CMAW 

Touring right now, camping. One night in a room and I'm left with a bu ch of bites that are most likely from bedbugs. I used my own liner in that room (plus open panier, clothes on chairs etc) so it' s not impossible that some of the insects sneaked in my stuff. What to do? Hardly any of my clothes can be washed at 60° C, the "safe" temp, let alone tent or sleeping bag. Any tips on how to sanitize my gear?

Polaris OBark

I've never dealt with this, but my understanding is the bugs actually hide out in cracks, etc, so washing your clothes at 60° C might not be sufficient, but it might also not be necessary.

One more reason not to hotel it!

I remember once in 1992 I think we stayed in a hotel, and wound up setting up our tent in the room and sleeping in it because of the roaches. Bedbugs would have been FAR worse. You have my sympathies.

If it is sunny, it might be worth setting everything out in the sun to cook for a day.

bktourer1

Rosemary. Rosemary is a herb that is known for its strong scent and antioxidant properties. Its scent is thought to repel bed bugs and other pests. The scent of rosemary is thought to be irritating to bed bugs, causing them to stay away from areas where it is present.

CMAW 

That's probably a good idea, would be an easy fix.

streetsurfer

I'd put everything in a bag and dust it with Diatomaceous Earth.

elcruxio

This only works in this way in Finland but every time we come back from tour we put all of our textiles / panniers / hiding spots in large garbage bags and put them in our sauna for a few hours at 80 or so celsius. Once the heat penetrates the core of each bag we take them out and everything inside should be dead.

Depending on where you live, putting the stuff in a car on a hot sunny day might do the trick.

Pratt

To paraphrase Ahnold, If it breathes, we can kill it. Put all the stuff in garbage bags with dry ice. The Carbon dioxide will kill them. A bug bomb would probably work too.
IIRC, the bite is typically three fold, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Good luck.

njkayaker

They must use very small bicycles.

indyfabz

POTD!

”I ain’t got time to bleed.”

veganbikes

So diatomaceous earth and cedar work extremely well for getting rid of bed bugs. I have had them and they suck but we tried the D.E. and cedar oil and they were gone gone and nothing toxic and no need for anything crazy. People believe in these "pest control" companies with various toxic chemicals because they are trying to sell you that stuff when in reality it doesn't work that well and you have to keep doing it over and over and over. The D.E. and cedar was a one time application and they haven't come back they were probably gone in a day or two from two bedrooms (they didn't spread elsewhere which is odd)

We didn't try rosemary but I have a feeling it would be a similar effect to the cedar.

phughes

Most pest control companies use heat to kill bed bugs. There really are not any pesticides currently that actually work on bed bugs. Heat though does.

Roughstuff

Bed bugs are now a nationwide problem in hotels and motels everywhere. The treatments that are used for roaches and other vermin (such as Politicians.... ) do not work on bedbugs, and some treatments that were effective were, of course, banned by envirowhackos a few years ago. Now they use steam and heat. Mattresses are completely enveloped in thick plastic cocoons that minimize problems of re-infestation.

To make it worse, hotels and motels that eliminate the problem find their facilties re-contaminated by less successful rivals!

The diatomaceous earth and other suggestions above are, however, spot on. Apply them systematically to your stuff and then isolate the treated stuff while you continue till everything is finally done. One thing nice about cyclists is we carry a small amount of stuff, so the treatment problem is minimized. Good luck.

Roughstuff

So the song "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" was about BB infestation?!

Yan 

Buy permethrin insecticide from an outdoor shop or agricultural supplier and spray (or soak) the hell out of your clothes, your gear, and yourself. Instant bedbug genocide.

When I say yourself I mean your head and everywhere else you have body hair. Keep it away from cats. Fine to spray on dogs.

Here are some sheep being dipped through a pool of permethrin.

https://www.agridirect.ie/product/cyper-guard-2-ltr/

50PlusCycling

One of the oldest tricks to get rid of bedbugs, lice, etc is to put infested clothes and such on an ant hill. The ants will eat the bugs and their eggs, even in the harder to reach spots.

veganbikes

When we were looking they were doing various chemicals maybe that has changed or your area is different but most of them still use toxic chemicals in general and spread fear of all bugs. It is unfortunately the typical live in fear stuff that a lot of folks and companies are promoting for one silly reason or another.

The D.E. and Cedar worked so well and is not pleasant but safe to eat. Heat is not a bad idea but I like it nice and cool in the house and some people love that cedar smell.

indyfabz

Whenever I see the thread title I think of “Shattered”, by The Rolling Stones.

”You got rats on the west side, bed bugs uptown.”

elcruxio

When heat treating for bed bugs the temperature needs to be 125f or 51 celsius in order to kill the eggs. You can't live in the house while it's being heat treated.

indyfabz

I’d be worried that the exterminators would set up a temporary meth lab while I was away.

djb

I have been lucky so far in not having this problem on tour, but touch wood, touch wood, was quite surprised I never did given some of the places I have slept in.

for someone like CMAW on tour right now, are there any practical, easy to do solutions while on tour? I understand not wanting to wash your stuff in a commercial laundry place in super hot water, but aren't there some solutions that can work doing a regular load of laundry in hot water on a gentle cycle?

as someone brought up, we really dont have that much clothing when touring, so I would hope some sort of doable solution is out there.

elcruxio

Given how much PPE you need to run a meth lab, I'm guessing the chemicals / fumes would take care of the bed bug problem

phughes

I check every hotel room, or ship cabin before I unpack anything, I travel extensively for work, and pleasure, and have found bed bugs. The best defense is to thoroughly check every hotel room before unpacking anything. There are many sites just a google search away that will show how to search for bed bugs.

zandoval 

Man do I have some stories about insects in your gear.

First off bed bugs are hardy little buggers. Unlike Scabies they can live past a year without food. When it comes to bed bugs I go for a pyrethrine. Spray all the gear with a roach killer then plastic bag it for a few days. A good safe source of pyrethrine can be found in Dog Flea soap.

You can also use moth balls. Put all your gear in a big plastic bag with a hand full of moth balls then seal it up and put the bag in a real hot place. The moth balls will gas off and kill everything in the bag. Plus it will leave all your gear mold resistant and a little on the stinky side for a few weeks.

If you dont want to use poisons then you can go to some alternate methods. Freeze your gear for a few days then heat it up real fast and freeze again. Dust all your gear heavily with Sulfur Powder. That ant pile idea is a good one. I gotta try that one soon.

mev

Fortunate thing is we don't have much gear.

I found bed bugs twice on my trip last summer. First time in Decatur IL and second time in Baker City OR. In Decatur it was evening and I saw two scamper on the bed. I immediately left bringing two smooshed bed bugs to the desk. I hadn't unpacked much with panniers still on the bike. So tried visual inspection but not much else. I did report them to the county office of code enforcement.

In Baker City it was the next morning. I got out of the bed, packed things up and brought my evidence to the desk. I was hopeful that freezing overnight temperatures might help.

I did meet a fellow cyclist in CT who has taken his panniers and isolated then before heating after seeing bedbugs.

The most serious insect infestation I had was of crickets in a small town in Peru. They were *everywhere*. I didn't have much choice in lodging so stayed with the crickets. The next day after cycling all day I checked into a hotel and as I got my passport a cricket jumped out of the handle bar bag. I later spotted at least two other hitchhikers.

djb

Jiminy that a great story!
;-)
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