Dorm Rooms and Bed Bugs? Oh No!

Posted on August 5, 2009 with 1 Comment

Everyone that has lived in a college dorm room knows that the colleges like to fit as many people as they can in close quarters. Two beds in a room half the size of your bedroom when you buy a house. Some rooms can have even three or four people in a very close proximity. Next door, you have the same thing, and some floors can have over 100 students living.

With the recent resurgence in bed bugs, they can thrive in this type of environment. There are a few precautions that can be made to prevent your child or you as a student from contracting bed bugs. Bed bugs are usually brought into the rooms by students.

Bed bugs travel usually by luggage. While packing ensure all your clothes are washed and that you’re current home does not have any evidence of bed bugs.

When you get to your room, take a look at the mattress for small brown spots or small crawling bugs. Look in seems of the mattress and in the small cracks in the bed. Bed bugs only come out at night, so spotting activity during the day is rare.

Special bed bug mattress covers should be used as a preventative measure. These covers will prevent bed bugs from coming from the mattress to the body. It will not prevent an infestation, but will help with it.

If you, or your child spots bed bug activity in their room, or a neighbors they should report it to the resident director immediately. This is a very serious issue and must be handled properly. Student must be relocated to other rooms, and all of the items in the room must be inspected and treated if activity is found.

FOR COLLEGES: It’s smart to monitor for bed bugs on a constant basis. K-9 bed bug inspection dogs are efficient, accurate and inexpensive. If you implement an inspection schedule into the dooms, you will be able to spot an infestation early, and keep it from spreading to the entire floor, and even other buildings. Bed bug lawsuits are on the rise, and you should protect your business from having a widespread problem. There have already been reports of bed bugs appearing in dorm rooms, and the cases we small, because the students caught the problem early.

If you would like more information on how bed bugs live and what exactly they do, we would like you to watch a great bed bug documentary