bedbugs

[jennifermcinnes]

Currently walking on the Camino Francis. Just to let people know that there are bedbugs in the Municipal Albergue in Estella. I used a Permithrin treated silk overlay for the bed and mattress and had no problem, but lady in next bunk was bitten badly and actually killed one on her bed in the morning. Very crowded, breakfast was terrible. Estella itself as a city is quite nice, but hard to find any decent food. Now in Los Arcos, private Albergue for tonight, very nice.

[Covey]

Well, there you are, follow the advice about treated silk and you should emerge unscathed. Sadly, the food is often fairly poor along the Camino.

I found out why last year. Most pilgrims need to eat around 7pm so they can be back at the albergue for lockup. The Spanish go out to eat sometime after 9pm and the cooks usually start work at 8pm. This means that what the pilgrims are served up is usually pre cooked at lunchtime and served up re-heated at 7pm because the cook has not arrived and the food needs to be capable of being reheated by the waiters.

[geraldkelly]

The last couple of times I've been in Estella I've eaten in the restaurant Alday just across the hump-backed bridge from the municipal hostel. They do a good Pilgrim Men.

[Covey]

Well, it's 6 days since I arrived back from the Camino Frances and I have just finished my post-Camino washing and cleaning of my kit.

You might be thinking that 6 days indicates a degree of laziness, but for the past 5 days my Camino kit (all of it, footwear included) has been residing in my freezer in sundry plastic bags. This came as a bit of a surprise to my younger son who lives in the same block of flats as I do, who was hunting for something to eat for his supper, and having discovered bags of socks etc instead of my special shepherds pie, wondered if I had been out in the sun too long!

Bedbugs are a problem on the Camino and are always around somewhere, but the last place you want them is in your own home!! There are stories in the UK press about bedbug problems in New York and about posh 5th Avenue stores having to be fumigated, so precautions when you get home are sensible.

As far as killing bedbugs are concerned, you freeze them or fry them. A sensible plan is to undress totally in the bath and put everything you have carried in plastic bags and place in the freezer for 3 days minimum THEN put them through a very hot wash and tumble dry and you will have killed any day trippers who have hitched a lift home with you.

If you have been bitten on the Camino, they will probably be in your sleeping bag, and clothing like a fleece. Find a launderette and put everything in the dryer and run it through two cycles and the heat should kill off the pests.

Having a bug treated sleeping bag liner is an excellent precaution and if you can get the spray on Permetherin solution, treat your pack so the bugs do not climb aboard. If you have a treated liner or sleeping bag, keep your arms and legs inside the bag otherwise you can get bitten on the arms especially.

[Gazza]

Covey

When I prepared for the Camino, I treated everything with Permethrin. Are you the same

[Covey]

I buy a solution of 5% Permetherin in a handy spray container in a camping shop called Blacks in London, and spray my silk sleeping bag liner and my pack before I go off on every trip, but I have not yet sprayed everything I carry.

It is probably a good idea to do so to ensure total protection as the little buggers like to get into your clothing and then you act as "meals on wheels" for them.

I met a Korean guy who had been noshed quite badly in Logrono and he had 37 quite nasty welts up his arms and legs and had to go to hospital to get an anti-histamine injection to knock back the infection. The worrying thing was although he had received treatment for the bites, he said the hospital had told him nothing about what to do about getting the bedbugs out of his kit where they would have undoubtedly been lurking having feasted on him overnight. Given that there would have been more than one bedbug at the feast, he was a walking infection source! We suggested he went to a laundrette and put everything through a very hot wash and dry, but I don't think he did!

I pack everything in my pack in plastic freezer bags with an airtight zip lock so all my spare clothing is in airtight bags which keep them bug free and dry and treat my pack so that bugs do not climb aboard whilst the pack is by my bunk.

I have been considering carrying a silk fitted sheet which has been Permetherin treated. One of the risks of the sleeping bag liner is if your arms or head strays from the silk and the bugs can jump aboard. A fitted sheet which covers the whole matress and the sides answers that problem. My silk bag liner is made from a very tough rip-stop silk and I am looking to see if I can buy the same material and get my daughter-in-law to make it in to a fitted sheet, and make a pillow case as well.