How Milwaukee College Students Can Prevent Bed Bugs

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee was ranked among the top 50 American cities most infested with bed bugs, according to a new study.

The city scored No. 44 in a list created by commercial pest control company Terminix. The list was put together with bed bug-specific data from the company's branches nationwide, with most of the data collected between Jan. 1 and Aug. 20.

College students moving into campuses across the country can accidentally bring unwanted roommates into dormitories. Bed bugs can easily hitch rides on luggage, backpacks and clothing and can crawl through cracks in walls, making common spaces in dorms vulnerable to infestation.

Students can identify bed bugs' presence by small blood smears on sheets, a musty odor, reddish-brown spots on a mattress and the bed bugs themselves. Bed bugs can live in dressers, clothes, floorboards, couches and mattresses as well.

Fully grown bed bugs resemble the size, shape and color of an apple seed, the company said. Students should also watch out for recently hatched, cream-colored bed bug nymphs in their fitted sheets as well.

How To Curb Bed Bugs In Campus Dorms

• Put bed bug-proof encasements on mattresses, pillows and box springs. Protective casings will help keep the bed from becoming a bed bug breeding ground.
• Thoroughly search the new dorm room or apartment on move-in day. Take time to lift mattresses, move furniture and peek behind headboards for any signs of bed bugs. Some signs include discarded bug shells, live or dead bugs at the mattress seams or furniture joints, a musty odor or blood stains from previous victims.
• Check shared items such as textbooks. Beg bugs can travel from one place to the next through second-hand textbooks.
• Hot launder any borrowed or second-hand clothing following the labeled washing directions.
• Resist the urge to pick up discarded furniture. Though free furniture is appealing, a lurking bed bug infestation isn't.
• Don't leave backpacks or clothing on beds, chairs or upholstered furniture of a strange room. It's an easy way to unknowingly transfer hitchhiker bed bugs.
• Don't let backpacks come in contact with others. Brief contact with an infested backpack can be an unwanted parasite's chance to ride along.

The top three bed bug-infested cities were Los Angeles, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Thirteen states had more than one city on the list, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

"Bed bugs go where people go, so they can be virtually anywhere," Terminix director of bed bug services Rick Cooper said. Bed bugs can move between hotels, airports, schools or college campuses.