LINCOLN — Coming soon to a college campus near you: The Attack of the Bedbugs!
The University of Nebraska at Kearney over the weekend became the third college campus in Nebraska in recent weeks to report an infestation of bedbugs in a dormitory room. Exterminators were quickly summoned to treat that room and, as a precaution, two neighboring rooms and the room directly below.
Tony Earls, UNK's director of residence life, said the problem appeared to be limited to the one room. Housing officials have not identified the dormitory.
UNK has joined a growing club of college campuses dealing with the pesky critters.
"It's not a question of if you're going to get them, it's a question of when," said Rich Garrey, a housing facilities official with Iowa State University in Ames.
Bedbugs are nocturnal pests that spread quickly and are tough to kill. They hide in bedding, furniture and clothing and feed on people while they sleep. They do not carry disease.
Garrey said his most recent confirmed report of bedbugs in Iowa State dorms came last month. He also got a complaint Monday, but it turned out to be a hoax between roommates.
"Almost all colleges are dealing with or have probably recently dealt with a bedbug infestation on their campuses," according to Jeff White, an entomologist with Bedbug Central, an online resource for bedbug information.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is in the midst of a room-by-room sweep of its residence halls initiated after students returning from semester break reported finding bedbugs in their rooms. So far, bedbugs have been found in 54 rooms.
Even though the cost may exceed $100,000, UNL Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Juan Franco has vowed "to take care of the problem."
Chadron State College reported bedbugs in two dorm rooms last week. Peru State College had an incident in September.
A list provided by UNL included more than 30 colleges that had suffered bedbug infestations in the past five years. They include Stanford University, Penn State University, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Illinois and Yale.
"Unless you live in a bubble, sometime you or someone you know is going to have to deal with bedbugs," Garrey said. "The thing is, they don't know the difference between a ditch or the penthouse in Trump Palace."
Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
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