How to get rid of bedbugs in a hostel

Dormitories, due to the peculiarities of their structure and functioning, are an ideal environment for the appearance and comfortable existence of bedbugs. Moreover, this does not depend at all on its type. Dormitories include student campuses, apartments where company employees are allocated space, old Soviet houses, where one floor with 20-30 rooms has only one common kitchen, three showers and four bathrooms. In some ways, the communal apartments that are still found today can also be classified as dormitories, although they are not officially classified as part of this accommodation format. One way or another, any housing that fits this definition implies a large concentration of people in relatively small areas. The most unfavorable in terms of sanitary conditions may be student and work dormitories. Their inhabitants understand that this is a temporary shelter and, unfortunately, because of this, many simply do not consider it necessary to keep it clean and observe at least basic hygiene rules. However, the problem does not always lie in the sloppiness and carelessness of people. The very format of such housing implies some difficulties and lack of comfort. Completely different people, previously unfamiliar with each other, find themselves in the same room; kitchens and bathrooms are public places. The luckiest ones are the students who live in block dormitories, where there is one bathroom and one food storage and preparation area for 2-3 rooms, and not for the whole floor.

The most important threat in dormitories when bedbugs appear is the opportunity for them to spread at lightning speed. The large number of people, cluttered rooms, dilapidated state of repairs in buildings and general ventilation systems allow them to quickly move from room to room, increasing the number of food sources. Bedbugs are blood-sucking insects, so they require donors to maintain their vital functions. When looking for an answer to the question of how to get rid of bedbugs in a dorm, it is important to know that you do not have to do it yourself. If a problem arises, please contact your campus or campus office. However, in practice, everything is not so rosy and you have to fight the parasites yourself. And the matter is not always the negligence of the administration; sometimes people simply do not want to advertise such a delicate problem. If bedbugs in a hostel interfere with your life, professional SES consultants can tell you what to do.

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Features of the life of a bug

More recently, people believed that bedbugs were relics of past centuries. However, today, outbreaks of insect attacks are increasing all over the world. The most severe situation prevails in large cities. It is convenient and easy for small parasites to reproduce in apartment buildings. Several types of indoor bedbugs are known to science. The most popular in Russia is Cimex lectularius or the laundry parasite.

The bed bug is a domestic beetle that belongs to the class of blood-sucking, wingless insects. They live in small colonies and attack humans at night. One female lays up to 500 eggs during her life. Using the specific secretion of the glands, she attaches her offspring to the hard surfaces of furniture. The average lifespan of an insect is up to one and a half years. In cold conditions, the life cycle increases due to the suspended state of the bug.

Bloodsuckers do not like bright lighting. During the day they hide in dark, hidden places, and at night they crawl out to feast on human blood. The main affected area is areas of the skin unprotected by clothing. An insect bite cannot be immediately felt, since bedbugs inject an anesthetic substance under the skin of the victim. Bloodsuckers do not pose a sanitary and epidemiological threat, but the causative agent of tularemia, Q fever and hepatitis B is stored in the saliva of the parasite for a long time.

Difficulties in removing bedbugs in dormitories

The furniture bug is a synanthropic insect that lives close to humans. The most favorable place for bloodsuckers to live is student dormitories. This is a temporary place of residence for a large number of people who move frequently. In such conditions, bedbugs multiply quickly, move between rooms and have the opportunity to travel in human luggage.

Trying to remove insects in one living room yourself will not lead to a positive result. The insect will return to you from the next room and continue its activity. It is impossible to agree with all residents of the hostel on the simultaneous disinfestation of premises. In addition, uninhabited rooms will become a temporary refuge for parasites. Only special pest control services can cope with the spread of bedbugs in the hostel.

Can bedbugs come from neighbors?

Yes, bedbugs can certainly come from neighbors, but the source of infection is not always located in their apartment. Bed bugs can live in the entire house, then the entire entrance will suffer from them. The root, as well as the solution, of the problem in this case should be sought by the company manager at home. In this case, searching for neighbors who are to blame for the appearance of bedbugs will not bring any results. In addition to neighbors' apartments, bedbugs can come to:

From the street
From the basement
From the ventilation
From the attic
From commercial premises on the 1st floor

You can bring bedbugs into your apartment along with purchases, on clothes and shoes, in luggage, or purchased furniture, especially used furniture.

In order to consider a particular apartment a breeding ground for pests, you need reasons. Whether bedbugs can come from neighbors depends on:

The sanitary condition of the neighbors' apartment.
Neighbors' attitudes towards household hygiene.
The frequency of their stay at home.
Who exactly lives in the apartment.

Being in the same apartment with bedbugs and pretending that there is no problem, under standard conditions, will be very difficult for any person - bedbugs bite and feed on blood, it is impossible to ignore this. That is why most often apartments with a high concentration of pests belong to people who either do not have the financial ability to somehow influence the situation, or to people who, for various reasons, are able to ignore the presence of pests. The second category can include anything from mental illness and pathological cravings for accumulating garbage, to alcohol and drug addiction. If your neighbors are far from any of these categories, there is a high probability that you have bedbugs through no fault of theirs.

If bedbugs run en masse into your apartment

Sometimes insects may appear not gradually, but spontaneously, literally flooding your home. Such situations happen when someone nearby is poisoning pests in an organized manner, for example, a store or organization on the ground floor of a building, or, again, your neighbors. In this case, it is necessary in every possible way to stop the flow of pests in your apartment, and then use measures to protect the house and poison bedbugs, which will be described below.

A story from the life of students

Five years ago I was a student. There were five of us in the room. At some point, we began to take turns becoming covered in red spots that itched terribly. Initially, they poisoned the parasites with crayons, then they used dichlorvos, but it was all to no avail. Over the course of several months, bedbugs spread everywhere. We didn’t know how to get rid of bedbugs in the hostel. Neither poisons nor freezing destroyed them.

The only thing that affected them was fire. Before going to bed, everyone ironed the sheets together and burned the metal beds with deodorant. You could only sleep in turtlenecks tucked into sweatpants, socks, hats and gloves. Due to constant lack of sleep, the entire dorm stopped going to lectures. After this, the management of the institute gave the order to call specialists. The secret service treated the room with some kind of powder, but the bloodsuckers still remained alive.

After an unsuccessful disinfestation, we were sent home for a week and were forbidden to take personal belongings with us. Arriving back at the hostel, we found ourselves in a room that had survived the apocalypse. All our things were lying in the corridor, there were puddles in the rooms, the wallpaper was thoroughly soaked with some kind of drugs. Having started cleaning the room, I noticed a fat, mustachioed bug peeking out of an outlet. These creatures did not die, they became angry and hungry. Attacks began to occur during the day, with insects crawling out of computers and electronics. Today, the hostel has undergone major renovations, but rumors about the appearance of bites periodically pop up.

How to protect your apartment

So, if you become aware that your neighbors have bedbugs, be prepared to take steps to protect your home from infestation.

Inspect the bedroom furniture

The first thing you need to do is make sure that bedbugs haven’t gotten to you yet. As a rule, people discover them at home only a few days or even a few weeks after their appearance. It is unknown how long ago they moved in with their neighbors, which means you better check your apartment.

For example, a screenshot from one forum on the topic (typical case):

Once in a room, bedbugs immediately look for the owners' sleeping places - beds and sofas, and most often they set up their shelters in them. Almost always, the occupancy of an apartment begins with these zones, which means they need to be examined.

Remove the bedding, take a flashlight and carefully inspect the mattress - bedbugs like to hide in folds and seams on the edges, under stripes or right at the end of the headboard. Next, lift the mattress and inspect the bed frame, paying attention to various gaps, grooves, joints, joints, etc. – these are all potential hiding places for bed bugs. Pull the bed away from the wall and check the back of the headboard.

Using the same principle, inspect the sofa if someone is sleeping on it. Check all the folds of the fabric upholstery, especially on the back side, armrests, decorative hems and stripes. If possible, turn the sofa upside down to inspect the legs at the attachment points and other areas of the structure.

When examining, look not only for the insects themselves, but also for traces of their vital activity: black fecal specks, empty skins shed during molting, oblong white eggs.

If you don’t find anything suspicious, and none of your household is bothered by bites, then most likely your apartment is clean. But provided that there are bedbugs in the neighboring apartment, such a check must be carried out every week.

Prevention measures

The next step is to inspect the premises for possible access routes for insects from neighbors. The most common of these paths are shown in the illustration above.

If necessary, seal cracks in the walls, ceiling and pipe passages, plug through holes for sockets (sometimes these are found in old housing stock), seal the cracks around the door frame and make sure that the rubber seal on the front door is tight. The ventilation holes should be covered with a fine mesh, tightly taped around the perimeter.

During this period, keep order especially carefully. Cluttering the room with boxes, bags, scattered things and toys will provide additional hiding places for bedbugs, and will greatly complicate your task of finding them. Agree, the risk of bed bugs is a good enough reason to get rid of excess junk and clean up your home.

Carry out insecticidal treatments in a coordinated manner

Most often, residents of an infected apartment carry out disinfestation without notifying their neighbors. As I already said, sometimes this leads to the fact that some of the surviving bedbugs move to the neighbors. Unsuspecting neighbors will discover them no earlier than in a couple of weeks. They, in turn, will also do the treatment, and it is possible that the parasites will come back again.

Because of this, the fight against bedbugs sometimes lasts for many months, as they move alternately from one apartment to another.

To avoid this, it is better to initially coordinate this issue with your neighbors and carry out processing simultaneously, regardless of whether you process it yourself or hire a special service.

Prevention of parasites

The bug is a bloodsucker, so it does not care about the sanitary conditions of the room. Most of all, the insect is attracted to crowded living conditions, when there are a large number of residents in a small room. For preventive purposes, when moving to a new place, it is necessary to disinfest the premises and the things brought there.

Residential premises must have normal repair conditions. To prevent the appearance of bed bugs, it is necessary to eliminate all cracks and cracks in the floor, update the whitewash and plaster on the walls. Particular attention is paid to mattresses and baseboards. Timely inspection and disinfestation of which will help reduce the likelihood of unexpected guests.

If bedbugs come from neighbors: what to do

If bedbugs come from neighbors, the first thing to do is try to solve the problem through dialogue. If bedbugs come to your apartment on their own, this does not mean that they come from your neighbors. If your neighbors are average, supposedly adequate people, it makes sense to go and talk to them. Do not attack with accusations, reproaches and threats, but ask questions about their situation with pests. If there is a problem with bedbugs throughout the house, collectively report this to the housing and communal services control room and order the treatment of your own apartments at the SES.

If dialogue does not work out or you have reason to believe that a personal visit to your neighbors may be unsafe for you, there are a number of official structures and authorities that will help you in such a situation.

Fight the enemy

Disinsection of an institution in which a large number of people live must be carried out in accordance with the requirements of SanPin 3.5.2.1376-03. Any extermination of insects takes place according to the instructions for using chemicals. People who have undergone certain training and have no medical contraindications are allowed to perform the procedure.

During disinfestation the following activities are carried out:

All residents are notified about the start of the fight against bed bugs. The management of the hostel must post a notice at the entrance about the presence of insects.
Residents themselves should be more attentive to signs of the appearance of parasites and promptly notify commandants and the management of the institute about the appearance of insects in their living quarters.
When calling the disinfection service, notify residents about the day of the procedure and monitor the preparation and vacancy of the rooms.
Keep empty rooms under control. Carry out preventive maintenance on them periodically.

Today's story is unpleasant and very complex. From the stories of hostel residents, it is clear that the appearance of bedbugs resembles an epidemic that is impossible to fight. And what to do in such situations is not completely known.

While in an infected room, you must:

Notify the hostel management about the appearance of insects, and insist on disinfestation of the entire institution.
Take independent preventive measures and negotiate with neighboring rooms to fight together.
Show mental toughness and don't let yourself get depressed.

How else to prevent bedbugs from appearing on your neighbors?

Preventive measures are critically necessary, but not the only option for preventing the appearance of bedbugs from your neighbors. In parallel with how you organize barrier protection, you need to use special means for baiting pests. This is necessary in order to destroy those parasites that have already entered your home and influence those that will try to get into you in the future.

To repel bedbugs

Repelling bedbugs is a controversial and highly dubious method of pest control, but in the initial stages you can try using intense odors to discourage insects from invading your apartment. Concentrated odors have the desired effect:

Carnations
Mint
tea tree
Nag Champa
Bergamot
Grapefruit
Eucalyptus
Wormwood
Lavender

These scents can be used in the form of essential oils or solid incense. It is important to consider that you are not using them for aromatization, but to create a highly concentrated, intense odor in the room that can repel bedbugs. It is not necessary to be in the room yourself. After using aromatic products, the rooms must be thoroughly ventilated.

note

The aromas of oils and incense can be absorbed into textiles, clothing, and furniture upholstery. Before using any scent, check how pleasant it is to you, whether it causes headaches, or whether it is too intrusive - when repelling bedbugs, the whole room and many things in it will smell like it, even after airing.

To kill bedbugs

It is most convenient to destroy bedbugs, and not just scare them away, using ready-to-use insecticides in the form of aerosols or powders. In hardware departments and online you can find a large number of products varying in volume and price; below, as an example, only a small part of them is given.

Dichlorvos Varan
Raptor for bedbugs
Dr. Klaus for fleas and bedbugs
Spray Medilis Antiklop
Universal aerosol Clean Home
Delicia Wespex
Raid Max with any fragrance
Aerosols Combat
Powders Hector, Ecokiller
Diatomaceous earth (diatomite) in bags

Sprays and aerosols are more convenient, simpler and “cleaner” to use than powders, but the listed powder products are made on the basis of natural ingredients. It is important to use both products strictly according to the instructions on the packaging, placing and applying them in such a way that they are not touched, licked or eaten by small children and pets.

If you have a problem with bedbugs not just yesterday and the insects already live in your apartment and bite, you can order professional treatment from the SES. Disinfestation of the entire apartment helps to reliably and permanently protect against pests, even if they live somewhere else in the house.