bedbugs and backpacks

Not to be paranoid, but I've heard that if you get bedbugs, you need to wash everything in scalding hot water. I was wondering how you would handle a backpack if it got infested. Can you wash a backpack in a washing machine? Probably depends on the backpack. Has anyone had to deal with this? Anyone worried about bedbugs? Are you wrapping your backpack in plastic at night? Again, hate to be paranoid, just wondering.

I've heard of people having their packs steam cleaned to kill BBs.

Two things kill bedbugs. Extreme cold and Ultraviolet rays.

I'm betting putting the pack in the washing machine will do it too, and so will scrubbing it in a mild chlorine and soap solution. Chlorine probably kills everything it touches, even eggs. The problem, you see, are the eggs. They lay them in dark corners.

If you have an infested mattress, if you put it outside in the full sun for a day, you can kill them, I'm told. They use a major insecticide when they spray for bed-bugs.

Also, I'm told that cold weather harms them. Unfortunately, in the areas they are common, its usually pretty tropical.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/how-t ... 39_95.html

Chlorine apparently, is not recommended.

How Do You Kill Bed Bugs Effectively? Mix Chlorine with Gasoline and you've got DDT. Now you can kill them bugs dead for sure. 6 months ago ...

The link won't work.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&clie ... f&oq=&aqi=

Yes, in the laundry at high enough chlorine levels and very hot water. It will not kill bed bugs inside your mattress, which is where they are.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 754AAr5UxB

One more blogger seems to think that DDT is not effective against them, since they've developed a resistance.

Oh yes- Don't mix chlorox and gasoline.

Bleach is a powerful oxidizer. This is how it is able to whiten clothes: bleach oxidizes chromophores, making them white.Gasoline, of course, needs oxygen to burn. When you add a powerful oxidizer like bleach to a powerful fuel like gasoline, you get a potent mix. It creates dangerously unstable peroxides, and if you light it, watch out for the big boom (particularly if you have it spread out over a large area). Hint: if you are going for a big boom, then put the bleach in a bowl, and let it evaporate outside. The powder left behind is an immensely powerful oxidizing agent. Just don't let any contaminants get into it. Mix that with fuel, and BOOM! Nearly burned my face off when I did that...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_e ... d_gasoline

Some bedbugs have resistance to many insecticides, including DDT

It is the heat that is used to kill them, if you remove the frame of your backpack, you should be able to toss it in a drying machine.

I think the most important thing is to check the room for bedbugs as soon as you get there. Look at the mattress, especially near the end where your head goes, and especially in the cracks and crevasses. Then check the headboard and any couches if the room is fancy.

Once you have bedbugs you're in a very bad place. For clothes, heat will kill them; I read 5-10 minutes in a dryer for dry clothes will kill them. However, not everything can go in a dryer. Alcohol (like rubbing alcohol) is supposed to kill them too, but it's pretty hard to cover every surface of a bag with alcohol, and they like to hide in places that are hard to get to.

Luckily, because of the way they work, they aren't supposed to transmit diseases. However, their bites can be pretty itchy, depending on your reaction to them.

- Mike

Obviously, I'm a newbee at the bedbug thing too.

How big are bedbugs? Someone said that heat kills them. Is it possible to run a hairdryer over the mattress?

Are you more likely to find bedbugs in hot, humid areas than in dry places?

Just wondering...

A full grown bedbug is kind of the size of a large ant, although their body is a kind of flat disk shape. At least the couple I've seen. The ones that aren't fully grown are much smaller, and supposedly the youngest are hard to see without magnification.

A hairdryer would work if you could find them all and directly heat them each for a period of time, but that's probably not realistic, especially since you'd have to do all the bedding, under the mattress, any cracks or crevasses in the frame, pictures above the bed, nightstands, etc. If you have a limited supply of stuff (clothes, etc.), you can put it in a dryer while not wet, and the heat's supposed to kill them pretty quickly. I don't remember the temperature or time offhand. But that only works for things that can go in a dryer, so a suitcase or backpack might not work.

One sure sign is to look for spots of blood on the mattress or pillows. Presumably the sheets and pillowcases will be clean, but hopefully IF there are bedbugs, there will be some tell-tale blood spots on the mattress, which won't have been washed between every person.

- Mike

Unfortunately, sometimes you can't see them until you turn the lights off, and if they hide well enough, you'll only know when you feel this itching anywhere your body touches the mattress.

The night after, you would be best changing rooms, for I understand they hunt by body heat.

I sometimes put my own mattress on the floor to avoid immediate lack of sleep.

Then I move rooms.

Yeah, I've read it's by body heat and carbon dioxide.

I've started zipping my pack every night so the zipper will hopefully offer some sort of barrier between any bugs and my clothes. I also leave it up high, if possible, say on a chair instead of on the ground. If there are any clothes that I want to air out, I try to hang them on something so they're not touching the ground.

Other than trying to spot them or the tell-tale blood spots, that's about all you can do. Even the bites don't always show up for several days, so you can't necessarily even tell the room's infested for a while.

- Mike

Hmmm, I just had bedbugs on the road and did loads of research. I have to say there is a lot of inaccurate information posted here, mixed about with some accurate info. To sum up what I've found.

Steam cleaning packs will supposedly work, as well as dry cleaning if its the older method using perchlorate not water based. Ultraviolet rays as far as I have understood have absolutely nothing to do with killing bed bugs.

Heat, and cold are the only two effective ways of doing it. With cold the temperature has to be kept below freezing for a long sustained period, I've heard of people freezing packs for several days. This is probably the least damaging to your possessions as packs are not meant to be heated to the requisite 120 F or more.

If you have strong sun you can wrap your items in black plastic bags and using a thermometer to watch the internal temperature, again rise to above 120 F. I've also heard that doing this inside a closed car can work.

Its true that DDT used to work, but at least in the states there are strains that are resistant to insecticides. Interestingly the resistant strains only seem to be able to live dormant for 2 months, while the regular common bed bug can go a full 18 months dormant, without feeding.

Zipping a pack might help, but they are thin enough to slip through most zippers. For this reason you should never put your bags on your the bed, and don't leave them on the floor. Hanging from a hook or sitting on a luggage wrack is by far the best, although not common at cheap hostels. I also no longer sleep on my sleeping bag if I don't think the sheets are clean enough.

Checking for the mattress for the telltale signs first is by far the best thing you can do. You can find blood spots, and the dark liquid stains that are bedbugs feces. You can also spot eggs (milky white) and molted skin if there are enough present. Long story short, if the mattress looks filthy, I wouldn't recommend it.

When I got them I struggled for a few days with how to get rid of them. I eventually ended up having to check into a hotel that had a self service laundromat. I dismantled my pack, and threw everything that could be washed into the washer on high heat followed by drying until dry on high heat, then 10 minutes past dry. Everything else, like my tent sleeping bag, and pack I threw into the dryer with high heat for 10 minutes. You are not supposed to dry any of those things, but I was at a real loss for how to get rid of the little beasts.

4 days with bedbugs left hundreds of bites that are still healing a week and a half later.