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Hikers and mountain climbers are welcome guests at Claudia Essendorfer. But no bed bugs. Yet this summer the little bloodsuckers crept into two of the landlady’s rooms.
When guests pointed out the small pests to landlady Essendorfer, she did not hesitate long and called an exterminator. “Then it was quiet again,” she tells Merkur.de. But she is not an isolated case. Parasites are not only on the rise in France and England: they are also becoming an increasing problem in German mountain huts.
Only special sleeping bags allowed
That is why the German Alpine Association DAV also became active. Since this season, guests in Bavarian alpine huts are only allowed to spend the night with special hut sleeping bags. These are made of easily washable cotton or silk and have no inner lining, so bed bugs cannot easily settle. This is to prevent guests from bringing pests from cabin to cabin.
In the Essendorfer cabins, guests adhered to the new rules. You cannot check whether the hikers have washed the sleeping bags warm enough, but “that’s just trust,” says the landlady. She washes all her laundry in the washing machine at 90 degrees, so that nothing is left to chance.
SAC also knows the problem
Bed bugs have also become a problem in Switzerland in the past. In 2019, huts in Valais had to be closed in the middle of the high season. A huge plague forced the operators to take this radical step. Even then, only mountain huts in Germany and South Tyrol were affected.
The Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) does not yet have regulations for sleeping bags on its website. However, the problem was highlighted after the last infestation because cleaning was extremely difficult.
“In an apartment or house it would be possible to heat a room to more than 55 degrees. At this temperature the bedbugs die,” Stéphane Aeschlimann, president of the Association of Swiss Pest Control Officers, said on the SAC website. However, transporting such equipment to the mountains is extremely difficult. (jl)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
