“I moved in and my mom and I noticed some black spots on the mattress,” Moening said. “Two nights later, I started getting bites. They were up and down on my leg and a lot on my back and a few on my arms, really just everywhere.”

Moening said a week or two went on before his roommate’s girlfriend mentioned she had bites.

“We looked up the bugs and at this point, we were freaking out,” Moening said. “We started taking off my sheets and we actually saw two of them (bed bugs). We see the little eggs which are the black spots that I originally saw. We went down to the front desk to report it.”

Moening said a student employed by MSU Pest Control came to their room to inform them Pest Control was understaffed and they would be back tomorrow.

“The ACD came to our door and asked what we wanted done about the problem,” Moening said. “Throughout this interaction, he wanted us in our room, he wanted us to be quiet about it. He didn’t want any other residents to know.”

Natisha Foster, the Residence Education and Housing Services safety and security service coordinator, said MSU always handles situations like this with discretion to protect the people involved.

“Whenever we deal with a health or safety issue in the residence halls, we always practice discretion for the sake of the student(s) involved,” Foster said.

Moening said he and his roommate were required to remove all clothing from the bug-infested room. In doing so, he said the clothing was placed in plastic bags, which were placed in laundry bins outside of the room.

Moening said Resident Assistants on duty asked them to remove the bins from the hallway because “they didn’t want other residents to know.”

Moening said once the pest control employee came, the treatment of the room was very thorough.

“Mike from MSU Pest Control was fantastic,” Moening said. “He automatically got on our beds and confirmed that we had bed bugs. He set traps a couple of days later and then came back a week later to check the traps.”

Once the room was chemically treated and dried, Moening said they were expected to sleep on the same mattresses that had just been treated.

Moening said when he and his roommate requested new mattress, the Assistant Community Director (ACD) of Case Hall estimated that it would take another day to find new mattresses.

“There was no quickness from anyone (RAs, ACDs) when dealing with this issue,” Moening said. “The mattresses were not new. Putting the new mattresses on, it was just my roommate and I while RAs are standing there looking. Just no help whatsoever.”

Moening’s roommate, international relations freshman Matt Maldonado, said he felt like nobody wanted to help.

MSU spokesperson Jason Cody had this to say about bed bugs on campus.

“While EHS does routinely take calls on possible bed bugs, there have only been five confirmed cases over the past three years,” Cody said. “The university has never had an outbreak. If they are found in a dorm room, the room is chemically treated. EHS determined chemical treatment works best. There is also a follow-up treatment and monitoring to ensure the situation is taken care of.”

Cody said residence halls undergo general inspection at the end of the school year and after guests to the university have stayed in them during the summer.

Cody said the latest confirmed case of bed bugs was in Holmes Hall this semester.