Using Indorex for Sleeping Bag & Pack

[selahilo]

I have some Indorex left over from last summer - we used this for de-flea'in the house when our pet cat brought them in from hunting.

This worked an absolute treat on fleas, and many others sing it's praises.

On the active ingredients list, Permethrin is listed.

Has anyone else used this to treat their down sleeping bag, pack and clothes?

I am thinking perhaps it may work better then the lifesystems spray they sell here in the UK, and save me the need of buying any additional spray.

When used in the house, we had to spray the product, then wait for it to dry before touching any fabrics again. This advice appears no different to the Sawyer/Lifesystems product application advice.

Cheers.

 

[Glenn Rowe]

I'd be very cautious about using something like that on a down sleeping bag, for the same reason one should never have a down bag dry-cleaned. Traces of the chemical(s) in the down mix with the air as you breathe, and soon you wake up surrounded by angels.

 

[alaskadiver]

I have some Indorex left over from last summer - we used this for de-flea'in the house when our pet cat brought them in from hunting.

This worked an absolute treat on fleas, and many others sing it's praises.

On the active ingredients list, Permethrin is listed.

Has anyone else used this to treat their down sleeping bag, pack and clothes?

I am thinking perhaps it may work better then the lifesystems spray they sell here in the UK, and save me the need of buying any additional spray.

When used in the house, we had to spray the product, then wait for it to dry before touching any fabrics again. This advice appears no different to the Sawyer/Lifesystems product application advice.

Cheers.

Hi.
I treat my hiking clothes with Permethrin to keep the mosquitoes away. It works quite well and is safe for humans after it's dry. It also works for ticks according to the packaging but it has no immediate effects on bedbugs. I haven't treated anything with down because I don't hike with down stuff. But I do plan to treat my backpack to keep the ticks and fleas away on the Camino.

 

[Mark Lee]

Hi.
I treat my hiking clothes with Permethrin to keep the mosquitoes away. It works quite well and is safe for humans after it's dry. It also works for ticks according to the packaging but it has no immediate effects on bedbugs. I haven't treated anything with down because I don't hike with down stuff. But I do plan to treat my backpack to keep the ticks and fleas away on the Camino.

Very doubtful you will encounter ticks and fleas, that is assuming you are not wild camping in a tent, and then if you are maybe the ticks, but just staying on the Camino path itself I just don't see how you would encounter them. Little if any contact with brush or long grass while you are walking the Camino (Frances in my experience, but the Primitivo sounds similar), and that's where they latch on (summers in southern Arkansas as a child running through the woods=ticks).
Fleas? Never saw any, and never heard of anyone getting bit by them.
Only insect contacts I had was a couple of times I had gnats and horseflies buzzing me. That's it. Wouldn't have even been worth stopping and spraying bug dope over.

 

[alaskadiver]

Very doubtful you will encounter ticks and fleas, that is assuming you are not wild camping in a tent, and then if you are maybe the ticks, but just staying on the Camino path itself I just don't see how you would encounter them. Little if any contact with brush or long grass while you are walking the Camino (Frances in my experience, but the Primitivo sounds similar), and that's where they latch on (summers in southern Arkansas as a child running through the woods=ticks).
Fleas? Never saw any, and never heard of anyone getting bit by them.
Only insect contacts I had was a couple of times I had gnats and horseflies buzzing me. That's it. Wouldn't have even been worth stopping and spraying bug dope over.

I'm glad to hear that. I have zero experience with ticks and fleas. We don't have them here (nor do we have snakes). But I'd read a couple of posts where people commented on getting ticks. So I had visions of laying in the grass somewhere to eat lunch and getting covered in both .

 

[Mark Lee]

I'm glad to hear that. I have zero experience with ticks and fleas. We don't have them here (nor do we have snakes). But I'd read a couple of posts where people commented on getting ticks. So I had visions of laying in the grass somewhere to eat lunch and getting covered in both .

Yeah, I suppose that's possible, but I think that would really be a stretch. Maybe if the grass was knee to waist high and in a clearing of a wooded area, possible, and definitely warm (hot) weather thing. Ticks wait in high grass or on brush for a host to pass/stop by and then they jump aboard. I have no idea how a pilgrim would get a tick, but with so many thousands of people walking the Way every year, all kinds of silly s**t happens. I'm surprised there's not more serious incidents due to Darwinism.
Fleas? No doubt dogs and cats in rural Spain have them, but I never stayed in an albergue where they were allowed, nor would I have. I like dogs and cats, but they just don't bode well in a communal living environment like an albergue, and they would possibly have ticks on them, but once a tick finds a host, it doesn't leave until the host is dead.
Highly doubtful you will see a snake on a May Camino. Probably too cold. At least in the mornings.

 

[Kanga]

I soak my down sleeping quilts in permethrin (Debugger) and dry them thoroughly outside, in accordance with the directions. Once dry it is impossible for me to tell they have been treated.

 

[Camino Chris]

Hi.
I treat my hiking clothes with Permethrin to keep the mosquitoes away. It works quite well and is safe for humans after it's dry. It also works for ticks according to the packaging but it has no immediate effects on bedbugs. I haven't treated anything with down because I don't hike with down stuff. But I do plan to treat my backpack to keep the ticks and fleas away on the Camino.

On both of my April/May Caminos I don't recall seeing even one outdoor bug...seriously! No ticks, no fleas, no mosquitos, no flies, no nothing.

I do use permathrin, however, to treat the outside of my sleeping bag, the outside of my backpack, and my sheet. I have seen a couple of bedbugs on the Camino and to my knowledge, even in those situations, I was not bitten.

 

[Camino Chris]

I'm glad to hear that. I have zero experience with ticks and fleas. We don't have them here (nor do we have snakes). But I'd read a couple of posts where people commented on getting ticks. So I had visions of laying in the grass somewhere to eat lunch and getting covered in both .

I sit on a square 2'×2' piece of tyvec (builders use this in construction, you could probably get scraps for free) when eating a picnic lunch or having a chocolaye break. It is extremely thin and lightweight, yet is indestructible and weighs almost nothing. Since it's white in color I'd hope to see a tick crawling on it before it got to me.

 

[Davey Boyd]

I sit on a square 2'×2' piece of tyvec (builders use this in construction, you could probably get scraps for free) when eating a picnic lunch or having a chocolaye break. It is extremely thin and lightweight, yet is indestructible and weighs almost nothing. Since it's white in color I'd hope to see a tick crawling on it before it got to me.

I carry a small piece of bubble wrap to sit on when it is damp. It weighs nothing but is invaluable!

 

[Awakekiwi]

I did the camino may/june 2016 and bugs were simply not a problem.. i was also using a tent quite often and even then didnt encounter any biters.. i wouldnt bother with any spray.. this just isnt the kind of location where you will be bothered with ticks or mozzies. I would suggest antihistamines however if your travelling during spring!
I had huge problems with hayfever during most of the trip.. You are walking through fields and fields of wheat and barley and grass of all kinds plus many wild flowers and pollen everywhere!
I dont usually get hayfever but it was so bad some days i had trouble breathing!
Next time I will go at the end of summer. It was that bad. Plus at the end of summer there are many wild berries, strawberries, fruit trees, grapes, olives, apples, lemons etc on the camino!

 

[Camino Chris]

I carry a small piece of bubble wrap to sit on when it is damp. It weighs nothing but is invaluable!

Well, the bubblewrap would be more comfortable, but the tyvec folds up very thin and slips in to an outside compartment and is waterproof.

 

[Kanga]

I have a give-away from a football match, a fold-out bit of foam - with a huge bank logo on it. Very useful.

 

[selahilo]

Sorry for any confusion, I mean to use this as a bed bug preventative not for fleas. As it happens to have permethrin in it, my thinking is that it will have the same effect as other products from Saywer and Lifesystems.

I think now however I am just going to purchase a beg bug undersheet and leave everything else alone, just place backpack inside a bin liner at night and check the bed/hostel room for evidence of bed bugs prior to tucking in!

Thanks

 

[Camino Chris]

Sorry for any confusion, I mean to use this as a bed bug preventative not for fleas. As it happens to have permethrin in it, my thinking is that it will have the same effect as other products from Saywer and Lifesystems.

I think now however I am just going to purchase a beg bug undersheet and leave everything else alone, just place backpack inside a bin liner at night and check the bed/hostel room for evidence of bed bugs prior to tucking in!

Thanks

No need to be sorry. I knew you weren't talking about fleas!

 

[Mark Lee]

I did the camino may/june 2016 and bugs were simply not a problem.. i was also using a tent quite often and even then didnt encounter any biters.. i wouldnt bother with any spray.. this just isnt the kind of location where you will be bothered with ticks or mozzies. I would suggest antihistamines however if your travelling during spring!
I had huge problems with hayfever during most of the trip.. You are walking through fields and fields of wheat and barley and grass of all kinds plus many wild flowers and pollen everywhere!
I dont usually get hayfever but it was so bad some days i had trouble breathing!
Next time I will go at the end of summer. It was that bad. Plus at the end of summer there are many wild berries, strawberries, fruit trees, grapes, olives, apples, lemons etc on the camino!

When I walked the Frances in August-September the blackberries were ripe, abundant and I frequently stopped and filled my cap with them to munch on. There was also a plum that was ripe, and a few trees of them along the Camino, and locals along the Way were also giving them away. It was grape harvest time and the locals were working in the vineyards quite a bit. In one small village I walked through, an older woman in the doorway to her home, stopped me, went inside and came back out with a bag full of local grapes and plums which she gave me. They were delicious.

 

[Camino Chris]

When I walked the Frances in August-September the blackberries were ripe, abundant and I frequently stopped and filled my cap with them to munch on. There was also a plum that was ripe, and a few trees of them along the Camino, and locals along the Way were also giving them away. It was grape harvest time and the locals were working in the vineyards quite a bit. In one small village I walked through, an older woman in the doorway to her home, stopped me, went inside and came back out with a bag full of local grapes and plums which she gave me. They were delicious.

Don't you just love those special Camino memories? They are tucked away, only to be retrieved in an instant in the right setting...one of the great things about this forum.

 

[ouroboros]

Sorry for any confusion, I mean to use this as a bed bug preventative not for fleas. As it happens to have permethrin in it, my thinking is that it will have the same effect as other products from Saywer and Lifesystems.

I think now however I am just going to purchase a beg bug undersheet and leave everything else alone, just place backpack inside a bin liner at night and check the bed/hostel room for evidence of bed bugs prior to tucking in!

Thanks

selahilo,

I think you are on the right track to treat your things with any Permethrin product you have available.
I saw many bedbugs on the camino, from the beginning to the end it was a serious issue, and I was prepared and never had any problem, though I had to run out of an albergue one morning with my hair on fire when I saw bedbugs crawling all over the floor. In that case, I found a sunny field immediately and laid out everything in the backpack to be exposed to the sunlight for an hour, as I know bedbugs avoid the light. I shook everything obsessively before re-packing.
I sprayed everything with Sawyers: my pack, my boots, my sleeping bag, my silk sheet liner, my hats, socks, all clothing. I will do the same again. A tyvek undersheet treated with permethrin for use on the albergue beds sounds very smart to me, and can double as a picnic blanket.
The concern on the camino is not the outdoor insects so much as those bedbugs, which are a misery for those suffering an infestation and those trying to avoid them.
Permethrin is a neuro-toxin to felines, so should never be sprayed when cats are anywhere nearby. When dry, it is no longer a problem for any creatures, and is totally odorless. Permemthrin is derived from crysanthemums and has been used by outdoorsy types for quite a while.