You may be wary of returning to Butler’s hallowed halls after yesterday’s news of bed bugs in on the fourth floor. However it appears the situation has been swiftly dealt with. Bwog received an update today from Francie Mrkich, Director of Access Services for the libraries. Exterminators have “vacuumed and chemically treated” the affected areas, and “wrapped and discarded” the nasty furniture. Other 4th floor study spaces were inspected and found clean. Since bed bugs cannot move from floor to floor, all might just be clear. Here’s the full e-mail:

Hi [Bwog],

Thanks to a student’s proactive report of seeing a bedbug in one of the Butler 4th floor group study rooms, we were able to quickly close the two affected rooms and call in professional exterminators for treatment. The exterminators wrapped and discarded the infested chairs, and vacuumed and chemically treated the spaces. The rooms will remain closed until a follow up cleaning occurs and the rooms are planned to reopen by the end of the week.

The exterminators also did an inspection of the other 4th floor study spaces and found no other signs of infestation. Those rooms are being monitored and the exterminators will make a follow up inspection in several days.

The Libraries are also discussing ongoing preventative inspections of our spaces to avoid future infestations.

Francie Mrkich