A week before moving into Syracuse University, the last thing freshman Evelyn Javier wanted to worry about was bedbugs.

But Javier was living in the Bronx when bedbugs spread around New York City during the summer. The bedbugs were found in places like the basement of the Empire State Building, two Manhattan movie theaters and various clothing stores, such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister.

‘I was disgusted because, in the city, everything moves so fast, and I felt like it would travel easily,’ said Javier, a pre-med student. ‘I’m a commuter, so I thought that I could easily get one of them.’

And while she got ready to come to SU, she worried New York City students would bring the bedbugs back to Syracuse, she said.

With thousands of students living in close quarters, colleges have been taking special measures to prepare for potential bedbug outbreaks. Despite around 40 percent of SU students coming from around New York state, SU has been able to dodge an outbreak since the start of classes.

Bedbug outbreaks in the United States have tripled since 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. New York City had an average of 11,000 incidents of bedbugs last year and 4,084 violations cited, nearly double the amount of the previous year, according to a March 10 article in The New York Times. On Saturday, Nike closed its store in Manhattan after a bedbug outbreak.

‘I was thinking that there are a lot of city students, and maybe in the move to Syracuse, they would travel along with the new students,’ Javier said.

While it may be prominent in New York City, Syracuse has avoided a serious outbreak of the pesky pests. However, bedbugs at a residence on Clarendon Street were reported, according The Bedbug Registry’s website.

There have been two incidents of bedbugs at SU in the last five years, said J.D. Tessier, director and zone manager for Housing and Food Services Maintenance. Last year, a girl brought back bedbugs from a hotel.

‘We get a few calls each semester with someone suspecting they have bedbugs,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, you can’t do anything but react.’

Tessier advises students to report anything they suspect could be bedbugs and to keep their mattresses and rooms clean.

Bedbugs are small and reddish and have six legs. A typical bite looks like a small, red swollen area on the skin.

Adam Frank, a junior political science major, said he isn’t particularly worried about an outbreak.

‘It just doesn’t seem worth worrying about,’ said Frank. ‘I always try to keep my room clean, change the sheets. That probably helps.’

However, freshman Alex Kessler said he didn’t initially know about the bedbug outbreak in New York City.

‘I’m not doing anything now to prevent bedbugs,’ said Kessler, a music composition major. ‘But now that I know it might come to Syracuse, I will. In the future, I will try to keep my room clean.’

cabidwel@syr.edu

      

Published on September 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Colleen: cbidwill@syr.edu