on't sweat the bedbugs. I've done three Caminos and never saw one or was bit by one. That's over 100 nights in all types of accommodations on the Camino.
I will be blunt here! I have only spent about 80 nights on the camino, of which only half were in albergues, but have been bitten on 4 separate occasions. The first time, I caught a bedbug in a 40-Euro place, moved rooms, but several spots appeared the next day. I've never seen signs upon inspection, which I do every place I sleep. Inspection would reveal a bad infestation, but not the occasional bug-in-transit. If you've spent 100 nights with no apparent bites, you are probably not allergic to their bites. (For example, I have walked through Canadian forests for 60-odd years and never noticed poison ivy, so I'm pretty sure I am not allergic to it.)
I have become convinced and resigned to the fact that they are ubiquitous. Not that every place is badly infested (very few places are, and hopefully inspection will reveal those ones!) but if there is one bedbug wandering around in an albergue, it will bite ME rather than
@Mark Lee . Also a lot of google research leads me to believe that permethrin and Deet have little effectiveness (but maybe a bit) as
repellents that will effectively stop that one bedbug from walking across the bed to find me. The bug might die a week later from permethrin poisoning, but I will be itching in the meantime!
For these reasons, my main strategy now is to protect all my belongings so (a) I don't carry them onward, and (b) to make it easier to decontaminate if I find myself bitten. That means I pack very minimally, I am well organized and don't spread my things randomly around in an albergue, and I take care to shake things out in a careful way as I pack. I have an outer dry bag for my pack at night, another dry bag to isolate my sleeping bag and PJs during the day, and I put things into a hot dryer whenever I think it advisable. I also use permethrin and Deet to a minor degree. I may still be bitten, but I feel I have some control. I didn't get any bites during my last 3 weeks on the Camino, so maybe it worked. And I remind myself that it is not Ebola virus!
Having said all this, most people don't get bitten. Even for those of us who do get bitten, as long as you don't get extreme reactions (a very few people do), the management is not so hard. I'd still recommend that everyone decontaminate things upon coming home, through a combination of heat treatment, freezer treatment and inspection.
Seriously, though, don't let this inconvenience spoil a great experience!
Buen camino!