Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« You Think You're Having a Bad Day | Bodies and Buildings »

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Animals / ??!! / Books Bedbugs Are the New Bookworms

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 4:50 PM

Roger Goffeney has infested the Denver public library...twice...with bed bugs.

Denver Public Library has destroyed 31 books and fumigated four areas of its central library after a bedbug infestation...in early September library staff discovered bugs, their larvae, and droppings inside books returned by Goffeney. DPL banned him from the library and asked him to bag his outstanding books and return them outside the library building rather than through the book drop. However, he placed them in the book drop a week later, causing a reinfestation

Goffeney refuses to pay the $18,000 for the fumigation and replacement books, and he is considering suing the library for the right to take books out again. Thanks to Slog Tipper Davida for the news.

Comments (10) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I guess we can be thankful the hobos in our library aren't interested in the books.

Posted by elenchos on October 1, 2009 at 5:03 PM

The National Library and Archive in Montreal had the same bedbug problem because hobos would come to sleep on the couches during the day. Now you're banned from entering with anything more than a backpack. And they've hired guards to keep the obvious dirty ones from getting in.

I've heard it's clean now, but I'm paranoid everytime I go there.

Posted by sirkowski

on October 1, 2009 at 5:25 PM

Bedbugs, whew. That fella was mean to have put his books in the regular repository after he'd inadvertently bugged the place the one time.

There was a hair-raising This American Life piece on bedbugs. Devilishly hard to get rid of, horrible to live with.

Posted by gloomy gus on October 1, 2009 at 5:31 PM

DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. Get it from any garden-supply shop. Sprinkle it around the legs of your bed, on the sides and underside of your mattress, and around baseboards--basically anywhere they may be. If bugs crawl through it, they dry up and die (not instantly, but in a short while). I used it in conjunction with an insecticide I bought online (which may or may not have made any difference), and they were gone in two weeks.

Posted by gkb on October 1, 2009 at 5:39 PM

I hope someone sends Goffeney some DDT laced cookies. It would take care of him and his cootie problem.

Posted by Y.F. Redux on October 1, 2009 at 5:51 PM

Call me paranoid, but I worry about this whenever I check out books at the library or buy them used.

Posted by Joe Glibmoron on October 1, 2009 at 11:51 PM

The Denver Public Library is a fucking abomination. Bums smoke crack in the bathrooms, male prostitutes suck cock/get fucked in the basement. It is fucking scary there.

Posted by DPL...eek! on October 2, 2009 at 8:30 AM

@7: It's pretty obvious that you've never even been inside the Denver Public Library. Have you ever even been in Denver, asshole?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on October 2, 2009 at 8:53 AM

What 8 said. Probably just another person who doesn't like the building.

Posted by Matt from Denver on October 2, 2009 at 8:59 AM

@4: Diatomaceous earth works, but it's tricky to use, and if you inhale it, it stays in your lungs for life. If you don't have access to a ventilator, you're better off paying a pest control professional to exterminate your bed bugs.

While we're on the topic... homeless shelters in Seattle do have a bed bug problem, but so do hotels and apartments here and across the country. It's not about being poor or dirty; it's about attracting bed bugs to you by having a human body full of blood.

ALSO if you live in Seattle, in an apartment, your landlord has the responsibility to pay to exterminate bed bugs, no matter how they entered your apartment, and ensure that they're gone. It's the law, and don't let your landlord tell you otherwise.

Posted by amysee on October 2, 2009 at 9:25 AM