After a fall semester bed bug outbreak in the University of Wyoming residence halls, Residence Life and Dining Services (RLDS) worked to fumigate the buildings in the weeks before winter break in order to get rid of the pests.
After this initial treatment for infested rooms, RLDS took additional measures over winter break to check for and treat any lingering insects.
This procedure ended with any students living in the dorms having to remove all flammable and meltable items from their dorms when they left for the nearly six week hiatus from classes for one last heat check on the problem.
“Bed bugs are a growing problem worldwide,” said Eric Webb, executive director of RLDS and Student Affairs Business and Facilities Operations.
According to the Center for Disease Control, bed bugs are found worldwide.
“Although the presence of bed bugs has traditionally been seen as a problem in developing countries, it has recently been spreading rapidly in parts of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe,” the CDC states. “Bed bugs have been found in five-star hotels and resorts and their presence is not determined by the cleanliness of the living conditions where they are found.”
UW policy for bed bugs is for residents to report them and if they are not easily visible to the naked eye, the university takes no action for treatment. If the bugs are visible, residents leave the room for an integrated pest management plan.
This involves a variety of techniques combined together in order to rid of the pests. For bed bugs specifically there is a combination of heat and chemicals used to treat afflicted rooms or areas, which are safe to use in residences. The University also treats all dorm rooms over the summer and any University affiliated apartments that are vacated.
“It was convenient that they did it over break so I was all for it,” said freshman Kyle Custis. “I had to take home a majority of my stuff anyways, so I did not mind having to remove a little extra.”
Custis was put up in another room last fall while his room in the residence halls was treated for bed bugs. For him, there was no problem after the first fumigation; it appeared to take care of any bedbugs that were present. He was happy to hear that the university RLDS was taking an extra step over winter break to conduct a heat treatment in all the dorms.
The universities last attempt to rid of the bed bugs before break was not successful in all instances, but hopefully with this latest measure there will be no more of these pests in the UW residences.
