Thursday, March 13, 2008
Spring break travellers could bring home tiny hitchhikers that could cause big problems: bedbugs.
Diana Robertson, director of student housing, said that the University of Kansas was urging students to keep on the lookout for bedbugs when traveling during spring break.
Bedbugs are flat, brown, oval-shaped insects that feed primarily on human blood. Their bites don’t transmit diseases, but they can cause itchy red welts. They often live in locations with warm weather. Exterminator Ravi Sachdeva, employee of American Pest Management and an entomologist, said that bedbugs were “frequently found in hotels and living quarters with international travel associated with them.”
Sachdeva said bedbugs were thought to be entirely eradicated in the 1960s, but started coming back in 1998.
Sachdeva and his company inspect University housing every other month.
The University hasn’t had a bedbug problem yet, and Robertson said she wanted it to stay that way. Robertson and Sachdeva said the best way to prevent a bedbug infestation was to inspect hotel rooms and look either for the actual bedbugs or for blood spots. Students should also check mattresses, box springs, walls and base boards.
When students return to the University they should keep rooms clean and tidy, since bedbugs like to hide in cracks and crevices. If students suspect they may have brought bedbugs back with them, they should call the Department of Student Housing at 864-4560 as soon as possible.
“This is not something you can get rid of on your own,” Robertson said.
If a bedbug infestation happens at the University, Robertson said action would be taken immediately.
“The goals will be to isolate and treat,” Robertson said.
Student housing residents would be relocated by the University for five to seven days while the rooms were treated.
Sachdeva said the treatment process began by positively identifying the bugs as bedbugs. The actual treatments can range from liquid insecticide or fumigation to a heat treatment. Bedbugs cannot live in an environment hotter than 120 or 130 degrees.
The whole process, from identifying the bedbugs to doing follow-up checks, can last up to a month, and cost anywhere from $100 to $300, depending on the severity of the infestation.
— Edited by Patrick De Oliveira
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