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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Bed bugs found, treated in Ivory Tower room

The University responds to incidents of bedbug infestation by covering the colonized mattresses with a protective plastic cover and giving the room two rounds of thermal remediation over two weeks. Hatchet File Photo

A case of bed bugs was confirmed in one Ivory Tower room this month.

The infested room has since been treated with thermal remediation, University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said this week.

The room’s residents, who are also GW students, were able to move back in within a few hours of the treatment.

No other rooms in the building were affected, she added.

Summer residents on the Mount Vernon Campus also discovered bed bugs this summer.  Two rooms in Cole Hall were treated for the pest in June, Sherrard said this week.

Bed bugs are typically wiped out in two weeks with spray treatments. Residents have to remove their belongings to be washed, and are not allowed back in their room for four hours after treatment.

Facilities also adds interceptor collars to bed posts in rooms suspected of containing bed bugs to monitor insect movement.

The University applies plastic covers to the mattresses in rooms that test positive to protect against bedbug bites. Mattresses are not removed from the room to avoid spreading the infestation further.

Last fall, bed bugs infested one room in JBKO and five rooms were infected during a 2010 outbreak.

Ivory Tower was hit by other pest problems last year, such as the 250-cockroach infiltration in a room.

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