U of A library to reopen Sunday after closure for bed bug treatment
The first floor of the University of Alberta’s largest library was closed to students Friday so it could be treated for bed bugs, the university said.
Sharon Murphy, associate university librarian, said a student reported seeing a bed bug Monday on a backpack near a bank of public computers in the Rutherford Library.
Murphy said staff immediately contacted the facility and operations department, which in turn contacted a pest control management company that brought in a canine detection unit.
They confirmed the presence of bed bugs in a cluster of about a dozen mesh chairs in a “small localized area.” Those chairs were bagged and immediately removed, Murphy said.
“From that moment on, the company has following their regular procedures for dealing with bed bugs,” Murphy said.
On Saturday, the entire building will be closed as computers and tables in the affected area will be removed and processed in a heat chamber, she said.
Fifty chairs will be removed and treated off-site.
Murphy said there is nothing to suggest bed bugs had infested any library books, but as a precaution, staff have asked the company to check the rest of the library.
“That way we can feel really comfortable and confident when we open on Sunday morning,” she said.
This is not the first time bed bugs have been reported in the library. Last winter, the fifth floor was treated after reports of bed bugs surfaced.
The library, which opened in 1951 and is the largest on campus and the second largest research library in Canada, is expected to reopen at 11 a.m. Sunday.
“We want to reassure our community of users it is highly localized, it’s being treated and we are, as a precaution, checking to make sure everything else is fine,” Murphy said.