UKH

Last time I went to a place where mosquitoes are a risk, well it was the risk of Malaria and Dengue I was concerned about, I bought a permethrin spray and sprayed the cuffs and collars of my clothes. I only got one bite, so possibly it worked.
Anyway I digress, I am shortly going on a walk to a lot of hostels, and apparently Bed Bugs can be a bit of a risk, and treating your sleeping bag with permethrin is suggested as a good plan.
IIRC the last permethrin I bought, seemed expensive for a spray bottle that did not last over long, I think it was life venture.
 I am noticing ratios and percentages of permethrin content and I assume this is important.
Has anyone any experience of other permethrin sprays, that perhaps represent better value, they could recommend please.

Thanks in advance.

I didn't think Permethrin was effective against bed bugs? Won't do any harm to try, though.

I have an idea my sleeping bag liner is Permethrin treated - will try and dig it out later and check.

Keep it away from cats, they're particularly sensitive to its toxicity. The sprays with lower permethrin % are better for cat owners (but maybe less effective on insects) 

Huh? Not really getting that "not lasting over long", how did you use it?!?

You are aware that Permethrin is a long‑lasting insecticide, not some insect repellent that you spray on you and your clothing every few hours like Smidge? You just treat the fabric once and it lasts up to several washings, or at least a few weeks when unwashed.

Yes. Anything over 0.5‑1% is considered possibly less safe and usually regulated, as it's a neurotoxin after all (albeit with a very low mammalian toxicity and skin absorption, except with cats – cats just die from even that 0.5%, unlike e.g. dogs or us). All Permethrin sprays intended for treating clothing for humans are almost always exactly 0.5%.

Anything higher is either intended for medical use (like a 5% topical cream for scabies) or agricultural pesticide use, pest control and the like. Using a concentrate intended for the latter to treat clothing would not only be potentially dumb and dangerous (spilling it or forgetting the dilution), but also illegal in many jurisdictions (plenty of pesticides require a professional licence, either because of toxicity, or just to limit random people doing gross environmental damage with them).

Anyway, not really sure about its efficacy against bed bugs. Some of them are getting pyrethroid‑resistant, and even with the less resistant ones it usually takes at least a day for them to get a lethal dose from crawling over it (at treatment doses safe for humans), which might not help you that much when sleeping in different hostels each night. Though it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a treated liner or such!

It's not a repellent, it's mostly just an insecticide, meaning it won't prevent them crawling over the liner to get to you that much, it just kills them when crawling over it, after a while. Just like with ticks – it doesn't exactly repel ticks like Icaridin or DEET might, it just poisons them as they slowly crawl over the treated fabric.

I'd use a liner instead of a sleeping bag, though. Bed bugs tend to nest in dark, confined spaces, and I'd rather not test out if the inside of a sleeping bag when packed counts as their favourite nesting space or not, potentially spreading them through all the hostels along my way

Are you suggesting I take a sleeping bag liner treated with Permethrin and if concerned about bed bugs maybe some deet  around the bits of me that stick out of the bag, could help?

Yes and no - it's a LifeVenture EX3 treated silk liner which claims to be anti-bacterial and effective against bed bugs and mosquitos.

Treatment is supposed to be able to be re-applied, if you can get any of it.

Basically, yes. I'd sleep in the treated liner alone, as I'd be a bit concerned about the bugs possibly nesting or laying eggs inside the fill of even a treated sleeping bag, and I wouldn't really want to trash a whole sleeping bag afterwards if potentially infested. You can steam‑disinfect a liner pretty easily after getting home (or even just bin it), unlike a costlier sleeping bag.

Plus I am usually comfortable enough in just a liner in most hostels, though YMMV.

You'd have to make sure the liner has tight enough weave so they can't just slip through – you want them crawl the longest possible way to absorb the maximum insecticide dose from the treated fabric.

DEET seems to have a very high repellency at around 20‑25% concentration, per a few papers, so you could pack that as well. Just make sure it doesn't dissolve your liner or luggage first, DEET does attack certain plastics, after all.

Picaridin (Icaridin/Saltidin/Smidge) also shows some repellency, but only around half of DEET's efficacy (just specifically against bed bugs – it works pretty well against ticks and mosquitoes otherwise) so I'd use DEET if you were really concerned, even if it feels nastier on naked skin.

You might want to spray your backpack or luggage as well, obviously – no need to offer them a free ride to the next town.

That's not any professional advice (just based on reading a few published papers), so please don't complain to me if it bites you

Thanks for that. I am walking the Camino Santiago, and Bed Bugs seem to be an issue. When I get to the end I may chuck the whole in a commercial tumble dryer and give them 45 minutes on hot.