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Make Sure College Students Dont Bring Home Uninvited Pests

CHICAGO, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- For the families of college students, Thanksgiving is the first opportunity to welcome their students back to the comforts of home after experiencing the rigors of dormitory life. But besides bringing home their dirty laundry and a revised list of back-to-school items, bed bug experts warn that this year students may also arrive with some unwelcome little friends.

Colleges and universities all over the country are battling a virtual bed bug epidemic. According to noted entomologist Richard Cooper from BedBugCentral.com, college dormitories are the perfect setting for these pests to feed and breed.

Every semester students arrive at dormitories from all over the world, and its inevitable that some of them will bring bed bugs with them when they arrive, Cooper said. Once introduced, the stage is set for the bed bugs to spread throughout rooms and dormitories because students are living in close quarters and visit other dorm rooms regularly. Also, bringing used or second-hand furniture into dorm rooms and fraternity and sorority houses can introduce bed bugs. All of these factors combine to make the perfect storm for bed bugs to flourish.

Until recently, bed bugs were more likely to be introduced by students from abroad -- where bedbugs remain a common scourge. But with a growing number of American homes infested, the bugs are now as likely as not to come from middle-class homes throughout the United States.

In recent years, the problem of bed bugs in college dorms has become anything but isolated. Research conducted by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) finds that bed bug reports have increased 71 percent between 2001 and 2005. This fall, SUNY Potsdam (one of the State University of New Yorks 64 geographically dispersed campuses and home to about 3,500 undergraduates) sounded the alarm when bed bugs were discovered in one of its dorms. Workers at Ohio State University had to treat 114 rooms after bed bugs were discovered in one of its dormitories.

Other schools experiencing severe infestations include the University of Florida, Texas A&M, UC Berkeley and Columbia University, where some freshmen were evacuated from their rooms for housing services to fumigate.

Adult bed bugs resemble an apple seed in appearance. And while adult bed bugs are about one-fifth of an inch in length and visible to the naked eye, bed bug nymphs are only 1/32 inch long, translucent and very hard to spot.

Bed bugs are nocturnal and feed strictly on blood. Although they do not transmit diseases, they can cause itchy welts with their bites. Waking up with small, red welts is one tell-tale sign. Another is spotting tiny black or reddish-brown spots on your sheets.

Experts say that students should check the mattresses in their dorm rooms for signs of bed bugs, by looking in the folds and seams of their mattresses. Bed bugs can also be spotted by the black fecal material they leave behind. In addition to inspecting the mattress, the box spring and areas around them, students should also look at the headboard and the bed frame itself. Dorm residents who detect signs of an infestation, or wake up with welts, should notify a resident advisor and ask to be moved to an alternate room that is not adjacent to the suspected infested room.

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