For fourth-floor Cooper Hall resident Abby Perschon, cockroaches aren't just an isolated problem -- when she found a roach in her bed Sunday, she said it marked the "third or fourth time" a person in her hall had caught site of the insects.

"There is a problem," Perschon (sophomore-finance) said. "I was changing my sheets, and inside my blanket there was a roach."

Residents of both East and South halls said they have experienced insect problems since the beginning of the semester. Residents have reported cockroaches -- large bugs with wings -- in Cooper Hall, and bed bugs -- small, blood-sucking insects -- in Tener Hall.

Assistant Director of Housing for East, North and West Halls David Manos said a few cockroaches are unavoidable.

"In terms of the cockroaches -- it's pretty standard," he said. "They're never going to go away."

Manos explained that cockroaches live in sewer drains, so if the trap in the floor drains in the residence halls dry out, cockroaches can crawl out of the drains and into the dorms.

Mike Kerlin, head inspector and technician for Pest Control Innovations (PCI) Hitmen Termite and Pest Control, which came to Perschon's room to manage the roach problem, said some conditions on campus are comfortable for roaches.

"American cockroaches are institutional bugs -- they breed in high temperature, high humidity areas," he said. "Steam tunnels travel under this campus, so you're going to have roaches."

Alyssa Douty (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) is a first-floor resident of Cooper who said she had a cockroach in her room about a month ago, but she doesn't think anyone exterminated the room.

Douty said her roommate found the roach in Douty's closet.

"[My roommate] said it was big," she said, adding that she thinks several others on her dorm floor had roaches.

Despite complaints of residents, Housing and Residence Life employees said there is no issue.

"We have no significant problem," said Chad Henning, assistant director of Housing for South and Pollock Halls.

South Halls Residence Association President Philip Yen also said that, from what he understands, there is no problem.

"...Either it has not yet been reported to ResLife, or ResLife has already taken care of it," he said. "So none of the issues are reoccurring. So I'm pretty sure that everything should be fine."

Thus far, Kerlin said he has been to the fourth floor of Cooper Hall twice recently to eliminate roaches, but he would not comment on how many times in total that he has had to manage roaches in South. He added that he has also gone to West Halls for roaches.

PCI uses Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to clear out the roaches, which Kerlin said is "the least toxic method."

IPM involves eliminating food and garbage. Residents do not have to leave their rooms. Chemical sprays are used only if the problem cannot be controlled.

If roaches keep appearing in Cooper, Kerlin recommends managing the adjacent area like the recycling bin area, which would entail clearing the area of any food and waste. This IPM would not require residents to leave their rooms, nor would it require managing the entire building.

A new bug problem has also cropped up this year -- bed bugs.

On Sept. 18, bed bugs were discovered in a sixth-floor room of Tener Hall. The two roommates said they complained of bug bites to Housing, and Housing subsequently contacted PCI to exterminate.

"We treated the room and did a thorough inspection. We've done follow-up treatments. We've inspected rooms around [the affected sixth-floor room]..." Tracy Walker, assistant manager of East Halls Housing, said. "We did do preventative treatments of rooms right beside [the affected room], too."

Kerlin said he had been to East Halls twice for the one bedbug incident.

The girls moved out of their room and into another dormitory days after the bugs were discovered because, as Walker said, "they were pretty uncomfortable with the situation."

Walker said there have been no further instances of bed bugs since then.

"We just quarantined everything," Manos said. "We inspected everything before it was moved."

University Health Services nurse practitioner Nora Maginnis said she has seen a couple of patients with bedbug bites.

"[Bedbug bites] look like any other insect bites, sort of like mosquito bites -- very itchy," she said. "You can't tell it's a bedbug bite."

Bed bugs are not known to transfer disease, Kerlin explained.

"It's a rare condition, a rare instance... with an influx of people like you have up here, it can be a problem," he said.