How to get rid of bed bugs from silk and merino items?

[Felice]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

 

[Roland49]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

Sensitive items could be freezed for 48h. Put it in a ziplok, throw it in freezer and let it freeze for 48h.
Wash it after that by hand or machine (wool programm, if possible). If you want, use an anti-bedbug detargent.

 

[Felice]

Sensitive items could be freezed for 48h. Put it in a ziplok, throw it in freezer and let it freeze for 48h.
Wash it after that by hand or machine (wool programm, if possible). If you want, use an anti-bedbug detargent.

When you get home, absolutely agree, but whilst walking the camino?????

 

[Roland49]

When you get home, absolutely agree, but whilst walking the camino?????

Same, maybe shorten the freezing to 24h by making a rest-day?

 

[longshanks]

I've been wondering about this. I assume when you arrive at a place after you think you've been exposed to bedbugs at some other place, the procedure is to warn the hospitalera. I'd be surprised if albergues have the sort of roomy freezers you need for the freezing treatment. Maybe you could leave non-washable items sealed in a bin liner outdoors, till you could make it to a place with a laundrette?

As well as the bugs themselves, I think eggs are a big mode of transmission from place to place. If I understand correctly, they are tiny and not easy to see. They can stick to the bottom of your backpack, to clothes or the soles of shoes.

 

[Anniesantiago]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

If it’s hot outside, you can put it in a black plastic garbage bag, tie it up and stick it in the sun for a few hours

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I have not had bedbugs, but shy away from albergue laundry dryers. On my 2nd Camino quite a few years ago, I had used the dryer and the extreme heat shrunk my hiking trousers and shriveled the zipper on my jacket, like a snake., which pretty much ruined them, tossing after I got back home.

 

[Felice]

I have not had bedbugs, but shy away from albergue laundry dryers. On my 2nd Camino quite a few years ago, I had used the dryer and the extreme heat shrunk my hiking trousers and shriveled the zipper on my jacket, like a snake., which pretty much ruined them, tossing after I got back home.

I think dry stuff handles hot dryers relatively OK. When I used the laundrette in Ponferrada to decontaminate my 'delicate' items, nothing got shrivelled, thankfully. I had a nylon shopping bag from Ikea that went in the hot dryer which came out unchanged - with 2 dead bugs inside, so I knew it had been hot enough!

 

[J Willhaus]

Don't wash first. Just dry. Less risk of damage and shrinkage. It is the heat that kills. At the albergue we give the pilgrim a change of clothes to put on. Then place their belongings in a black trash bag in the hot sun for the afternoon. We usually don't have a dryer and many small towns will not have a laundromat.

Go through your things one at a time and look closely in the seams for any bugs. The bugs will die at a lower temp than the eradication of any eggs.

 

[C clearly]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

The standard response should be to put the dry items into a dryer and expose the fabric and bugs to 60°C for 30 minutes. This is less damaging to delicate fabrics - the most damage is caused by agitation of wet fabric. Furthermore it is faster to kill the bugs because the temperature of the fabric and bugs gets up to the required temperature faster.

After the hot dryer treatment, you can wash if you want.

The black-bag-in-the-sun treatment is probably good on a hot day. I don't know how reliable it would be, as the conditions are less controlled, but it is certainly worth doing if a dryer is not available.

 

[hikentravel1234]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

I see 3 choices:
1. Do what the hospitalera insists, and take your chances
2. Go somewhere else
3. Keep items you don't want to wash in a plastic bag, somewhere outside

 

[raughter]

Counter-intuitively, clear plastic will probably work better than black plastic. Black plastic absorbs--and thus blocks--a lot of the heat itself, while clear plastic allows more of it through to be absorbed the actual fabric.

 

[J Willhaus]

We usually have black plastic bags, not clear ones, at the albergue...

 

[Colokid]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

Tie up a black trash bag and set in sun?

 

[David Tallan]

Just wanted to second what trecile said about putting  dry clothes in the hot dryer. Everything I have read says it should be safe. And I know in current conditions on my Camino you could put things in a garbage bag for a week and it might suffocate the bedbugs, but it wouldn't reach the required temperature.

 

[Stumbler]

I see 3 choices:
1. Do what the hospitalera insists, and take your chances
2. Go somewhere else
3. Keep items you don't want to wash in a plastic bag, somewhere outside

One pilgrim had a powerbank where the bugs had entered thru the plug holes. This made me think (decide) that I'd rather keep also my non fabric items in closed bags at all times when not in use just making sure that while I'm taking precautions I didn't fail by doing it halfway since items like powerbanks can't be treated in any way. Leaving anything, whether it is clothes or other items, lying around at chairs, beds, just doesn't make much sense to me. Also having given this a lot of thought I'd propably opt for taking already a bit worn merino clothes with me as I'd heat treat them anyway at a nearby laundromat before taking them into my house when back home and if some of them suffer in heat it's a smaller loss.
The instructions we often see for "first wash then dry" seem obsurd as someone just mentioned. No need for washing, just for heat.

 

[CanadianBarb]

I has no shrinkage when I dried in hot heat with my down sleeping bags and merino shirts - they were DRY before putting in the dryer -

 

[Vermont Pat]

We were plagued by bed bugs in 2016. We put everything, including silk and merino, into the dryer, every chance we got. it was just a routine. The items, with only one exception, came through just fine. The exception became basically a doll sweater.

 

[Chiptheshrink]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

You can put most sensitive fabrics in a hot dryer if they are DRY. Run them through a hot dryer cycle dry first, and they won't shrink, then wash and dry normally.

 

[Maureen McGovern]

The standard response to what to do when you get bed bugs, is to wash and dry everything at 60 degrees.

But if you do that to your silk sleeping bag liner or your merino socks or t shirts or down sleeping bag, then I believe that the items would come back to you distinctly the worse for wear. The best way to decontaminate is not to wash them but to put them in a tumble dryer at high temp when all will be well.

So what do you do if you are staying at a small place in a village with no access to a dryer? Or if a hospitalera insists that everything goes through a hot wash cycle (including the rucksack) or you can't stay there, as happened to me?

I got bedbugs when I did the Camino some time ago. I went to the pharmacy. The pharmacist gave me a combination spray that I used on my self, all my clothes and my backpack. This resolved the issue.