Visitation resumes at Pleasant Acres after bed bug incident

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Experts recommend checking linens, vacuuming carpets (then disposing of the bag), putting clothes in a dryer and other measures when bed bugs are suspected to be in a room. (File)

A week-long quarantine at York County-owned Pleasant Acres Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center ended at noon Wednesday when county officials and a pest control company deemed the facility free from bedbugs.

The bugs were discovered in two residence rooms, and the facility was put under quarantine July 29 "as a precautionary measure," county spokesman Carl Lindquist wrote in a prepared statement.

The reopening to visitors followed an early morning second treatment of the initial rooms to kill any eggs that may have hatched. Residents stayed away from the room for three to four hours after the treatment before the building was reopened, according to an email from nursing home administrator Marlin Peck to county commissioners on Tuesday afternoon.

During the quarantine, the initially identified affected rooms were examined and chemically treated. Then resident clothing and linens were bagged, washed and dried, and wheelchairs from the units were heat-treated for five hours to kill all remaining bugs.

Ehrlich Pest Control performed a sweep of the facility on Monday and Tuesday with their canine unit to identify any further presence of bed bugs.

"I would say that a canine inspection is more effective and efficient than a visual inspection," said Eric Braun, the bed bugs technical services manager at Rentokil, which owns Ehrlich Pest Control.

He said that while a visual inspection by technicians can disrupt the residents for several minutes by moving furniture and mattresses, the dogs have been trained to smell living bed bugs and can finish a room in moments. The bugs' scent can even be detected in "cracks and crevices" that would not have been found through visual inspection.

The Northeast coast has long had a bed bug problem, especially in buildings with more sedentary residents, such as nursing homes, which provide a "food source" for the bugs, Braun said. They are called "bed bugs" only because people associate them with where they sleep. In assisted-living facilities, people also lie dormant for long periods at locations other than their own beds.

"No additional bedbugs were located beyond those originally found, prompting the return to normal visitation and resident movement on Wednesday," Lindquist wrote. "No residents at any point showed symptoms of bed bugs.

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Visitation resumes at Pleasant Acres after bed bug incident

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