Bedbug infestations are a continual problem both here in Hawaii and around the world.
“We see cases of bedbugs a couple times a week, both on and off campus,” said Lena Tyau, a nurse at the Health Center.
Bedbugs live in both the seams of and in the crisscross stitching of mattresses. They are visible by pulling down on the edge of the cording.
“Bedbugs seems more prevalent now than previous semesters,” said John Elkington, the director of Housing. “When you have a concentrated number of people transitioning through one place, you will always have bedbugs. The key is to keep the infestations to a minimum.”
To help prevent bedbugs, Housing is looking into purchasing seamless mattress covers for all on-campus housing. This effort is not yet finalized as they are still negotiating the cost.
Elkington said that if they can get the covers cheap enough, they hope to supply them by winter semester. If not, they will have them available for students to purchase at an additional cost.
Housing has already gotten rid of some of the bedding with bed bugs. All of the Hales except for Hale One and TVA have mattresses on a single flat plywood base. Housing used to supply a bed frame, box frame, and a mattress, but these additional pieces of bedding had more places for bed bugs to live and hibernate.
Amanda Heath, a sophomore in pre-nursing from Larkspur, Colorado, and a resident assistant of Hale Three, said she learned about bedbugs at the RA orientation. Maintenance brought in a jar filled with bedbugs from a TVA mattress.
“I thought they’d be smaller but you can see them just by looking at the bed lining,” Heath said.
All of the RA offices are supplied with Steri-Fab, which is a chemical spray targeted at bedbugs and their eggs.
Adam Hai, the TVA coordinator, explained how to use this spray to get rid of bedbugs. “Bed bugs eggs hatch every seven days,” said Hai.
To get rid of the bedbugs and their eggs, spray the mattress with Steri-Fab once a week, on the same day each week for three weeks, and let it dry in the sun, Hai said. Wash and dry all bedding and clothing on the hottest settings.
To treat bedbug bites, Nurse Tyau said to place cool compresses or cold washcloths over the bites. Benadryl and Loratadine can be used to reverse allergic reactions.
Steri-Fab is not a complete solution. written by Ann , October 07, 2009
Steri-Fab has to be sprayed directly on bed-bugs to kill them. A pesticide with residual action is needed because bed-bugs are good hiders. One of those pesticides is Phantom. Wall voids (wall outlets, etc.) need to be treated with powders in case the bugs nest in there. Surrounding apartments, up and down and around are at risk. The bed frames could be a help to fighting actually, if you can move the beds away from the wall so the bed frame is the only way for the bugs to get up to the victim, then you have one really good place to treat, the legs of the bed, because bugs will either be on bed or pa*sing up and down the legs. (The hardest part is finding all bugs. Another really good new product is Climbup interceptors for monitoring whether the bugs have all been killed (and you can get rid of trapped ones.) Bedbugger.com is a really good resource. Doesn't seem like this article indicates that the treatment is complete enough. Spreading is a big problem. Students need to heat (as in a dryer) clothes and etc. to not spread around. Quick, complete action is needed, not just a weekly spray of Steri-Fab; or your mid-sized problem will become a really big problem.
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