“Guess who’s not sleeping in your bed?”
The microscopic creatures known as “bed bugs” do not reside in the mattresses of Cabrini College’s residence halls.
Having had no confirmed cases of bed bugs to date, Cabrini College differs from many other colleges and universities currently invested with these creepy-crawlers.
“Cabrini has had four reports of bed bugs,” Director of Facilities, Howard Holden, said.
According to information released about other colleges/universities bed bugs have been unwelcoming themselves into the beds of students on these campuses for quite some time now.
Although Cabrini has not been infested with bed bugs, this is not a situation that should be taken lightly. Many students are not knowledgeable of the causes and effects of bed bugs until the intruding insects force it upon them. Bed bugs are compared to the size of a dot made from the ink of a pen. They can live in crevices, or under the ticking, also known as the thick thread on a mattress.
The small creatures come out when they sense warmth and leave welts after biting. Noticeable signs left behind by the bugs would be blood marks on sheets, welts located on the upper part of the body. The skin lesion produced by the bite of a bed bug resembles those caused by many other kinds of blood feeding insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas. Therefore, one may think they have bed bugs but their bite needs to be diagnosed by a physician.
“Several students have come in my office with bug bites all cases were dismissed,” Susan M. Fitzgerald, Cabrini College nurse said.
Students can prevent these creepy-crawlers from invading their personal space by keeping their dorms/rooms clean by making sure there are no crumbs, open food exposed in their area as well as washing their sheets weekly, keeping their side of the room clean and not cluttered. “Watching who and how many people students sleep around with will also lower your chances of getting bed bugs,”Howard Holden, director of facilities, said.
These precautions will prevent the unwanted guests from coming to the campus of Cabrini. It is important that every student abide by these because the cost of replacing all of the furniture where the bed bugs were present as well as an exterminator can be costly to the college. Especially when they are preventable by the necessary precautions.
Since the college has had no confirmed cases of bed bugs, Cabrini College along with the facilities department do not have a formulated plan. Facilities does have a procedure to follow such as: If they are notified of a case by a student or the school nurse, someone from facilities goes out within a day and thoroughly investigates the room for bed bugs.
