Higher Ed | Daily Report

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Bedbugs have crawled their way into a few college residences in California, causing university officials to warn students about how to avoid the tiny hitchhikers.

San Diego State University has seen one report of bedbugs per week in the residence halls, Director of Housing Administration Patricia Francisco told the Daily Aztec.

"Students just really need to be aware that every time they are in a public place and there is something upholstered, bedbugs can catch a ride with them," she said.

Over at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has one of the highest numbers of students living in campus housing in the CSU system, bedbugs first appeared in dorms last spring, when students returned from spring break with the small creatures in tow, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported.

Since the beginning of this year, students have reported a handful of additional bedbug incidents, said Preston Allen, executive director of university housing at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

"It's becoming a day-to-day issue," Allen said.

Both universities have taken measures to hunt out the bugs and get rid of them, from bug-sniffing dogs to professional fumigation.

California Watch called a few other CSU campuses around the state. The Long Beach, Fullerton, Pomona and San Francisco campuses were all happy to report zero bedbug complaints.

Meanwhile, over at USC, the university is refuting a KTLA-TV report of a bedbug problem in student housing at the South Los Angeles campus.

KTLA reported last week that USC students were battling a widespread bedbug outbreak.

"They get hungry and they come out, and I'm like their feast," USC student Michelle Huynh told the KTLA reporter.

But, as it turned out, the housing complex mentioned in the report is neither owned nor operated by USC, according to the university. A spokesman said there is no bedbug problem.

Worried about letting the bedbugs bite? Here's a fact sheet [PDF] on the creatures from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.