Bed Bug Outbreak Raises Concerns About Protocol

During the fall term, management identified bed bugs in several rooms in Langdell and Merrill Halls. The recoccurence of bed bugs at Exeter has caused the administration to reassess protocol and train students on how best to prevent the spread of bed bugs.Bed bugs are not unusual in large, residential spaces, like dormitories; however, their bites can result in itchy, painful or swollen rashes. Despite the possible annoyance of bites, the bugs do not transmit diseases. But once they arrive, bedbugs are difficult to eradicate, and the process of extermination can take time.The problem of bedbugs on campus has been a chronic one. In recent years, the bugs have been found and exterminated from Wentworth Hall, where residents had to vacate their rooms while they were heated to a temperature that killed the bugs. In 2013, the Academy discarded all furniture stored in Dow Barn, a storage facility available on campus to students on financial aid. Problems emerged earlier this school year with Kirtland House where a mattress was changed and one room was exterminated.

“Nobody wants to return to their room knowing that someone has searched their comforters and linens without their knowledge.”

In the most recent instance, one Langdell resident said when she first saw the bites, she thought they were from mosquitoes at crew practice. “After about eight weeks, my parents told me to get my bed checked,” she said, “and when I finally did, I had to start clearing out my room.”When facilities identified bedbugs in her room and others in Merrill Hall, students were asked to send every article of clothing to E&R so that it could be washed and any bedbugs be killed. In addition to laundry cleaning, local extermination company Waltham Pest Control was hired to check both dorms thoroughly and spray infested rooms. The exterminators treated and sprayed under and around furniture; in addition, they installed climb-ups under beds, which raise beds and decrease chances of the bugs’ return.Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove, who worked closely with dorm heads and students throughout the extermination process, said bedbugs are an inevitable occurrence in the community.“The only way to totally prevent bed bugs [from returning] would be to not allow students on campus. Obviously, this is inconsistent with our mission," Cosgrove said. To decrease the probability of their presence, Cosgrove added it’s important to try to ensure they are not carried to campus. Because so many students travel over breaks and throughout the term, he said “we have to be prepared.”Therefore, Exeter has created protocols to handle the possibility of bedbugs appearing at Exeter. These protocols focus on the rapid identification and containment of the incident to prevent any potential spread.As soon as a student identifies a bite seen by a health center professional, according to Cosgrove, a member of facilities management will then enter the student’s room and perform an inspection to locate the bugs. “This is where the containment protocol kicks in,” Cosgrove said.“Containment is key. It was the main reason why furniture in Dow Barn had to be destroyed. If not handled early, the problem can grow exponentially,” Cosgrove added.Because the situation must be dealt with as quickly as possible, students had mixed reactions to the approach.While some students think that the incident was dealt with “calmly,” others were still frustrated with the way the school handled this situation. Lower Daisy Tichenor said that after returning from dinner one day, “most of us found our beds torn apart. They had taken our sheets, comforters and mattress covers off.”Tichenor agreed that the procedure was necessary, but said that without warning it felt extreme. “We were all frustrated … [but] the two girls who had the bedbugs had it the worst.”The students whose rooms were infested were required to bag and tag every item in their room and send them to E&R, leaving them for nearly a week without any clothing. Tichenor said it’s “hard to make a place your ‘home away from home’ if you can’t sleep in your own bed or wear your own clothes for a week.”A student in Merrill who wished to remain anonymous called the process “dehumanizing” and said she and her roommate were left with two equally undesirable options: to “pack up everything we own and [have them] take it away for us or go through everything ourselves.”The administration attributes these problems in part to a lack of communication between facilities, the deans and the dorm faculty. Because the dean’s office and the dorms were not aware that the searches were happening, they instituted a new method of communication in their protocol between facilities, the dean's office and the dormitory to ensure efficiency and minimal negative impacts.“There is no reason to keep the searches a secret from students. Nobody wants to return to their room knowing that someone has searched their comforters and linens without their knowledge,” Cosgrove said.To help students deal with the consequences of the incident, the dorm’s faculty affiliates tried to be as supportive as possible while assisting students affected by bed bugs throughout the extermination process.Langdell Hall faculty member and English instructor Patricia Burke-Hickey said that she and other faculty members who serve duty in the dorm “have made a great effort to be very empathetic and to do as much for the girls as we can. I want students to know that the institution has also tried to be very compassionate. We know it is frustrating and inconvenient for students to deal with a problem like this. We've tried to be proactive and focus on prevention moving forward.”No preparation or protocol, however, can account for the emotional and physical turmoil that accompanies bedbugs.One student who found bedbugs in her room said she stopped sleeping in her treated bed and slept on the common room couch instead. “The bed bugs caused me to lose the little amount of sleep I was already getting, and my grades dropped because I was no longer focusing on my work.” She said the fear of their return is constant, but she said if the problem resurfaced, “I would be more aware of [the protocol] and be able to spot them sooner.”Members of the administration and faculty encourage all students to individually take steps in preventing bedbugs in each of his or her respective living spaces. They advised that students to leave space between the bed and the wall, keep a clean room, remove all clothing items from the floor and not let bedding touch the floor nor hang cords on the wall, thus preventing any bed bugs from reaching the bed itself. In addition, when returning from trips, students are advised to inspect their clothes and dry them on the highest heat setting in order to kill any bugs that they may have picked up.Through these new recommendations and a more streamlined and consistent protocol, students and employees of the Academy alike hope to prevent and quickly correct any recurrences of the insect problem.