News 7 in Boston reports that Boston University students living in a dorm at 575 Commonwealth Avenue have been complaining about bed bug bites, and bed bugs have been found.

The school did not release the number of infested rooms, nor how many students complained about the issue.

An exterminator was called to fix the problem.

It’s not the first time BU has had to deal with the itchy problem. In February 2007, they were in Shelton Hall, and the Daily Free Press at BU said students were asked to keep quiet and not spread panic.

The same student newspaper argued rightly that all students should be notified about the problem. This is sound advice, because administrators need students to come forward if they think they have bed bugs.

And then, eight months later, in October of the same year, students in a London (UK) Boston University dorm were bitten by bed bugs.

The Daily Free Press reported that students claimed a London BU administrator told them they were lying about bed bugs, and that they’d be banned from studying abroad again if they discussed the problem with others. BU admin later claimed the students’ accusations were false, so we’re not certain what actually happened in London except that the incidence of bed bugs in London was not itself denied according to The Daily Free Press.

It’s great news that the media is reporting the current story, but I hope BU is also now telling students about bed bug infestations as they arise. Since many people do not react to bed bug bites, and since it can take a long, long time to actually see a bed bug after becoming infested, everyone deserves to be notified that their neighbors have encountered bed bugs.

The recent history of bed bugs at BU highlights the need for university housing administrators to have an up-to-date bed bug protocol, taking advantage of the latest detection technology (which may include bed bug k9s and maybe one of the soon-to-be-released bed bug traps?) and treatment protocols which include careful and thorough inspections, prepping students for treatment, and options such as thermal heat or aggressive and repeated applications of an appropriate combination of steam, residual pesticides and dusts.

Colleges should not worry prospective students will choose another college; they should get on board with the best bed bug protocol they can, and publicize that fact, like Dan Mizer, Associate Director of Residence Life at Texas A&M, who is happy to tell the media the school is proactively employing bed bug sniffing k9s and planning to use TempAir when bed bugs are found. Would you rather send your kid to a college with a good bed bug plan in place? Or one where they try to avoid alarming people by discussing the problem which we know can arise at any college, anywhere?Similar Posts:

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• San Diego State University: don’t wait for students to show you a bed bug
• Bed bug sniffing dog and handler to be featured on Animal Planet
• Middle school class trip encounters bed bugs at YMCA of the Rockies
• Atlantic City public housing: 1/3 of 800 units in four buildings infested with bed bugs

Bed bugs thrive in colleges, for many reasons.

College students move often, sometimes from semester to semester.

They also tend to travel a lot, going back and forth to one another’s dorm rooms and apartments, visiting parents’ homes, friends’ parents’ homes, and vacationing at frat houses in Madison, Wisconsin, hostels in Amsterdam or cheap resorts in Ft. Lauderdale.

Many students shop in secondhand stores and accept gifts of secondhand furniture from parents, friends, or even off the street.

All in all, they can be helpful in moving bed bugs around.

Now the Contra Costa Times tells us that college officials have been talking about how to deal with bed bugs in college housing at a recent conference.

Universities and colleges nationwide are trying to figure out how to keep the biting insects out of dormitories — no easy task when it comes to creatures that can survive pesticides.

At this weekend’s conference of university and college housing officers in Florida, two sessions deal with the pesky bugs, which also have boomed at hotels and major cities around the world. UC Berkeley residence halls had to be treated for bedbugs at least six times during the recently ended school year — up from no incidents the year before.

I am glad that university housing officers are spending time on learning about how to deal with this problem. I hope that Stanford was there to represent; the reports we’ve seen suggest the Stanford officials have a good protocol and are getting good advice from professionals about how to get rid of bed bugs when they rear their ugly heads.Similar Posts:

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• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online: Stealthy bedbugs pestering the weary
  Bed bugs in Milwaukee, WI. Mattress covers don’t need to be “airtight” and the best ones do let air circulate. Most do not smell “a musty, sweet odor like soda”. One landlord is letting tenants out of leases and paying for one treatment in new place.
  (tags: odor milwaukee wisconsin journal-sentinel tenants landlords bedbugs epidemic spread nov2007 2007)
• Student Petition for Improvements to North Campus Dorms | The Cornell Daily Sun
  Bed bugs in Jameson and High Rise 5 dorms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
  (tags: cornell universities colleges dorms students bedbugs spread epidemic nov2007 2007)

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• National Post: Bed bugs invade Toronto
  East Toronto city councillor Paula Fletcher asked the Toronto public health unit on Monday to study what it could do to eradicate the problem of bed bugs. Right now the public health unit does not track infestations, but simply offers phone advice to suff
  (tags: Toronto tippingpoint nationalpost canada ontario bedbugs nov2007 2007 PaulaFletcher Torontopublichealthunit)
• Bedbugs Found in Mountainview: SUNY Binghamton
  Bed bugs have been found in two separate dorms at Binghamton University (SUNY) in New York state. This time it’s in Cascade Hall in Mountainview College.
  (tags: nov2007 bedbugs 2007 bedbug mountainview cayuga cascade treatment universities students dorms colleges newyork binghamton SUNY)
• Bed bugs at Cayuga Hall, College-in-the-Woods, Binghamton University (SUNY)
  Bed bugs found in the Cayuga Hall dorm at Binghamton University. A subsequent article on Nov. 13 notes that a bed bug was later found wandering a hallway in Cayuga. Within the week, bed bugs were also found in Cascade Hall.
  (tags: bedbugs cayuga collegeinthewoods binghamton SUNY universities colleges students dorms nov2007 2007 newyork)
• Curbed SF: Marina Bedbug Removal: Not Cheap
  An article in the latest Business Week SmallBiz cites a Marina District property manager’s infestation (5 rooms, hallways, and in-between walls in a 28-unit complex) as costing $40k, which included almost $10 grand to one litigious resident.
  (tags: bedbugs curbed curbedSF sanfrancisco cost money bedbug infestation epidemic business lawsuits media nov2007 2007)

(The following is not really bed bug news, but a reminder of a time not long ago when encountering a bed bug in a place of business was a bit like finding a hair in your salad, but maybe more common.)


• Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Bedbug Letter
  The standard groveling letter from a corporation that doesn’t give a hoot about the consumer’s experience, was once called “the bed bug letter.”
  (tags: bedbugletter snopes.com history)

(These last two are not really bed bug stories, but they tell us something about how widely known bed bugs are becoming: they’re starting to mean something in popular parlance once again.)

• Four months of boom, bust, and fleeing foreign credit – Los Angeles Times
  Yet another appropriation of bed bugs as a metaphor. Hopelessnomo calls this a Tipping Point, and I agree. This article begins, “Have you considered lately how similar the U.S. economy is to the pesky bedbug?”
  (tags: bedbugs popularmedia popularculture vernacular English metaphor spread tippingpoint)
‘Operation Bed Bug’ Rounds Up Suspects :: WRAL.com
This is about alleged criminals being roused from their beds in a sunrise raid. Wise hopelessnomo called it as a Tipping Point. Ironically, jail is apparently a great place to pick up bed bugs…
(tags: tippingpoint police operationbedbug)

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