This past weekend many Albany, NY college students moved into their new dorm or apartment to spend the year ahead. According to Next Generation Journal, college living comes a number of new challenges, including cleaning responsibilities and house maintenance, but it’s not always a dirty dorm room that brings the bugs. Increasingly, students are finding pests in their rooms for reasons outside of the usual kitchen crumbs. An article in Reuters cites the high temperatures as a main reason for the growing insect population.
What are common college bugs and insects?
Bedbugs usually bite people while they sleep since the bedbug is a nocturnal feeding insect. Evidence of bedbug bites comes from blood spots on bed clothing and skin irritation from salivary secretions. Our previous blog post discusses ways to prevent bed bugs at college.
Cockroaches can go for weeks without food or water, and they breed and hide in trash. Discourage roaches by keeping your dorm/apartment neat and clean. Store food in containers that roaches can’t penetrate.
Fleas live primarily on warm-blooded animals, especially feral cats. They pierce their host’s skin for blood meals and lay their eggs on or near their host animals. You can discourage fleas by vacuuming on a regular basis; pay special attention to corners, dark crevices, and under rugs and furniture.
Raccoons, skunks, feral cats, and squirrels. These wildlife creatures should not be disturbed and could be potential rabies carriers.
Rats and mice look for food and shelter indoors. To prevent rodent infestations, clean up food sources and close off pest entry points. Outdoors, make sure to keep your residence and surrounding property clear of trash and debris. Use of patio areas as storage will provide a place for rodents to live. Indoors, keep doors closed, remove trash, and vacuum all cracks and crevices from floor to ceiling. Use steel wool to seal small holes. Mice only need 1/4 of an inch opening to get in; rats, 1/2 inch.
Spiders, looking for warmth, move indoors during the winter, so be careful to shake out anything that has been stored outside or in a basement, especially firewood or other items that have been placed against walls. To make your residence less attractive to spiders, eliminate the insects they eat and vacuum their webs. Spray spiders directly with a household cleaner such as Windex. This can be effective if you can locate their hiding place.
What do if you have bugs in your dorm?
Keep Clean and Organized. The best preemptive strategy is to keep your living space neat and clean. Don’t leave food or dirty dishes lying around, and carefully clean up any spills or sticky messes. If you don’t attract bugs or mice, you might never see one.
Put Food Away. Don’t put food in places where pests can easily get to it. Boxes and fresh food should never be placed in drawers or cabinets near the floor or left out in the open on the counter. Store your food in the fridge, in high cabinets, and in plastic containers to keep all the bugs and mice out.
Contact Housing. It isn’t your responsibility to catch mice or spray your dorm for bugs. If you do have an issue, contact the head of your residence hall or the appropriate maintenance supervisor (contact information is usually available online or at the check-in desk). Remember that if you see one bug or one mouse there are probably a lot more, so make sure you let the right people know so they can take the appropriate action, before it’s an issue.
To learn more about bed bugs or back to school bed bug prevention, contact Thomas Pest Services your Albany pest removal experts. Thomas Pest Services serves the local communities of Albany, Schenectady, Colonie, Clifton Park, Ballston Spa, Saratoga, Lake George with third generation experience you can trust!