“We get calls for bedbugs almost every single day,” Badour said. “We did it today, we’re doing it tomorrow. … It’s just crazy.”

During the past 10 years, and especially in the last year, the prevalence of bedbug incidents has increased in Michigan and nationwide, said Erik Foster, a medical entomologist with the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Although Olin Health Center officials were not available for comment, Greg Baumann, vice president of technical services for the National Pest Management Association, said universities provide an ideal environment for the bugs. Infestations especially are common in multi-unit housing situations where people frequently move in and out, he said.

Three qualities of the bugs make a university setting ideal: bedbugs are nocturnal and often cannot be seen during the day, they’re elusive and hide in tight spots and they make “great hitchhikers,” Baumann said.

“There are lots of places for them to hide (in dormitories) — they can hitch a ride on backpacks or suitcases put into a bus or somebody’s trunk to go home for holidays,” Baumann said.

The bugs do not require poor sanitation, as they come only from people moving around and feed only on blood, Baumann said. They can hide in furniture or suitcases moved from one place to another.

The bugs often inhabit areas near where people sleep, and hide in nooks and crannies such as the cracks between mattresses and bedsprings, said MSU entomologist Howard Russell. Measuring about a quarter-inch, the bugs are visible to the naked eye, Russell said.

The first sign of an infestation is often blood spots on a person’s sheets from bedbug excrement, Russell said. The bugs also bite humans, sometimes leaving welts and causing itchiness, Baumann said. A stigma and psychological issues associated with the bugs sometimes prevent people from reporting an infestation, allowing the situation to become worse, Badour and Foster said.

“There are psychological implications to knowing every time (a person) goes to bed there’s critters, knowing they’re going to suck their blood,” Foster said.

Grace Lynch, a communicative sciences and disorders junior, said she would be “freaked out” if she encountered one of the bugs.

“I don’t do well with bugs,” she said.

But Badour said every community has the problem and it is “very treatable.”

“People just need to take a deep breath and provide the cooperation that’s asked of you and we’re going to get through it,” she said. “The problem can be solved without letting it freak you out too much.”