hi,

I just got back with what I think might be bites from bed bugs from my last two nights in Spain. I undressed on the terrace, left everything there, crawled back in the apartment so as not to annoy my neighbours and then filled my freezer with as much of my clothes possible. However, I hadn't put them into plastic bags. Would they escape from the freezer once they start feeling the cold? Anybody knows?
My leather boots are still on the terrace. Does anybody know if they can take the deep freeze treatment?
It's good to know there is so much knowledge out here!

 

[Tincatinker]

Permethrin is an arachnicide, bed bugs are arachnids. Permethrin will kill bedbugs, just not instantly on contact. That said it seems to have a repellant effect that provides some protection in infested environments. The most effective behaviour to avoid bug attack / infestation is pre-treatment with permethrin and scrupulous attention to identifying potential infestation and avoiding it.

And freezing is, apparently, the most effective way of cleaning out kit you can't wash at 60c or tumble dry on 40c. @margareta söderberg if your freezer has a functional hermetic seal then no bug is going to escape, they will be chilled into inactivity very quickly ie within a few minutes. If your boots are dry then freezing will do them no lasting harm. And it was probably mosquito bites anyway.

Buen (bug-free) post - camino

 

[margareta söderberg]

Thank you very much for your quick and reassuring answer!!

 

[mountaingoat999]

Permethrin is an arachnicide, bed bugs are arachnids. Permethrin will kill bedbugs, just not instantly on contact. That said it seems to have a repellant effect that provides some protection in infested environments. The most effective behaviour to avoid bug attack / infestation is pre-treatment with permethrin and scrupulous attention to identifying potential infestation and avoiding it.

And freezing is, apparently, the most effective way of cleaning out kit you can't wash at 60c or tumble dry on 40c. @margareta söderberg if your freezer has a functional hermetic seal then no bug is going to escape, they will be chilled into inactivity very quickly ie within a few minutes. If your boots are dry then freezing will do them no lasting harm. And it was probably mosquito bites anyway.

Buen (bug-free) post - camino

I stand corrected on permethrin killing bed bugs...just viewed a video....it takes a while.....I overdose all my kit with permerthrin....regular..

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Bed bug eggs survive permethrin, so you may need repeated treatment as they hatch. Freezing and heat kill the eggs.

 

[margareta söderberg]

Thank you very much for your quick and reassuring answer!!

Thank you all! I manged to get everything in the freezer but the back pack is still on the terrace as it is to big. I have to find a way to find heat that won't ruin the backpack.
Oops, I just realized I leave the door to the terrace open from times to times so I suppose by now they have invaded the apartment. Ah well, bacteria, cockroaches and begbugs will inherit the earth.