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Hmmn...wonder if this us a UK exclusive job or if there are similar options elsewhere?A topic of which we never tire.
Experience: I am human bedbug bait
I’ll get a phone call: ‘Want to sleep with bedbugs?’ To which my reply is normally: ‘How nice is the hotel?’www.theguardian.com
You forget public "servants"...
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I do wonder if the attraction versus lack of attraction for two people sleeping next to each other might not be related to the blood type preference for mosquitos and other blood consuming insects?
Either that, or he is being bitten, but because he’s not even remotely allergic, the bites simply don’t register.
I normally react to insect bites terribly even when taking antihistamines, and I'm normally very similar to my sister healthwise.
Our blood and bodies are much more complicated than simple blood types. We are all unique in our genetic makep and how those genes are expressed. I do not use lotions or creams on the Camino, just keep clean with the same basic nonscented shampoo that my husband uses. Probably I have other attractive pheremones for the bed bugs. and I choose not to use scented products like lavender even though I like them at home out of respect for scent sensitivity of others also on the journey.
I thought it was the carbon dioxide in one's exhaled breath and body heat that attracted them. Neither of these we can avoid. It might be that they are attracted to other things. There are good reasons for not using scents, perfumes and scented products in any case, so it may not hurt to avoid adding to the things that will attract them.
No, it does not repel them and it takes a long time to kill them. They will likely die though before the following night.
Yes. No. Permethrin is an insecticide, not an insect repellent.
As @dougfitz and @J Willhaus said, it's not a repellant. Nor does it kill them on contact. But since it does appear to kill them over time with prolonged contact I treat my sleep gear (excluding my pillowcase), the inside of my backpack, and all my cloth stuff sacks. If a bed bug gets into my backpack I want it to have maximum exposure!
That is misleading. Only one sub-species is known to have developed resistance. The others haven't and will die much faster. The particular video is even more misleading, in my view. View it with caution and ask yourself if enough information about the nature of the 'demonstration' was provided. I clearly don't think so.
The point is, that permethrin doesn't repel nor kill on contact. Whether it takes 3 minutes or 3 hours to kill or disable them is certainly up for debate, but for me, using permethrin is a bit of an "insurance policy" against carrying them to the next albergue or home. Note that I'm not saying that it's guaranteed that they will die.
No, nor is it intended to: it is an insecticide intended to kill them. Although its effectiveness as an insecticide has been called into question, Permethrin seems to be quite effective at preventing the transfer of bedbugs from one property to another (e.g. the next albergue, or your home). But if you suspect you are carrying bedbugs, then heat, 50Cº for fifty minutes, is the usual prescribed method of disposal, preferably in a tumble dryer or failing that a black plastic bag left out in the sun all afternoon in summer.
I didn't suggest that treatment created an impenetrable barrier. I always sleep with my face exposed. In tossing and turning I may also expose my arms and shoulders, and I suspect that I might have been bitten as a result some many years ago. I am more careful now to keep as much of my body as I can covered by my liner.
I was bit on my thigh, which most definitely was inside my sleep sack.
Why not both?
One could, but if you only treat one, I think it should be the sleeping bag liner. It is more likely to be used all the time, such as when it is too warm to contemplate using a sleeping bag, even as a quilt.
A couple of points. Treating clothing is always going to be a good option for insects that are active during the day time when you are wearing it. Is sounds like you were using a spray on treatment, which seems to wash out more quickly than wash-in treatments, but as you say, that probably isn't going to make a lot of difference if one isn't washing clothing regularly. If one were washing every other day, as one might on the Camino, my preference would be to do a wash-in treatment before I left home. It appears that would be effective for a month, perhaps up to six months depending on how well the directions were followed.
It's always a possibility that you would be mistaken for a corpse, and not a useful source of a nice fresh blood meal!
Doug, ticks are very much an issue in Spain. On the more frequented caminos because the tracks are so wide I doubt they would be much of an issue, however on the less frequented caminos very much so.
I think that the leech species found in Spain are similar to those in the UK. Our leeches mostly remain submerged in permanent bodies of water waiting for potential food sources to appear rather than go wandering around in damp vegetation in a proactive search for prey.
I've seen references in hiking literature to using DEET to deter leeches, but never with an explanation of why. Permethrin is, I understand, toxic to aquatic animals, so there might also be a repellent effect, but I admit that your comment is the first time I have heard of it being used as a repellent for leeches. I would be interested if you know of reference sources for this.
Sorry no, I don't know a reference. I was advised by an old Aussie bushman when I was in the Daintree and running low on my deet to just spray on some permethrin that a mate of mine had with him. I used it another couple of times it different places in Oz and had no leeches. That of course is not proof positive!
Please don't spray anything on the bedding supplied by a hostal, especially blankets that are not washed after every use. Other people will be using them after you and they may react badly. Heavy perfumes - even "natural" ones - can be sickening to others.
What do you spray it with?
Just a comment that I have a friend with pretty severe (although not life threatening) allergic reactions to lavender scents. She's a professor and if a lavender scented student enters the room she's home for a week. I suspect that if she were in the next bunk to yours, that would be the end of her Camino, unless she had the foresight to plan a week's padding to her schedule for recovery.
That might sound laudable, but I wonder whether the spray penetrates the bed linen and wets any mattress or mattress protector, etc underneath it. That would leave a legacy for subsequent occupants and the owners. Unintended, perhaps, but real nonetheless.
Can you provide an actual link or reference to any authoritative research that supports this theory?
atlantabedbugexperts.com
Nope. My research occurred some time ago, and over multiple sources. I cannot reconstruct the exact list of sources. I did not save any of it as I was researching for personal use, not editorial attribution. I am long past footnoting -
