By Matthew Romano, Special to the Chronicle
Recently, the Northeastern United States experienced an invasion of something that nobody wants to find on themselves in the middle of the night—bedbugs. And lately, they’ve been crawling this way.
In the past two months, the room of Alex Ceja and Sean Harvey, who live on the sixth floor of Constitution, has been exterminated several times due to bedbugs.
Bedbugs are tiny, red, beetle-like parasites that live by feeding exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals during the night. They get their name “bedbug” because of their preferred habitat of mattresses and other places where people sleep.
Bedbug bites are generally painless, though itchy. They tend to start as swollen bumps, then fade to red marks and gradually disappear over a few days. Psychological effects can be a symptom as well, such as constantly thinking that bugs are on you.
Ceja had felt itchy one morning, as if something was on him, and quickly threw it on the floor and crushed it. Within 20 minutes of calling Residential Programs, an exterminator came and verified that the critter was indeed a bedbug. All of Ceja and Harvey’s things had to be taken out of the room and cleaned.
Three weeks later, Ceja found another bug in the room. Hofstra had their room exterminated again, in which they both sprayed and steamed, and reimbursed them for anything that was ruined in the extermination process.
One week after Ceja and Harvey’s room was exterminated a second time, the room directly next to them had to be exterminated. Ceja and Harvey, convinced that the bugs were moving around, had the exterminators come back and clean the room just in case.
“Hofstra is extremely prepared for situations like these,” said Director of Residential Programs Eric Finkelstein. “It is up to the exterminator to decide if it’s an actual bedbug or not. If it is, then they need to determine whether it’s an isolated case or a large-scale infestation, and then they will use their expertise to handle the problem.”
However, Ceja and Harvey are skeptical. “It was not an isolated incident, yet they keep telling us it was,” said Harvey. “Obviously the bugs are moving from room to room. I’ve even seen saran wrapped mattresses near dumpsters outside of other buildings. It’s even worse that students are telling their colleagues instead of the school.”
According to Harvey, a resident walked up to the exterminators and asked what was going on, to which one responded, “Don’t worry about it.”
“What we’ve learned is that anyone can be a carrier,” said Finkelstein. “This is a priority issue and students need to be very aware of how easy it is to bring them home. Take proper precautions when traveling. I can’t tell you how much I’ve heard don’t put the suitcase on the bed in a hotel.”
Finkelstein also had some advice on keeping the campus bedbug free. Bedbugs often spread by hitching rides on clothing. They jump from host to host when people brush up against each other in crowds. If you think you might have brought bedbugs back with you, wash or dry-clean bedding and affected clothing immediately. Make sure to use hot water and a dryer on the hottest setting. If you think you have bedbugs, call Residential Programs during the day or Public Safety if it’s after hours.
(Laura Molenari/The Chronicle)
