Usually when we talk about kids bringing a ‘bug’ home from school, we talk about a mild illness, like a cold or stomach virus. Lice, of course, are the bring-home bug that sends chills down every parent’s spine at the mere mention.
Now, the administration of one North Carolina school is sounding the alarm that kids may bring home another kind of creepy-crawly: bedbugs.
The tiny, bitey creatures are breeding and spreading via school-issued Chromebooks, and families are being asked to return the devices and check their homes for signs of infestation.
Bugs Thrive In Electronics
The inside of your laptop is warm and dark, with lots of tiny little crevices for hiding, laying eggs, and building a home. Bugs love them.
Even worse, Terminix explains, once they get into these devices, they’re hard to eliminate. The chemicals typically used to destroy living creatures are damaging to electronics, as is the heat or cold that destroys the eggs.
The pest removal company’s only real suggestion for treating devices is:
“When bed bugs are found on items that are not needed over the course of ten months, these items can be bagged in a heavy-duty garbage bag that remains tightly sealed, and stored for at least ten months.”
The Durham County Schools’ Bedbug Problem
At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, one or more of the school-issued laptops were presumably returned with bugs setting up the house inside. The devices were all stored together in the media center over the summer and appear to have spread.
According to WRAL, parents reported concerns, and the school principal, Gloria Woods, sent an email addressing the issue and requesting that all Chromebooks be returned. The devices had been handed out at freshman orientation before the first day of school.
Bedbugs Are Skilled Hitchhikers
Bedbugs are well-known for infesting hotel rooms and hitching rides on luggage to make their way to new homes, migrating with used furniture and other materials, and, according to PestWorld, can even be picked up in office buildings or on public transportation.
Once they move in, they’re hard to evict, typically requiring all furniture and bedding to be treated, and even then, the creatures can hide in lamps, alarm clocks, and, as the Durham students and families just learned, laptops and other electronics.
What Should Parents Watch Out For?
At this point, most schools in the U.S. are sending kids home with borrowed Chromebooks. The Public Interest Research Group, which is raising other concerns about the proliferation of the devices (e-waste, sustainability, and environmental impact), reported that by 2021, 90% of high schools and 84% of elementary schools were providing the devices to every student.
That means that parents in every district should be on the lookout for any unwanted invaders traveling home on laptops. When your child’s Chromebook comes home for the first time, look it over for signs of creatures.
Look at vents and ports—any opening—for signs of bugs, such as droppings or the pests themselves. The device should look reasonably clean, and the ports should not contain detritus.
Also, watch out for unusual computer behavior: overheating and other malfunctions can be a sign that something untoward is going on inside.