DavidConnor
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Completed first camino from SJPDP 2015
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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!!You could just bag up everything and put it in a chest freezer for a couple of days. That zaps em all.
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!
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!
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
So a hotel refused you? Really?
Did you say: hi, a double room please for me and my itchy friends, please ?
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!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
You are right !!! Spaa will kill them !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!
Well done !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.
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?
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?
Funny!! I am just a balding 50 year old. I have not given up yet!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
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!
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).....
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
Thank you very much for your quick and reassuring answer!!
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