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NewsvineBedbugs — which terrorized dorms in East Florence Moore and Lagunita Court last year — remain a real problem for Student Housing.
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Bedbugs, discovered last year in Alondra and Granada dorms, were encountered in Paloma this month. Two residents have been relocated to Governor’s Corner.
A new outbreak occurred earlier this month in Paloma, a West Florence Moore dorm, forcing two residents to relocate to Governor’s Corner while their room is disinfected.
“Student Housing has been informed of a few cases of bedbugs on campus for about the past six to seven years,” Imogen Hinds, associate director of student housing, wrote in an email to The Daily. “We have not had cases every year. Some years we do have more than in others.”
Bedbugs often go undetected because afflicted students initially believe that other pests are responsible for the small red bumps that result from the insects’ bites.
“I started getting small mosquito-like bites on my forearm half a week into school,” said Michael Terrell ‘11, a resident of the infected second-floor room. “At first I thought it was just an allergic reaction or mosquito bites. I figured I’d tough it out.”
When the bites began reappearing every five to 10 days, however, Terrell became suspicious and, with roommate David Zimmerman ‘11, began to suspect that bedbugs may have been the source of his problem.
“We found out on Wikipedia that bedbugs are harder to find,” Zimmerman said. “But most bedbugs will leave their excrement on or near the bed frame. When we looked on Michael’s bed frame, we saw little dark spots.”
Their suspicions confirmed, Terrell and Zimmerman approached Paloma Resident Assistant (RA) Heather Graham ‘08 on Oct. 13.
“They didn’t really talk about bedbugs at RA training,” Graham said. “Michael did much of the research himself.”
“Because Michael and I discovered the bedbugs on Saturday, Housing wasn’t open,” she added. “I called the emergency hotline, and the guy on the line was super helpful. The exterminator was here within an hour and a half.”
Crane Pest Control exterminator Rich Crane will spend one month thoroughly debugging the room.
“The pest control staff goes through every item in a room to confirm whether it is bedbug free or not,” Hinds said. “If it is, it can be released to the resident. Clothing can be released almost immediately.”
Graham, Terrell and Zimmerman were all impressed by Crane’s expertise.
“Rich just had to look at the little dark specks on the bed frame to know that it was bedbugs,” Terrell said. “He explained the whole process of getting rid of bedbugs very thoroughly to us. Basically, he’s going to strip the room until it’s a cement cube.”
Terrell seemed more amused than intimidated by the incident.
“Makes for a good story,” he said.
However, removing bedbugs from a room does not ensure that the bugs will not return to the site.
“Once the pesticide wears off, and if bedbugs are reintroduced to this space,” Hinds said, “they might return.”