Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[Rebekah Scott]

It´s 29 July 2008. An announcement folder for Bug Alerts might be a good idea, eh?
The summer bugs are back, and everyone is itching!

I was in Sahagun today and ran into the Valladolid-based hospitaleros now running the municipal albergue in El Burgo Ranero. They were buying every spray-can of insecticide they could fit in the trolley. Evidently the place is hoppin´ with not just bedbugs, but fleas! ("The pilgrims are arriving with their packs full of insects, and the ones walking with dogs sneak them in at night. And then everyone is angry when we have insects in the albergue!" one man said.)

Hopefully their massive chemical warfare will have the problem under control soon.
Pilgrims beware, and check the seams of your sleeping bags and packs for uninvited guests.

Rebekah

[sillydoll]

Bed bug cartoon.JPG (5.12 KB) Viewed 2057 times

Did you know that there are over 9 000 videos on YouTube dealing with bed bugs? Even National Geographic has one.

Warning: X P rating (no pilgrims - they'll never sleep again!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkTC3bs4Cg

[vanjohn]

Hi All
What exactly is the situation before we travel on 08/08/08 Friday after next? Are we pretty certain to return home suffering from something like the "mange". Dont think that would be funny. The family might not have us back!!!

[Dale]

Just watched the horror video from National Geographic, thanks sillydoll I really needed that. Thankfully I didn't meet any of the little darlings when I walked this April and May. I noticed that google has attached an ad for a bed bug product to the YouTube video so if anyone wants to add 24 oz. to their pack you could give this a try:

http://www.bed-bug.net/?gclid=CKau1ILM7JQCFQVfFQodtiyhqA

[sillydoll]

.... and just to freak Dale out completely ... and in case you don't know what they really look like


.......

bed-bugs-infecting-mattress.jpg (97.24 KB) Viewed 1855 times

bed%20bug%20bites.jpg (67.46 KB) Viewed 1854 times

[lckgj]

Oh happy memories of Astorga 2007!!

I think it was a really good idea to publish a photo of the effects of being bitten by bed bugs as I don't think many people are aware of how much more serious bed bug bites can be compared to say fleas.

Forewarned is forearmed as they say so its in all our interests for people to be vigilant and report sightings and bites as quickly as possible.

Mind you the Youtube bed bug video was family viewing compared to the spider bite videos that were listed alongside it.. truly revolting! Thats the trouble with Youtube, once you watch one video you start looking at the other related ones and end up seeing some weird stuff!

[JohnnieWalker]

I think bedbugs have been on pilgrimage as long as pilgrims. Where ever there are beds and lots of people and less than scrupulous daily cleaning which must be nigh impossible in the larger albergues there will be bed bugs.

For everyone they are horrible and some people ( like me!) are so allergic to bug bites and stings that these little mites would literally stop the pilgrimage in its tracks.

People have given good advice before about being prepared. Here is one helpful posting. I am sure the active ingredients will be available in preparations in countries other than the UK.

search.php?keywords=pip&t=2444&sf=msgonly

[Gareth Thomas]

For everyone they are horrible and some people ( like me!) are so allergic to bug bites and stings that these little mites would literally stop the pilgrimage in its tracks.

You´re quite right! I managed to survive the whole trip along the Camino Francés without succumbing, by carefully insulating my sleeping bag against the bed using my inflatable mattress. On the last night, in the albergue in Finisterre, I didn´t bother. I was tired and somehow - after the farewells at the lighthouse - I seemed to forget my usual routine. I certainly regretted my lack of vigilance.

You can imagine: if there are bed bugs all along the Camino, and some people from all the albergues on the Camino all end up at Finisterre... Well, yes it´s obvious! The albergue at Finisterre is the rendezvous point for all the bedbugs along the Camino. It´s where they have their final get-together, like the pilgrims!

I have been walking down the Camino Inglés recovering from about two hundred bites. I had to take extreme measures with all my equipment, and had it not been for the fact of my flight home being booked for a certain date, that would have been the end: I just wanted OUT!

The bites have now receded: some have left small temporary scars and scabs, but mercifully they have stopped itching. It took about four days to recover.

Even having treated my sleeping bag, I am terrified to use it, and it remains packed up tight and sealed within two plastic bags in my rucsack. I´d rather be cold at night - just using a sleeping bag liner - than risk ten seconds in that goose-down filled nest of micro-biological evil!

Bed bugs are no fun. Take every precaution: you do not know the hour of their coming!

Gareth

[Dale]

I read somewhere last year that if you can freeze your equipment for 48 hours that will kill both the bugs and the larva. They can live for up to a year without eating but they can't survive below freezing temperatures. So if you have or can use a freezer that your sleeping bag will fit into that should solve the problem. Here in good old Canada we just wait for January and throw it outdoors.

[sillydoll]

At the SPCA bookstore where I work on a Monday, we microwave any books with signs of bookworm. Perhaps you could do the same with your clothes and equipment - nuke the critters!

[lckgj]

Gareth, first let me congratulate you on your amazing achievement, what a shame it ended on such an itchy note.

I believe freezing does work - I treated all my kit that way when I got home and had no further problems, thank goodness. However I read that you had to freeze things for 72 hours rather than 48. Although I didn't want to wet my down bag too much I did dampen it slightly so that it would freeze better. I put everything in the freezer including my torch, camera, passport etc and nothing came to any harm. (I was taking NO chances!) I soaked my backpack (which wouldn't fit in my upright freezer) in the bath in Jeyes Fluid. Again no problems but be warned -your backpack will stink afterwards and need to aired forever to disperse the disinfecant smell. Also the Jeyes Fluid stained my acrylic bath a shade of dirty purple that still hasn't quite worn off!

About a week before I arrived home I called my son and said he could eat ANYTHING he wanted out the freezer in order to free up space. You would be amazed how many joints of meat, steaks etc one teenager can eat in a week....cost me a fortune!

The microwave sounds like a really good option for smaller items.

I think it was about two months before my bites disappeared so on a positive note Gareth, it sounds like you recovered quite quickly. Hope you are now having a well-earned and relaxing period of R+R.

Laura

P.S. Any fresh-from-the-trail camino ingles info gratefully received...

[Rebekah Scott]

yes, gareth. Let us know how it went on the Ingles! Did anyone freshen the waymarks yet?

...Also, El Burgo Ranero apparently has its bug problem under control, but I´m told there are some problems in Tardajos and Hornillos. Can´t say exactly which albergues, because the pilgrims complaining were not very clear on where they´d been when! (nasty spots, though.) One said he gets relief by rubbing them with rosemary. Which would at least make him smell nice.

Reb.

[Gareth Thomas]

I believe freezing does work ... The microwave sounds like a really good option for smaller items....

I tried a slightly unorthodox approach but it worked: I fried the blighters by putting my sleeping bag into a tumble drier on the hottest possible setting. I don´t know if that damaged the goose down, but it certainly damaged the bugs. I very tentatively tried my sleeping bag last night, a week after the treatment in the tumble drier, and it was apparently clear.

The problem with microwaving sleeping bags is that a metal zip would damage the microwave. And the problem with the other possibility - freezing - would be finding a willing host to put an infected sleeping bag into their freezer!

Yes, I did recover from the itching quite quickly, but the damaged skin areas are still blotched. Latest update from the Seminario Menor in Santiago. Huge numbers of beds and sweaty people, some of whom are complaining they have been bitten in various places along the Camino Francés. I´m taking no chances here: I´ve paid a bit extra for a single room in the Seminario Menor and I´m sleeping on the floor!

Gareth

P.S. Regarding the Camino Inglés; when I return to London I´ll provide complete feedback on the new revision of the CSJ guide to that route. The new instructions are easy to follow and I would certainly suggest to anyone doing the Camino Inglés, you should not leave Ferrol without a copy. You will get hopelessly lost without it!

[Bridget and Peter]

Some people have a very nasty reaction to bed bug bites; see below

"Then just before we left - bless those pilgrim gîtes d'étape - David was besieged by bed bugs and by the time we arrived in London he needed antibiotics, antihistamine and cortisone in multiple doses to offset his allergic reactions. So now it was David's morale that wavered and for a while he questioned whether to carry on."

http://verylongwalks.blogspot.com/2008_ ... chive.html - this is an interesting blog from an English couple, Rachel and David, who are spending a year walking to Santiago with lots of diversions, backtracks and introspection - also lovely photos, including lots of orchids.

BTW, we have almost completed our journal of our camino stage One, home to Reims, and intend to put it on a blog or something before we leave for stage Two in 6 weeks.

[Rebekah Scott]

FYI Latest bedbug outbreak is centered in Fromista.

[Gareth Thomas]

FYI Latest bedbug outbreak is centered in Fromista.

That's a day's walk from Hontanas, the centre of the bedbug issue I raised here a month ago, which clearly has not been dealt with yet! (The outbreak was in the Municipal refugio in Hontanas, not the private albergue, El Puntido.)

I do wonder if the particular weather this summer - with damp introduced into the heat of the Meseta - might exacerbate the bed bug problem. Remember: insulate! Put something between the mattress and your sleeping bag. Airbed, foil emergency blanket, dustbin liners, groundsheet, anything! Just don't make contact with the mattress. Put the pillow under the bunk - don't even put your hat on it! Any blanket that comes with the bunk should be regarded as if it was a nest of vipers!

Do not treat a bed as a place to relax: be on your guard!

Gareth

[John Hussey]

BED BUGS.

Here is an interesting source of info on them from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug

I have never heard of them until the last few years and then only when I began to do research for my upcoming 2005 hike of the Camino Frances and recall a few pilgrims reporting getting them and a tiny few albergues were reporting them. As I recall, it was felt that pilgrims were bringing them in from France. Anyway, it looks like they were all but eradicated in the US and Europe (where they seem to have originated) with the widespread use of DDT. But now, long after that has stopped, they are now making a resurgence. Thankfully, I did not get them either time I walked. I can't even imagine the difficulty in getting rid of them.

[johnBCCanada]

Bed bugs don't sound like a lot of fun.

Just curious but are they to be found through out Spain. I am planning on walking the Camino Del Norte and possibly the Camino Primitive and wonder if I should take the suggested precautions there (a plastic sheet separating the bed and my sleeping bag) or whether they are, at least now, a problem to be found mainly on the Camino Francais.

Regards,

John

[Dale]

They are becoming a world wide problem once again. So don't relax your vigilance no matter where you are. Some of the worlds best hotels have been infested. Have a look at these news articles from recent media reports ;



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/2505011/Hospitals-infested-with-rats-fleas-and-bed-bugs.html

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/LOCAL18/808050376/1195/LOCAL18

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/saturdayextra/story.html?id=37c54d80-ee34-4acb-a499-91c9ed4f36f4

[kubapigora]

See my post in BED BUGD ALERT topic. I am biten as bad as on the photograph above.

HUGE PROBLEM WITH BED BUGS IN GRANON AND SAN JUAN DE ORTEGA!!!

[sillydoll]

I am really surprised that there are bed bugs in Granon as they have vinyl mattresses with very little space for bugs to cling to.
For pilgrims just leaving or planning to leave in a few weeks.
There are over 200 refuges on the camino and reports from about 12 that they have bed bugs so don't let this news put you off your planned pilgrimage.
But, it would be wise to consider some precautions.

* Check at each albergue whether or not they have a bed bug problem before you decide to stay there.
* Check the mattress - especially the seams - for bed bugs before you roll out your sleeping bag.
* If you are allergic to insect bites in any way, or have ever been allergic to insect bites, take anti-histamines with you.
* Take an anti-itch or antihistamine cream with you as well, just in case.

Besides having to share your camino with these little pests, I'm sure you are going to have a wonderful walk!
Buen camino a todos,

[kubapigora]

Just met up with our Czech friend, which stayed in San Juan de Ortega with us. We said, that we had bugs on his face when he woke up.
People on Camino- please give an update on bed bugs if you can.

[sillydoll]

Here, in Africa, we use a fabric spray product by BAYER called Bayticol to ward off ticks - also blood sucking insects - which cause tick borne diseases and Congo fever. The active ingredient is pyrethroid (Flumethrin).

THIS WAS POSTED ON ANOTHER FORUM:

I used a product by Sawyer's and sprayed it on the exterior of my bag and pack. At my wife's suggestion, I also took some lavender essential oil to dab on me before sleeping (it also negated undesirable refugio smells). I had no problems with the critters in 2007. I don't want this to seem like an advertisement, but I will include a little write up on the Sawyers product below. It is not for direct skin contact, only for clothes.

Developed in cooperation with the U.S. Military, government agencies, universities, and others; this Sawyer Clothing repellent offers protection from disease-carrying biting insects. The active ingredient, Permethrin, is a synthetic molecule similar to those found in natural pyrethrum which is taken from the Chrysanthemum flower. Not only does this product repel insect, but will actually kill ticks, mosquitoes, chiggers, mites and more than 55 other kinds of insects. Sawyer Permethrin insect repellents are for use with clothing, tents, and other gear. A single application lasts 6 washings. Permethrin is odorless when dry, and during the drying process, it tightly bonds with the fibers of the treated garment. It will not stain or damage clothing, fabrics, plastics, finished surfaces, or any of your outdoor gear.

[Dale]

Last year, when I was making plans to walk the Camino this past spring, I found an English company on the Internet that sold a net mattress cover impregnated with pyrethroid, to stop bed bugs. I assumed it was similar to a mosquito netting only designed to cover a mattress . Sounded like a good idea but unfortunately I didn't buy one and I just checked the company again and they no longer sell the item. There are several companies selling mattress covers to prevent bed bugs from the mattress from getting on you but they don't talk about anything on them which would actually kill the bugs. This is a link to one of these mattress covers:


http://www.hardtofindsheets.com/bed_bug_protection.htm?gclid=CO6RwdibwpUCFQJvswodVh9oRA