Buyers, beware: Used furniture is now more likely to be harboring tiny pests.
A recent poll by the National Pest Management Association shows calls to exterminators about bedbugs have increased by 57 percent in the last five years, according to a podcast recently released by UF Health Communications.
However, the problem has not reached UF dorms.
“It has been about 10 to 15 years since bedbugs have been increasing, and they have not stopped increasing yet,” said Roberto Pereira, an associate research scientist for the UF entomology and nematology department.
Joey Muccio, a 21-year-old Gainesville resident, ran into a bedbug problem while interning at a camp during the summer, and it still haunts him.
“Once you get them, they get in your head and plague you,” Muccio said. “Every time I wake up with a bump, I immediately think I have bedbugs.”
Because UF has a Green Shield Certified Integrated Pest Management program, exterminators in residence halls or family housing use Styrofoam heat boxes to control bedbugs, said Wayne Walker, the senior pest control technician for the UF department of housing.
Walker and his team follows bedbug protocol for each of the 10 to 15 cases received a year, even if they don’t suspect bedbugs to be the problem’s origin.
“Sometimes, it’s psychological and just the simple fact of doing something solves the issue,” Walker said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/18/2013 under the headline "National rise in bedbugs hasn’t bit UF’s dorms"
