Archive for February, 2012

Another university has the bed bug “bug.”  According to this Fox News 42 article, “University of Nebraska officials have found bed bugs in about 35 campus dorm rooms at UNL.”

The university is leaning on a bed bug sniffing dog named Spots. Spots is a rat terrier that can boast a 95% accuracy rating when detecting bed bugs. According to James Pelowski who helps Spot in the bed bug inspection procedure, 95% accuracy “is the best that any drug dog, bomb dog or bed bug dog comes out of the academy at.”

According to the article, once bed bugs are located, the rooms will be locked down and heating units will be installed which will bring the temperature of the room to between 130 and 140 degrees; the rooms will be heated for “about four hours.”

The university hopes to have every dorm checked by the end of February. With only one week in February gone, the inspection is one of massive proportions. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to be extremely accurate when it comes to inspecting a premises of such magnitude. Perhaps that is why Spots was brought in, because he can check an area effectively without spending to much time per each dorm room.

Despite the dog’s effectiveness being much greater than a human’s effectiveness, the bed bug dog has its limitations. Again, this may not be the case with Spots, but inaccuracies can occur when just relying on the dog’s nose. 95% accuracy only goes so far… Perhaps Spots was just to miss one small infestation, in one dorm room. That one infestation can re-populate the entire campus with bed bugs. The chances of that happening? Slim, but it could hypothetically happen.

The university should supplement its inspection and extermination process with education for the students and staff about bed bugs and making sure that both students and faculty are reporting bed bug cases with urgency. A little bit of urgency can go a long way in stopping a large scale bed bug infestation.

A common misconception of bedbugs is that they are associated with poor economic status and filthy, cluttered environments. Despite the fact that filthy, cluttered environments make getting rid of bedbugs nearly impossible, the truth is that they can thrive in an extremely clean, upscale environment as well.

This was illustrated perfectly when the The New York Times reported last Wednesday, that a guest staying in Room 1005 at the posh Ritz-Carlton, found a bedbug and reported it to the front desk. With suites that go up to $4,500 for a midweek night, clearly the Ritz is not a “budget” hotel.

Rosanna Polanco, a worker who is part of the Ritz’s housekeeping staff was asked to service the room adjacent to room 1005, only to find a worker from the pest control company who was treating the room. The man told her “Be careful. There’s a lot of bedbugs in there,” Polanco went on to say that management did not inform her of the situation, but she found out herself.

The Ritz’s management did the right thing when they moved the adjacent patrons, as well as those who were above and below to either new rooms or suites. Bedbugs tend to spread in what industry experts call the “cross effect.” This refers to the ability of bedbugs to reproduce and spread to nearby locations (above, below, left and right) through the electrical outlets and walls.

The Ritz’s general manager, Scott Geraghty confirmed that bedbugs were in fact found in the room in question. He went on to state that “bedbugs are inevitable…they’re brought in by guests and come in on luggage or things of that nature.” Bedbugs are in fact inevitable and potentially harmless to the hospitality business.

With the frequency that bedbug lawyers are winning settlements for their clients, I found it extremely surprising that the Ritz never bothered to educate their housekeeping staff prior to the incident. The quicker bedbugs are located, the easier it is to quarantine the situation and get rid of them, an un-informed housekeeping staff could potentially cost their employers a lot of money and loss of reputation. Would you spend $4500 a midweek night for a hotel with reported bedbugs? I wouldn’t.