My library just had bedbugs. Can I keep checking out books?

September 28, 2015 5:45 PM

I like to check out books from my local library branch every week. This weekend, they were closed, with a sign on the door explaining that they were being treated for bedbugs. I'm not sure why kind of treatment they used. How likely is it that the books are now safe to check out? Should I go buy a book at the bookstore instead?
posted by three_red_balloons to Science & Nature (8 answers total)

Did you try calling them up and asking them? I can't imagine they would be very hesitant to reassure you. Why not ask them what technique was used, then look up the risks yourself?

They probably called professionals to deal with it, so it should be pretty safe.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:10 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well I mean, what are you going to do, go to the library that hasn't been treated for bedbugs?

If you didn't get bedbugs from them before they were actively treating for bedbugs, it's even surer now that the books do not have bedbugs.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 7:35 PM on September 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

I had bedbugs once. I did find carcasses in my books.

That said, I think you can check out books. Just put them in a separate shopping bag and thoroughly shake out any books you check out before bringing them into the house.

Definitely ask how they treated.
posted by brookeb at 7:38 PM on September 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

You can read up on what libraries do in general to deal with bedbugs. Bedbugs are a mess in your home but they are pretty treatable in a place where you can take out all the furniture and have it treated and run bug-sniffing dogs through the place. If it were me I'd call the librarian to ask what their protocol is and what they are doing to treat the place, but I would also assume they were handling it and I'd go back. Libraries are very very cautious about this sort of thing because it's a PR disaster. Many large library systems that you have heard of have successfully treated bedbug issues.
posted by jessamyn at 7:38 PM on September 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Just to add to what Jessamyn said, my mother is a children's librarian and her department had a few books with bedbugs some years ago. Dogs were brought in to sniff them out and the bedbugs were neutralized. At no point during the procedure did my mother's stack of one hundred some-odd books become reason for alarm, nor was it quelled. If the library put up the sign informing patrons of the issue, they are certainly expecting calls, and so if you'd like to know more details, call them. That said, the chances that the treatment was ineffective and that you happen to check out the contaminated book that got away strike me as fairly slim.
posted by lunch at 8:47 PM on September 28, 2015

Whatever you do, don't store these books in your bedroom. Read them in a different room.
posted by kinoeye at 10:53 PM on September 28, 2015

I used to work as a buyer for a used book store, and bug infestation (it's a dirty, often gross business) of various kinds is something I looked for and occasionally dealt with. Open the books, page through them, and look along the edges of the pages where they meet the spine, keeping an eye out for adults or nymphs. if it's a book with an open spine, tent the pages, and look quickly inside with a penlight for the same.

Anecdata, but: I worked in some *disgusting* houses with all kinds of vermin and never once, in over three years of buying books daily, found bedbugs in a book or had any hitch a ride back to the store or home via them (roaches and silverfish, though, are another story entirely).
posted by ryanshepard at 7:00 AM on September 29, 2015

You might consider putting library books in the freezer to kill any potential bugs, just in case. Unfortunately research says you need to leave them the freezer for 4 days or so to be sure.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 11:24 AM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]