Released August 11, 2011        

URBANA, Ill. -- As students head back to campus, more furniture is finding its way to the street corners in hopes of attracting a new owner. Students should think twice before picking up those old couches, said Ben Hottel, a master's degree student in entomology at the University of Illinois.

"It's really easy for people to spread an infestation of bed bugs, especially when buying used furniture," said Hottel, creator of the new Bed Bug IPM website, bedbugs.illinois.edu. "You can do inspections, but they're not 100 percent effective. It may be tempting to do a little garbage-picking as you head back to college, but unless you are confident in your source, the benefit may not outweigh the cost."

Hottel's website was developed to help University of Illinois students, faculty and staff learn more about this increasingly prevalent pest and how they can prevent an infestation of bed bugs.

"In the past decade, bed bug reports have been on the rise with stories of infestations in retail chains, hotels and campus residence halls," he said. "Although bed bugs have not been a problem on the University of Illinois campus due to an aggressive, campus-wide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, this could change at any time because bed bugs are easily transferrable."

Bed bugs are ectoparasites, meaning they have completely adapted to living with humans and they use humans to disperse themselves, Hottel said. They hitchhike on luggage, purses, clothes and even human bodies.

Many factors are to blame for increased bed bug infestations: increased international travel, removal of certain pesticides from the market, use of bait traps instead of sprayed pesticides in homes and more.

Although the Internet has helpful information on bed bugs, it can often be difficult to sift through, he said. The Bed Bug IPM website focuses specifically on U of I residence halls and apartments. However, the information applies to anyone in apartments or other schools in this area.

"The website concisely packages and gears important information about bed bugs to college students," Hottel said. "We want to help students discover what they can do about bed bugs while gaining a greater understanding of safe behaviors. We'd like people to know what to look for, and who to call for help if needed."

The Bed Bug IPM website was funded by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Student Sustainability Committee and a USDA-NIFA grant. Hottel's project was supervised by Sue Ratcliffe, Director of the North Central Integrated Pest Management Center. For more information, photos and recommendations, go to bedbugs.illinois.edu.
 
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University of Illinois, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news5880.html
Sources: Ben Hottel, ben93893@sbcglobal.net
Sue Ratcliffe, 217-333-9656, sratclif@illinois.edu

Writer: Jennifer Shike, 217-244-0888, jshike@illinois.edu

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