College Students on defense, within their own rooms

By: Jen Orlando

“You better not bring bed bugs in here!” exclaims Kathleen O’Malley, sophomore at Manhattan College. Her fear was in reference to another student having strange bug bites on her arms, but was her worried justified?

Fear at strange bites has sprung up all over New York City. Just last year, Manhattan College had an outbreak of bed bugs, and students are still worrying whether or not they are at risk.

Donald Stephen, who works at DC Clean Ex Pest Control, mentions that “any place can get bed bugs,” even high-end department stores. This just adds to the worry already present about these pests. Stories of bed bugs in many department stores and buildings within the city of New York have made companies, and schools, keep as quiet as possible on the details, thus making it hard to get the full story behind such events.

Schools keep quiet when the subject of these pests is brought up, and that may be detrimental to college life. No one wants to talk about it, until the problem occurs, then it is a quick hushed up matter. As a public health issue, there should be communication about this problem. Keeping students in the dark about what is really going on can lead to chaos and backlash towards the school. Most students just want the problem dealt with right away. For them, it is about getting the area clean, not if they would want to or not want to dorm again.

This silent route, that college officials so often take, might have something to do with the “dirty” stigma that surrounds bed bugs. That, however, is not always the case, as Bridget Curran, sophomore at SUNY Stony Brook, could tell you. One of her suitemates had bed bugs earlier this year, even though she was a very clean person. Curran said about the situation: “The school didn’t notify any of us, but made [our suitemate] inform us about the problem.” Stony Brook did purchase two new mattresses for the room infected and offered the girl advice to clean and wash all of her things.

The question at hand would then be: What do students expect the school to do in a time like this? Kathleen O’Malley and her roommate, Katie Pietropaolo, expect the school to pay for the cleaning or replacement of infected items. Schools are not known for handing out cash to have their students do laundry, so this would be no exception. At Manhattan College, the school placed students in other rooms while the pests were taken care of; whereas, Stony Brook made students fend for themselves, resorting to sleeping in small common rooms. Is it the school’s fault; therefore, their job to correct the problem, or is it solely a fact of life that cannot be blamed on anyone?

While a lot of college communities spend time shopping at thrift stores and pulling furniture off the street, it is not the main cause of dorm bed bugs, though it is a common scapegoat. In an attempt to stop the presence of bed bugs, Manhattan College, in the student handbook, prohibits “furniture items, such as couches” within their on-campus dorms. The school also has the rooms “inspected by an exterminator” at the beginning of every year, according to this year’s handbook. Still, Stephen mentions how someone could purchase an article of clothing or bed sheets, from a store like Macy’s, expose the fabric and return them, unaware that they have been infected. These bugs can then live on the material for up to one year, multiplying and waiting for someone to purchase that article and bring it home unknowingly.

Donald Stephen mentioned that there really are no preventative measures to avoid getting bed bugs. The best advice he could give was to throw newly purchased items, whether from a department store or second hand shop, in the dryer on high heat, which is the only way to kill all the eggs and bugs without chemical means. If you do still get bed bugs, you can call DC Clean Ex and they can treat the area with encapsulated insecticides, which Stephen compared to “landmines,” that the bugs walk over. The chemicals adhere to the bug’s exoskeleton and they later die after the poison sinks into them. This is more reliable than fumigation techniques that could miss a stop and leave eggs behind.

There is no one hundred percent proven way to stay clear of bed bugs, one just has to be careful while purchasing any material they could be attached to.

Oh, and those bug bites initially brought up? It was yet another false alarm; they were only mosquito bites.