Bedbugs in Shelters

[Toolshed]

If you need another reason to reconsider shelters, it will only be a matter of time before bedbugs become a stable in shelters, with harborage provided from all the cracks and crevices.

With a daily transient hiking population and hikers visiting from different countries, especially spending a night or two in the various cheaper motels that are cropping up in www.bedbugregistry.com, these sturdy little creatures will soon be hitching rides in clothing, backpacks and sleeping bags, only to be deposited at shelters.

An example, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington have a slew of hotels that have infestations, as do many hotels in all major cities.

Growing up in a pest control, business, we saw a few of these problems in the 60's and early 70's, but given the insecticides of the day, they were easily controlled.

If this trend of re-infestations doesn't reverse course soon, it might be a good idea to use permethrin more liberally on your clothing, backpack and sleeping gear.

One idea is that if you are traveling to and from the trail and need to stay somewhere that has been identified on the registry above, or you are not sure, you can wrap double-sided tape around the bed legs and bedframe/headboard to trap the bloodsuckers. Also remove the bedding and check the creases of the mattress cords and under the buttons, as well as between the mattress and boxspring. If you find anything demand to be moved to a new room.
http://www.bugclinic.com/bedbug.htm

Toolshed

[Spokes]

Actually, stinkbugs are giving bedbugs a run for the money as this years worse pest.

See this article in USA Today HERE .

[TheYoungOne]

Actually, stinkbugs are giving bedbugs a run for the money as this years worse pest.

See this article in USA Today HERE .

Stinkbugs just Stink

Bedbugs Suck...your blood.

I'll take stinkbugs any day of the week.

[Luddite]

Theres bugs everywhere...its the outdoors.

[Panzer1]

we'll just have to stock the shelters with some other kind of bug that eats bed bugs.

Panzer

[daddytwosticks]

Shouldn't they be called bagbugs?

[hailstones]

Bed bugs and mice at shelters,what a great combination,all we need now is for evolution to kick in and give ticks wings,not that i beleive in evo,just saying,lol

[Toolshed]

Actually, stinkbugs are giving bedbugs a run for the money as this years worse pest.

See this article in USA Today HERE .

Sadly, I am in the Allentown area. 2005 was a huge population of stinkbugs and then the population died off over the last 5 years, now they are back again in force, but they aren't as bad here as they were in 2005. I guess more southern locals in VA/MD are getting the brunt now....

[Cosmo]

Bedbugs will be killed off by the cold. So it's up to hikers to re-populate the shelters every season.

If you are really worried about an infestation in your gear, store it outside this winter for a couple of weeks.

Cosmo

[DapperD]

One more reason to use a tent

[DaveSail]

Every door / window / crack of our house was festooned with HUNDREDS
trying to get in ! I just filled a small pail with water , some bleach and a squirt of dishwashing - detergent . They trust you , and will crawl up on your hand . Then , they get drowned ! They don't " stink " unless you
squash them . Over the last week or two I've drowned many hundreds .
Now , ( Mon. 9 / 27 ) I don't see any more !

David V. Webber

[Toolshed]

Bedbugs will be killed off by the cold. So it's up to hikers to re-populate the shelters every season.

If you are really worried about an infestation in your gear, store it outside this winter for a couple of weeks.

Cosmo

As long as it is below freezing for at least a few days or more, but then again as in LD50, there are always survivors in a population that can move on.

[weary]

....there are always survivors in a population that can move on.

Not in my experience. I've killed all kinds of critters by keeping them in my freezer on slow crop years. Once I had an infestation of weevils in the $1 a pound oatmeal I had collected from supermarket sales.

I've been working down my supply by making oatmeal cookies for pot luck suppers. No one has as yet noticed the remains of once frozen weevil bodies.

Weary

[Kerosene]

No one has as yet noticed the remains of once frozen weevil bodies.

Offsets the sugar carbs with a little protein!

[bpitt]

Wait....there's bug's in the woods?

[Toolshed]

Not in my experience. I've killed all kinds of critters by keeping them in my freezer on slow crop years. Once I had an infestation of weevils in the $1 a pound oatmeal I had collected from supermarket sales.

I've been working down my supply by making oatmeal cookies for pot luck suppers. No one has as yet noticed the remains of once frozen weevil bodies.

Weary

By that logic, there shouldn't be any insect populations alive after a winter in Maine??

[jdb]

If you think you have bedbugs heat is the best way to kill them. Throw eveything in the dryer for 30 mins. Make sure your dryer temp is 120 degrees or over. Anything you can't put in the dryer put in a black leaf/trash bag and tie the opening shut. Put the bag in the sun all day and the the heat will once again do the job.

If you stay at a hotel and it does not seem to matter where or which one these days, keep your bag in the bathtub. The bedbugs will not be able to crawl into the tub.

Not to sound like a know it all but I do this for a living.....and yes I hate my job!

[Toolshed]

If you think you have bedbugs heat is the best way to kill them. Throw eveything in the dryer for 30 mins. Make sure your dryer temp is 120 degrees or over. Anything you can't put in the dryer put in a black leaf/trash bag and tie the opening shut. Put the bag in the sun all day and the the heat will once again do the job.

If you stay at a hotel and it does not seem to matter where or which one these days, keep your bag in the bathtub. The bedbugs will not be able to crawl into the tub.

Not to sound like a know it all but I do this for a living.....and yes I hate my job!

PCO? There are a couple of us here...

[TheYoungOne]

Wait....there's bug's in the woods?

A Decade ago there were no Stinkbugs in the American woods, now they are more common to see around here then ladybugs or crickets. Its that bad. Bedbug are not in the woods but in the shelters, hostels, and hotels. While I cannot say for certain, Bedbugs were not a problem in the USA up until a few years ago.

Its all new stuff to deal with. Stinkbug will be a nuisance bug to camper and hikers, while pushing out other species of insects, and eventually damaging fruit and veggie crops across the US.

Meanwhile new precautions need to be taken to avoid bedbugs. If you bring bedbugs back home from a trip, and they take up home, expect to throw away every mattress and cushion in your home, and drop a few grand in extermination cost just to get rid of them.

[TheYoungOne]

If you think you have bedbugs heat is the best way to kill them. Throw eveything in the dryer for 30 mins. Make sure your dryer temp is 120 degrees or over. Anything you can't put in the dryer put in a black leaf/trash bag and tie the opening shut. Put the bag in the sun all day and the the heat will once again do the job.

If you stay at a hotel and it does not seem to matter where or which one these days, keep your bag in the bathtub. The bedbugs will not be able to crawl into the tub.

Not to sound like a know it all but I do this for a living.....and yes I hate my job!

Very cool info. I also heard that keeping your suitcase or backpack off the floor and in a plastic bag also helps. I have a few vacations coming up and I'm definately going to be taking some precautions.