Students can help with pests in dorms by reporting issues to residence life

By Michelle Loria Alvarado

Assistant News Editor

Isabella Duque, a junior communication studies major, said the most traumatic encounter with a cockroach in her apartment occurred one Friday night while in the bathroom.

“I was in the bathroom. I was on the toilet peeing. And then I just grabbed some toilet paper and I was going to clean myself,” said Duque “But then, in my inner thigh, I felt a very weird feeling. And then I checked my hand and I just found this very big roach near my wrist.”

Residential students say they are experiencing pest issues in at least five residential buildings on campus, including cockroaches, ants and ladybugs. 

Zack Church, associate dean for residential life, said the housing and facilities team is aware of the issue in two specific apartments but was not aware that this problem is affecting multiple buildings.

Students need to report any type of pests to resolve the problem before it becomes an infestation, he said.

“We don’t want any student to experience this during their time here, but we also can’t do anything about issues we don’t know about,” said Church.

Alberto Vasquez, a senior biology major, said that during his stay over the summer in the Shingler Apartments, everything was going well until about a month later, when they began seeing cockroaches frequently.

“When the temperature began to rise and the climate became more and more hot, we started seeing more roaches. Like a lot of roaches running around the room,” said Vasquez.

Duque, who lives in the Redford Apartments, has been encountering cockroaches since the beginning of the fall semester, which has caused her anxiety. 

“After a very long day of work and school. I just want to have some rest here. But I just can’t because I know that at any moment I can come across a roach,” said Duque.

Students say managing pests in their living spaces adds to their stress. 

“I have to use extra time of my day when I could be using that time to study,” said Daniel Gamez, senior accounting major, “It just makes me lose more time a day, making sure everything’s clean and looking around to see if there’s no cockroaches around.”

To correctly report pest issues on campus, students need to contact the RA’s or RD as they encounter a bug, no matter if alive or dead. If they do not receive a response from them, they need to contact Church.

Church will then notify Leasa Williams, director of facilities management, who will submit a work order to the pest control company.

Once the work order is in, the pest control company will visit the apartment the following Monday. The company only services the campus on Mondays and follows a set schedule. After completing their scheduled treatments, the company will check the work order for specific apartments.

However, this does not guarantee that the issue will be treated immediately. In Tennessee, pest control companies can only apply treatments to the same location every two weeks.

“The state does have very strict limitations about how often and the frequencies are for treatment,” said Williams. “The bug company is really good about treating it, checking on it the following week, and then treating it again two weeks later because you can only have treatments for twice a month for those, so they’ll check on spaces, though in between.”

Once the treatment is in place, there is a higher chance that bugs will appear around the affected areas, but this is only a sign that the treatment is working effectively.

“After an apartment’s been treated, you are likely to see more bug activity within the next two to three days,” said Church.

In the meantime, students should be following cleaning guidelines and work towards the prevention of pests. 

Church recommends students to keep their apartments and dorms clean and avoid leaving out any foods or rooted fruits. Avoid having bags of bags in their spaces. Avoid leaving crumbs or food stains that may attract bugs and make sure to take out trash bags constantly. 

Avoid any over-the-counter pesticides, since the bugs create a resistance to the treatment provided by the pest control company, Church said.

“If you are using over-the-counter like sprays and traps and stuff like that, those are lower doses of the chemicals that they used to treat every two weeks,” said Church. “I have been told that by using those over the counter things, the bugs can actually build up a tolerance to the chemical where the treatment that our pest control company comes and does is not as effective because the bugs have built up this tolerance to that chemical.”

He also recommends students that in case of an encounter with a dead bug, pick it up with a paper towel, place it in the trash can, and take it out of the trash right after. Or flush the bug in the toilet. 

It is important that students follow these guidelines because the pest treatment will kill the bug, but not its eggs.

According to Williams, Trevecca spends around $20,000 yearly on pest control for the weekly visits. Termite treatment, or an extra day visit are not included in the yearly cost.