Bed bugs have been found in Moody Towers and Cougar Place, Javier Hidalgo, associate director of Residential Life and Housing Operations, said.
‘I can’t tell you that I’ve seen an increase, but I can tell you that I’ve seen the incidents. I’ve been with the University for 19 years. In the past two years, I’ve seen incidents of bedbugs. Prior to that, I had not,’ Hidalgo said.
Kermit Kyle, owner of Houston business Kyle Pest Control, also noticed an unusual increase in bed bug problems for the first time in his 30-year pest control career.
‘The last two years is when I started receiving calls a lot more than normal for bed bugs,’ Kyle said.
University Health Center dermatologist Philip Cohen said students came to his office last summer with bed bug-related concerns, but he has not noticed a definite increase in bed bug cases.
‘Many physicians have not actually, personally seen bed bugs. They suspect it. Many times they’ll suggest the diagnosis, but many times they have not seen the bug themselves,’ Cohen said.
Cohen said that a bite’s classic presentation will have ‘three lesions in a row’ on the patient’s skin. He said bites can occur anywhere on exposed skin.
However, Cohen said that actual proof of bed bugs’ presence is required for a diagnosis, which may come from bringing in the actual bugs for examination. Sometimes doctors will inspect sheets and other articles stained with tiny dots of blood or black dots, signifying the bugs’ fecal matter.
Cohen said allergies to bed bugs are rare, but that the lesions can grow larger and more sensitive if a patient continues to be bitten.
‘Your body will get more sensitive to the bites over time. It can get worse and worse and sometimes stay longer,’ Cohen said.
Hidalgo was concerned about bed bugs because some people may react more severely to bites and said that residents may unknowingly bring in the pests with luggage, old furniture and sheets.
‘Pick up the items brought on that luggage and put them in the dryer. Once again, heat will kill the bedbugs,’ Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo said RLH treats its facilities for pests on a regular basis.
‘Bed bugs are unique in the sense that you have to go and be very detailed about where you look. The pest control that we have in place is done on a regular basis, for regular pests. Specific incidents are treated differently. You cannot say ‘I’m gonna go spray for bed bugs,” Hidalgo said.
In case of a bed bug incident, RLH staff inspect the room and remove the bed bugs’ possible hiding places. Hiding places include crevices, plates for electric telephones, vents and wood board.
The hiding places are then chemically treated.
Staff also place exposed articles, such as bedding and mattresses, in a small oven-like space to kill the bugs with heat. With the heat treatment, the articles are placed in a confined four-by-eight-foot space sealed off with Styrofoam insulation that traps heat. Hidalgo said he has built these small ovens around infested beds.
‘It’s very effective in the sense that bed bugs will not survive temperatures of over 113 degrees (Fahrenheit), but I think we take it to 130,’ Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo said items with bed bugs must be treated or heated, because it can survive very long without food.
‘You cannot starve them to death. There have been studies where they have been known to survive for years,’ Hidalgo said.
Pest control is contracted by University services, but Hidalgo said chemical treatments are part of regular building maintenance.
Ellen Atkinson, English senior, said she had her first run-in with bed bugs during winter break at Cougar Place.
Atkinson said she woke up after three hours of sleep every night with welts on the backs of her legs, arms and neck.
‘They were always in places where there was tender skin, and usually more than one, and freakin’ huge,’ Atkinson said.
Atkinson remembers the welts were about half an inch in diameter, with red skin around them.
‘Waking up with these damn things was awful,’ Atkinson said.
Atkinson is not sure where the bed bugs came from.
‘At first I thought it might have been my fault, since I had bought a few items from a thrift store, one of them a sheet, and had been too in love with them to think that I should probably wash them first. However, when I said as much to the Cougar Place administration, they told me that mine was not the first case,’ Atkinson said.
Atkinson woke up one night and found a bed bug crawling across her pillow. She said she immediately stripped off her sheets and placed them outside her door in trash bags, then gave her entire room a thorough vacuuming.
‘The Cougar Place staff was very helpful, even solicitous. They definitely took me seriously. I walked into the office at 8 that morning, and by 9:30 people had shown up to entirely replace my mattress, take my bed linens off to be washed, and spray down the frame of the bed with insecticide,’ Atkinson said.
Atkinson’s bed was ready that same night, but she woke up with more bites.
Cougar Place staff offered Atkinson a spare room in the same building, but she decided to live with a friend for the remainder of the semester.
‘I have nothing against Cougar Place, and I certainly don’t feel they mishandled the situation in any way, but the particulars of my situation just didn’t fall out in a way that ended with me going back to my room in any major capacity,’ Atkinson said.
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