LINCOLN — University of Nebraska-Lincoln housing officials will check every room in campus residential halls during the next month to make sure they're bedbug free.
"We want to provide a comfortable place for students to live and study," Juan Franco, UNL's vice chancellor of student affairs, said at Wednesday press conference. "We will take care of the problem."
So far, UNL has spent $20,000 on services and equipment to combat the bedbug infestation, which was first reported Jan. 9.
The cost could reach more than $100,000 before the work is completed.
The university is looking into buying its own bedbug detecting dog, as well as specialized heaters to heat rooms and belongings to high temperatures that kill the insects at any stage of development.
Campus officials already have been using a dog to help find bedbugs in residence halls.
Although that dog, named Spots, has been called elsewhere for the next few days, Housing Director Sue Gildersleeve said the dog will be back Friday. And, starting Monday, he will work every day for at least the next month until he has exhausted his search.
His owner, Amy Pelowski of Lincoln, wants to make one thing clear. He is no beagle, despite reports, including in The World-Herald, to the contrary. She wants to make sure Spots receives proper recognition as a rat terrier as he continues his work at UNL.
On Tuesday, Gildersleeve posted an online report that Spots had spotted bedbugs in several rooms in Selleck Residence Hall on Monday.
Most of the previous confirmed reports had been in rooms on several floors of Abel Hall. Rooms there have already been treated with pesticides, high heat and a thorough cleaning.
Gildersleeve offered reassurances that the bedbugs will be brought under control.
"The nature of our searches seems to confirm that we do not have large infestations, but rather low-level infestations of mainly transient bugs.
She said bedbugs were found in six Selleck rooms and three commons areas. Those areas will be treated. Couches in the lobby and a lounge area were bagged and removed for treatments. Spot even found a bug on a student's book bag, and that also is being treated.
Through Sunday, bedbugs had been detected in about a dozen Abel Hall rooms, and all of them were being treated.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
