Dealing with bedbugs

Bedbugs have become a growing concern around the world in recent years, affecting even places such as five-star hotels and college campuses. Luckily, the University of Colorado Boulder campus has not had to deal with widespread bedbug problems. However, awareness and vigilance by the campus community is required to prevent a serious infestation.

The Office of Facilities Management has created this webpage to provide our campus community with resources, including a Video FAQ section, related to identifying bedbugs and ways to respond if you’ve seen bedbugs on campus or at home. We’re fortunate at CU Boulder to have an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) team with expertise in identifying, treating and preventing bedbug infestations. The university provides free pest-control services to campus departments, and our IPM team can advise students and employees on how to deal with the bugs if they spread to their homes.

We hope the resources provided here will help create an informed campus community that is able to work together to prevent the spread of these pests.

Other Resources

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bedbugs can be found around the world, and their presence “is not determined by the cleanliness of the living conditions where they are found.”
  • CU Boulder is not alone in dealing with this issue. More and more college campuses are having to find ways to prevent, treat and avoid the spread of bedbugs in offices, residence halls, classroom buildings and off-campus university housing.
  • Bedbugs are not known to spread disease, but their bites can cause allergic reactions.
  • Bedbugs have become increasingly resistant to chemical treatments due to heavy use of pesticides.

We appreciate and encourage awareness and engagement by our community to report bedbugs and help prevent their potential spread. We take each report seriously. Understandably, not everyone is a pest expert, and sometimes we receive reports about bedbugs that prove to be false alarms. To help us verify potential sightings—and to eliminate unnecessary closures of rooms—there are a few things you can do if you believe you’ve spotted a bedbug:
  • Send a cellphone picture to Facilities Management IPM Manager Troy Muller, along with the location where you saw the bug. Make sure you get as close as you can for the photo to capture details. This is very helpful in the verification process.
  • If you feel comfortable doing so, kill the bug and give it to Facilities Management staff so that the pest type can be verified.
  • Report the sighting to building officials immediately, being sure to leave your name and contact information so that Facilities Management can contact you, determine whether what was seen was indeed a bedbug, and take appropriate action as soon as possible.

For reference, adult bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed. They are reddish-brown, flat, oval-shaped and wingless.

If you suspect you have bedbugs at your residence, you can take these steps:

  • If you live in on-campus housing, please notify us immediately. You can submit an online fix-it request or call Housing Facilities Services at 303-735-5555. Facilities Management also has an Operations Control Center that is reachable 24 hours a day at 303-492-5522.

  • If you live off campus, it’s important that you notify your landlord of the situation as soon as possible. Please also contact Facilities Management so we can offer guidance and work with you to address the problem quickly. Troy Muller can be reached at 303-735-7850 or troy.muller@colorado.edu. 

  • If you live off campus, we recommend avoiding campus to prevent further spread of the bugs until a treatment of your space is completed. For students, the office of Student Support & Case Management (303-492-7348 or sscm@colorado.edu) can help you coordinate academic accommodations while you’re off campus.

  • It is prudent to strip your bed, wash and dry your linens on high heat, and inspect anything you think might have been exposed. Bedbugs can be picked up during travel, on buses or through other incidental contact. Remember, bedbugs are not an indicator of cleanliness. They simply are attracted to people in general.

  • Dead-fall traps or lures can be purchased at hardware stores and placed in your room if you’ve seen bugs or if you simply want to monitor a space.

While rare, Facilities Management does at times have to treat spaces on campus for bedbugs. If this occurs, affected spaces will be closed until treated.

  • CU Boulder’s Facilities Management staff uses a thermal treatment method that involves heating the affected space to 130 degrees for a few hours to ensure that any potential live forms of the bugs (eggs, juveniles, adults) are killed.

  • Fumigation and other chemical treatments are not used, and students, faculty and staff can rest assured that there are no residuals left behind from the thermal treatments. Treated areas are safe to re-enter once temperatures have returned to normal.

General

Assessment, monitoring and prevention

Treatment

Taking Action