AU students who live in the Berkshire Apartments may be paying for unwanted roommates - cockroaches.
Some AU students who live in the Massachusetts Avenue building have reported bug infestations in their apartments.
The cockroach influx has mainly occurred because of a lack of proper apartment sanitation. Exterminators come for free every Thursday, and if people do not take out their trash and leave food lying around their apartments, the roaches will find their way back, usually in a resident's kitchen, according to Joy Barcia, the building's assistant manager and an AU alumna.
Not all parts of the building are experiencing cockroach problems, Barcia said. There has not been a recent increase in complaints regarding the issue, so no new extermination methods are being developed.
Alex Margolis, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, has been living in the Berks since the beginning of the semester. He said he does not consider his case severe but it has been persistent.
"The bugs came fairly early in the year but have progressively gotten worse," he said. "Whenever my roommate and I clean, the volume of bug traffic tends to decrease but eventually picks up again."
Wayne White, an entomologist and a vice president of pest control company American Pest Management, said an unsanitary area is easier for roaches to inhabit, but even a clean residence is susceptible to cockroaches. In order to survive, cockroaches only need food, water and a place to hide. A kitchen has all these things, which is why so many cockroaches are found there.
If there is a particularly bad case, staff members go into the apartment, pull out the stove and give it a thorough cleaning, Barcia said.
"Roaches like that stuff because there are usually crumbs in the stove," she said. They then proceed to treat and spray the rest of the apartment.
White said a "bad case" usually means that cockroaches can be found during the day. Roaches are nocturnal - if one spots them out before evening, it usually means their numbers are so excessive they must work overtime to get food.
It is difficult to get rid of high numbers of roaches, White said. However, any building should be able to drastically reduce their numbers. Most of it does have to do with sanitation, but extreme cases require a more aggressive approach such as baits and other pesticides.
"You can seriously reduce a population by cleaning, but it won't get rid of them because roaches need so little to eat," he said.
Bert Loudis, a junior in SPA who is a Berks resident, said he has never contacted the building's management but has almost eliminated his bug problem himself.
"When we first moved in, we'd see a few of them every day," he said. "We laid down traps and put down things that are supposed to make them go away. I think we killed most of them. I'll see them once or twice a week but they're baby ones."
Loudis said he and his roommate keep their apartment clean and make sure never to leave food out. All their edibles are sealed tightly to ensure that roaches don't get to them.
However, he said other college students' rooms are not as sanitary as his.
"It's like a college dorm. There is old beer lying around everywhere, which cockroaches love," Loudis said.
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