Pests on Campus: What you need to tell your student about lice and bed bugs

Winter is the time when lice and bed bug infestations start to make their appearance on college campuses. Not only are more people exposed to these pests while they travel for the holidays, but lice in particular seem to thrive when students start sharing hats, scarves, and jackets. While bed bugs and lice certainly have what one Residential Life veteran calls the “yuck factor” the good news, if you can call it that, is that these pests do not vector diseases and there are plenty of ways to get rid of them.

Lice can be treated with over the counter shampoos and sprays, and a complete laundering of all fabrics (clothing and bedding) in hot water and a hot dryer. Bed bugs, however require heat treatments of the affected rooms and everything in them by a professional exterminator.

Students should notify staff as soon as possible if they suspect bed bug infestations because they can easily spread from one room to another on clothing. In fact, when students travel, they should also inspect hotel rooms and hostels for bed bugs and lice to avoid bringing them home with them. Complete information and pictures to help identify these creeps is available at these Centers for Disease Control (CDC) websites.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/


Other Pests
Of course, prevention is the most effective way to avoid infestation of anything from insects to rodents, but college students are not necessarily known for their outstanding housekeeping skills. Students who leave food and other attractive items out for any length of time are sure to become magnets for pests. Keeping rooms and apartments clean, and free from clutter and open food items is the best prevention. Also, students who live on ground floor levels should keep doors and windows closed and pay close attention to any pests they see. Generally, if there’s one cockroach or ant, there’s a whole family somewhere nearby and the student should immediately contact staff for abatement.

Finding the Off-Campus Housing Fit

Thanksgiving break is an ideal time to discuss your college student's plans for living arrangements for the next academic year. So, I'm excited to present this guest blog post by Jackie Schwirian. Jackie is a Leasing Manager at one of the large, college student-focused apartment complexes in Stillwater, and she has some valuable insights to share with students and parents before they seek out off-campus housing.

While college life is filled with many new experiences for students, it’s also filled with many new responsibilities and decisions. For parents of college students, helping to choose a safe, reliable, and value-worthy off-campus home for their son/daughter to live can be a daunting process filled with many obstacles and hidden costs.

Attracted to Cheap

When students focus on “cheap,” safety and reliability are often left out-of-focus, leaving the student in disarray when problems arise. Before parents and their son/daughter decide on an apartment, the following questions should be considered:

• What happens when a landlord is not available if a maintenance problem arises?
• What if the landlord repeatedly comes into the apartment unannounced?
• What if the heating bill is well over your allotted budget for the winter months?
• What happens if the roommate(s) refuse to share the cost of the internet and cable TV bills?
• What if the roommate(s) refuse to pay his/her share of the rent?

Finding the Off-Campus Housing Fit

Safety and reliability are the most important, but helping your son/daughter find an apartment (and community) that fits their lifestyle are just as important. For example, some apartments cater to the full-time student with a heavy class load by offering study rooms; some do not. If specific housing options are not listed on the apartment’s website, students and their parent(s) could find a benefit to browsing social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get an idea of what residents and leasing professionals are sharing about the apartment and community.

Wake-up Call

While each apartment is different, the management responsible for leasing the apartment(s)/property will likely stay the same. Oftentimes, websites and leasing professionals omit hidden costs such as utility charges, which some tenants wouldn’t necessarily consider when calculating the overall leasing costs.  Have your student take time to read the lease carefully and ask the leasing agent to go over the lease with your student. Oftentimes students come up with valuable questions when the lease is reviewed in detail with the leasing agent. 

• Before your son or daughter hears the words “sign here,” take time to research the safety, reliability, and convenience of an apartment community to maximize your student’s experience and put you and your student at ease with the next off-campus housing decision.

-Jackie Schwirian, Leasing & Marketing Manager, The Reserve on Perkins