Bedbugs Found In the Reagan Building

Posted on October 4, 2010

Two areas of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center infiltrated by bedbugs will be treated by pest control experts on Tuesday, five days after the critters were found, according to officials.
Juvenile bed bugs were found Thursday in an office tower occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development and a nearby closet, the agency said. Pest control experts inspected the affected areas on Friday and planned to treat the areas with an aerosol, steam and liquid mixture on Tuesday.
USAID did not immediately say why it’s waiting until Tuesday to treat the affected areas. (If they clarify we’ll add their comments here.)

“GSA and USAID are working proactively to eradicate the pests and prevent their spread to other areas of the building,” the agencies said in a joint statement.
Workers will be able to reoccupy the affected offices four hours after they are treated and pest control experts will reinspect the area with specially trained dogs in three weeks, USAID said.
Employees learned of the bedbugs and plans to treat the affected areas in an e-mail sent Thursday.
The Reagan building is located in downtown Washington and is one of the largest federal installations in the country. It also houses offices of the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. EPA offices are bedbug-free, according to a spokesman.
Bedbugs are blood-feeders that do not transmit diseases, but can cause allergic reactions and infections. The critters are turning up in all sorts of places across the country, including movie theaters, radio studios, newsrooms and apartment buildings.
Excerpted from The Washington Post, Ed O’Keefe, The Federal Eye, 10.04.2010

Bedbugs Found In the Reagan Building

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