Bedbugs in Hostels and Backpacker Travel: Camden

Bedbugs are not a sign of a bad hostel, any more than they are a sign of a dirty home. They move with luggage, and a place where every bed has a new person and a new bag every few nights will sometimes pick them up. What you can control is whether they get into your pack and whether they come home with you.

Why a Backpack Is Harder Than a Suitcase

A hard case has a few seams and a smooth shell. A backpack is almost all seams: padded straps, hip belts, mesh pockets, a back panel with foam behind it, a drawstring top and a rain cover rolled into its own pouch. Every one of those is a dark, tight fold of fabric, and that is exactly where a bedbug settles.

A backpack also tends to go on the bed. In a bunk room there is often nowhere else to put it, so it sits on the mattress or is pushed underneath the frame. Both are the places bedbugs live.

On the Road: Dorms, Bunks and Lockers

• When you get to a bed, pull back the sheet at one corner and look along the mattress seams and the joints of the bunk frame with your phone torch.
• Dark dots like ink marks, pale husks or small brown insects are a reason to ask for a different bed, and ideally a different room.
• Use the locker if there is one, and hang the pack off the floor if there is a hook.
• Keep clothes in a zipped bag or packing cubes inside the pack, not loose.
• Do not leave the pack open on the bed overnight.

A top bunk is not a way out. Bedbugs climb bunk frames without trouble; what matters is whether the bed has them, not how high it is.

If You Wake Up Bitten on a Trip

Bites on their own do not prove it. Plenty of other insects bite, and some people do not react to bedbugs at all. Look at the bed. If you find signs, tell the staff, move rooms, and then deal with your belongings straight away rather than carrying on and taking them to the next stop.

A hot wash or a hot tumble dryer cycle for everything that can take it is the best thing you can do on the road. Most hostels have a laundry or one nearby. Bag anything that cannot go in, and keep it sealed until you are home.

Coming Home: The First Hour

1. Unpack in a kitchen, hallway or bathroom with a hard floor, not in a bedroom.
2. Put the clothes straight into the machine or a sealed bin bag, worn or not.
3. Wash on the hottest setting each label allows, or tumble dry on hot.
4. Empty every pocket of the pack and turn out the mesh and the lid.
5. Vacuum the seams, straps and back panel, then empty the vacuum outside at once.
6. Store the pack away from the bedrooms, zipped, until the next trip.

Sleeping bags and liners are the easy part: they go through the dryer. Shoes, washbags and tech pouches need a look in good light before they go anywhere near the bed. Our guide to bedbugs in laptops and electronics covers the chargers and the kit.

If Something Did Come Home

Stop, keep the evidence in a jar, and keep sleeping in your own bed rather than moving to the sofa. If you are in a shared house or a flat in a divided building, tell the others. Catching it in one room keeps the treatment small, and an inspection from £120 will tell you if it is bedbugs at all before you pay for anything more. The main borough page explains how we treat a flat in a shared house, and bedbugs or something else helps if you are unsure what bit you.

← Bedbug Control Camden · Bedbug Control London