I must’ve asked this question before having more bedbug experiences because now I have found a very simple answer.
At least for me, the itch always goes away when I take a shower. I just use whatever regular soap or shower gel I happen to have and that’s always worked.
Of course if you’ve only been bitten on a hand or wrist you can just wash your hands instead of a full shower.
Now it won’t prevent further bites when you go back to bed, so if you get woken up by another itch, do the same again.
I’ve only ever had bedbugs in tropical regions where having a shower in the middle of the night has been refreshing anyway.
I have the unfortunate combination of being very sensitive to bed bugs (bites while sleeping wake me in about 30 seconds, sometimes quickly enough to catch the bug red-jawed, then consistently swell about 2-3cm in diameter…) and travelling a lot recently in parts of Africa and London that have bed bug problems. On the plus side, it means I can answer this question…
I’ve found most forms of insect repellent including DEET-based ones to be somewhat helpful, but not enough to rely on them alone. Whereas mozzies might be deterred from flying near you, hungry bed bugs will find a way to reach that spot you missed unless you take other precautions. That spot might well be inside your clothes…
Turns out there’s proper evidence to back up my experience that bedbugs don’t like DEET:
Repellency of selected chemicals against the bed bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae)
…[DEET] provided a high level of repellency against bed bugs… At 25% concentration, DEET-treated fabric surface remained highly repellent to bed bugs for a 14-d period…
…Isolongifolenone and isolongifolanone, two natural products and recently reported insect repellents, exhibited strong repellent property against bed bugs but at significantly lower levels than DEET. Three novel potential repellent compounds discovered by Bedoukian Research Inc. (Danbury, CT) exhibited similar level of repellency and longevity as DEET for repelling bed bugs…
Here’s what’s saved me when I’ve discovered the hard way that my bed for the night is infested at 2am:
Doing all of the above gave me an uninterrupted 6 hours sleep with no bites (after the initial 2am jolt) in a very badly infested place recently.
Also make sure you don’t take them home with you:
If you’ve got access to something like a balcony or shed or similar, for an extra precaution, consider putting luggage and fabric items you had with you in “quarantine” out there for a few days, with the nearest doors and windows to your home sealed so they don’t have any easy human-scented route in.
Regarding itch suppression, I’m a bit of an extreme case… so results may differ. For me, regular bite creams like anti-histamines don’t seem to help much (no reason not to try them though, just don’t rely on them). I’ve had best results with:
If you have to put up with it, WikiHow has an article that summarises how to relieve the bites. I was researching this back in July for my first bugs experience :/
They cover a few steps:
Some of these will work for you, others won’t – weirdly, just seems that there’s no perfect cure, and maybe that depends on the type and location of bite, or your reaction to the bites. But give them a try.
I am afraid that the usual repellents for mosquitoes and the like will not work for bedbugs. I am also sure that your hands-on experience on the topic testifies this, since I bet you have already tried this solution. 🙂
There are however a number of commercially available bed bug sprays, ranging from extremely powerful and harmuful for humans, to derived from responsibly sourced plant enzimes. See here for a more-detailed review on the topic. Some of these products come in travel-size, and a lot of references on their effectiveness can be found online by travellers who claimed to have used them.
I don’t know how practical it might be for you to adopt this solution. First and foremost, seeing as your travels usually last for long periods (read months) I am wondering the size of the supply you should have to carry with you. This is ever more true in case you are travelling to places where you wouldn’t be able to source the product off-the-shelf. Moreover, you must consider the time it takes for the product to act, and the time you need to aerate the bed/room before you can sleep on/in it, to avoid contamination and poisoning.
I just had this post Christmas meal epiphany. You could buy an anti bed bug mattress cover and carry it along on your travels. This could provide an effective barrier against the bed bug infested mattresses you might have to sleep on. Of course there is no one-size-fit-all when it comes to mattress covers. However you can plan ahead depending on the type of accommodation you will be using. Most hostels have single-bed size mattresses anyway.
The other only option you have is to prevent bites by identifying the presence of bed bugs and requesting a clean bed/room. Various guides on the topic can be found on the web. See here for an example. The work-flow to go about this remains constant across them:
Inspect the room and the bed, use a flashlight. These are the signs you are looking for (courtesy of Masseyservices):
In case you find bed bugs, ask for anther room.
On a separate note, I’ve been scratching myself non-stop whilst writing this answer. The mind is powerful, damned imaginary bug bites. 🙂
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
5 Mar, 2024
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