"Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." ~ unknown
This phrase never meant much to me until I entered the world of student housing and found out what a nightmare bedbugs can really be. Bed bugs are a real problem, and can quickly escalate to a major crisis. Contrary to common belief, this issue can and does affect anyone. Bed buds are not restricted to "nasty, filthy unkempt buildings" (or residents). Bed bugs are brought in on individuals and belongings and can cause a problem anywhere.This post will provide a repository of information, tips, links and resources for education, prevention and response to bed bugs in student housing. Please reply to this post with resources you would recommend and tips you have. I will compile these and continue to edit this post. (I have a plethora of resources I will add, but figured I'd throw it out there first to see what you all would want to share!)
Links:
Response Protocol (I may break this into different posts shortly)
Thanks to Steve Johnson at Central Washington University for allowing me to share the following information that he has compiled:
Topic – Bedbugs and the Procedures To Prevent Infestation and/or Eliminate Infestation
Protocol for new bedbug infestations
The discovery of bedbugs should lead to a concisely orchestrated effort as follows.
- All bug bites should be reported to the Housing Office and the warehouse crew will be notified for an immediate inspection of the room. If no bedbugs are found, the room will be re-inspected and monitored each week for the next three weeks by both our warehouse crew and Willard Pest Control. If something other than bedbugs are found, the room will be treated by Willard Pest Control with the appropriate chemical. At the end of the fourth inspection, if no bedbugs are found, the room will be declared bedbug free and return to normal status. No tenants will be moved if no bedbugs are found during the inspection period.
- If bedbugs are found during an inspection after bug bites are reported, the tenant/tenants of the room will need to follow the procedures listed below and professional staff will need to initiate and make sure all procedures are followed one hundred percent correctly.
- All involved individuals must meet with staff and review this protocol and any special circumstances should be discussed before any action is taken.
- The appropriate steps will be decided upon and clarified in this meeting. Parties involved will include tenants, staff, warehouse leads, building maintenance personnel, pest control personnel, and the Facilities Manager from Housing.
- All items must remain in the room initially to keep bedbugs contained.
- The tenant/tenants in the infested room will gather up whatever clothes they need for a three to five day stay at the clean room located at Kennedy Hall. These clothes should be washed in hot water and dried in a dryer at 130 degrees or higher for one hour. The tenant/tenants will then remove the clothes they are wearing and put clothes on that have just been laundered and place the clothes they were wearing back in their rooms. No other items should be removed from the room. Any other items needed for the three to five day stay should be purchased at a local store (save receipts). At this time, the lock shop will be called and the lock will be changed. The only access to the infested room after this point will be through warehouse employees and under their direct supervision.
- If properly heat-treated and inspected a few necessary personal items may be transported to the clean room in Ziploc™ or other re-sealable containers. These few personal items are to be “cleared” through the Housing Facilities Manager or Warehouse Leads.
- All remaining items left in the infested room will be packed up and taken to a fumigation trailer to be fumigated. This would include clothing, computers, books, bedding, all furniture (including built-in and free standing), electronics and shoes. The fumigation process takes 36 hours and has no adverse effect on whatever is being fumigated with the exception of killing anything that is living, including plants.
- While the fumigation process is underway the room will first be thoroughly vacuumed in all areas including all cracks and crevices, (after each use, the vacuum bag should be discarded in dumpster), steam clean every square inch of room, including behind shelves, bookcases, molding, drapes and closets. After steam cleaning, all cracks and crevices should be sealed and the room should be treated with the appropriate chemicals. The final step in the process is to seal the bricks with an appropriate brick sealer (three coats) and apply two coats of hard wax to the floor. This seals in any eggs or bedbugs that the vacuuming, steaming or spray missed. Follow up inspections; sticky traps and spraying are required to make sure all bedbugs are dead. If the floor is carpeted they will need to be steam cleaned.
- The whole process should take between five to ten days to complete and then the room can be re-occupied.
1) Hall Staff
A) Notification
B) Postings
C) One on One with students and parents
D) Counseling
2) Housing Office
A) Notification
B) Postings
C) Re-assignment
3) Housing Facilities Manager
A) Coordination of Procedures
B) Notify Pest Control Company
C) Notify Fumigation Company
D) Notify Maintenance Department
E) Notify Warehouse Crew of any special concerns or needs
F) Follow up on everything
4) Warehouse Crew
A) First inspection
B) Make sure all involved parties are following all procedures
C) Steam clean items before removing them from room
D) Taking cloths to Laundry and deliver back to students
E) Take items to Fumigation Trailer
F) Call Lock Shop for room re-key
G) Steam clean every inch of room
H) Restore furniture in room
I) Call lock shop to re-key room back to room key
5) Maintenance Crew
A) Remove built in furniture upon request from Pest Control Company
B) Seal Bricks
C) Re-install everything that needs to be re-installed
6) Laundry
A) Wash and dry Bedbug infested cloths
7) Custodial Crew
A) Wax hard floors and/or steam clean carpets
8) Pest Control Company
A) Inspect Rooms
B) Cracks and crevice seal
C) Heat treat rooms
D) Spray and dust rooms
E) Follow up inspections, spray and dust
9) Lock Shop
A) Re-key infested rooms
B) Re-key rooms back to room key
10) Fumigation Company
A) Fumigate trailer
B) Exhaust trailer
Re-occupying a room:
After the room is cleared and released for reoccupation it should start with a bedbug-conscious setup.
- All clothes should be hung in the closet or stored in sealed plastic containers “bug proof” containers.
- All bags and items used on a daily basis should be set on tables and shelves and not left on floor or around the bed.
- Bed should be isolated—legs kept on glue boards and spaced away from walls and furniture.
- Additional glue boards should be installed and checked by tenants occasionally. These should be placed at head and foot of bed and behind each adjacent piece of furniture.
- Brief, but frequent inspections (2 min) of headboards and bedside furnishings will take place over the next four to five weeks.
Preventative Measures
It is crucial to follow these steps for anyone involved either directly, through relationship to the primary victims, or proximity to the infestation. These steps also pertain to previously non-infested rooms moved into in response to the infestation.
- Interior Crack and Crevice Treat with insecticide (Demand™, Phantom™) and void dusting (DeltaDust™,Drione™) rooms that have been moved into in response to bedbug discovery.
- Monitor these rooms with sticky traps (head and foot of bed and behind adjacent furniture).
- Treat (and monitor if appropriate) in the same fashion, all common rooms listed below that apply. (Don’t forget to post mandatory notifications in advance!)
- Maintain clutter free rooms, especially around the bed. Do not store cardboard boxes or other items under or around the bed.
- Cover mattresses and box springs with high quality allergy prevention covers (strong and durable with tightly sealing zippers) intended for dust mite control. The cheapest ones tear easily and help little.
- Keep all newly washed and dried clothes and other miscellaneous items within the room in tightly sealable plastic bins or bags leaving the containers sealed tightly after each use. These are “quarantine containers” that may be considered “bug-free” if appropriately maintained.
Procedural Guide for Bedbug Control in Large Multi-resident Establishments
Areas to be treated:
- Each infested room
- Adjoining and adjacent rooms
- Halls and stairways
- Elevators
- Common rooms
- Laundry
- Custodial and Maintenance closets
- Other rooms visited often
Items most commonly infested
- Mattress
- Headboard
- Wall fixtures near bed
- Beneath baseboards
- Behind wallpaper
- Chairs & Couches
- Items under and around bed
- Dressers
- Electronics including clocks, phone, TV especially near bed
- Desks
- Clothes
- Suitcases, bags, backpacks, purses
- Boxes of miscellaneous items
- Books
