Bed bugs this year???

Taking extra precautions might be a good plan this year. The extra hot weather appears to have caused a mini explosion.
I saw nobody with problems pre meseta, but since then I have seen and talked to lots of pilgrims suffering from them. While I have not been bitten as far as I know - many have and the main common area appears to be from Astorga to Triacastela. Pilgrims have woken up and found themselves crawling with bugs and the results are pretty impressive, with loads of red lumps on arms and legs (sorry, I do not want to say which albergues as the issue may hopefully have been dealt with after notification).
But definitely follow Annie's bed inspection procedure upon checking in.

Gene_781 said:

Lots of speculation and personal ideas in this thread about treatment and avoidance. I'd suggest taking a look at:

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pcbedbugs.htm
http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pdf/BedBugPoster_English2012.pdf

90C is not necessary. It may take 15 days at 32 F to kill bed bug adults and 30 days to kill bed bug eggs that are unprotected, and much longer to kill those that are hidden inside items. Temperatures below freezing will kill quicker, but less is known about killing bed bugs with cold compared with using heat against them.
To varying degrees, bed bugs have been successfully managed using pyrethroids, but more recently with non-pyrethroid pesticides to which bed bugs show little or no resistance. Pyrethroids such as deltamethrin and permethrin have been among the active ingredients most commonly available in pesticides at retail stores. The ongoing use of pyrethroids has undoubtedly contributed to the resistance we see today in some bed bug populations.

Click to expand...

It's really a toss-up depending on whose study you read.
Home freezers will not work as most do not get cold enough.

Some studies have indicated that cold might kill bedbugs after as little as one hour of exposure. But new research published in the Journal of Economic Entomology finds that’s not the case. Cold can kill a bedbug, but only after days.

Joelle F. Olson of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and colleagues froze bedbugs at various stages of life, fed and unfed, for varying lengths of time. The bad news was that the bugs didn’t die nearly as quickly as other studies had found, a mere hour or two at -16° or -17° Celsius. “In our study, bedbugs survived lower temperatures, with eggs surviving in short-term exposures … to temperatures as low as -25° C,” the researchers write. But the bugs are not freeze tolerant, the scientists found, and they can be killed — no matter their stage of life or feeding status. All it takes is 80 hours in temperatures of -16° C.

So far, on the Camino, heat has worked and is easier to access - temperatures inside a black plastic garbage sack in the sun get hot enough, apparently, since it works.
Most people don't have 80 hours to wait, while on the Camino.

IMO, the best advice is to spray your gear ahead of time, know what you're looking for and avoid getting the little buggers to begin with.