Books & bedbugs returned to library in Frederick County

URBANA, Md. - Urbana’s library is the pride of eight branches in Frederick County.

“We’re an incredibly busy system. We get over 100,000 people a month."

But news of bedbugs turning up in the book return bin may give some parents, like Erin Clagett, pause before coming back too soon.

"(It) makes me a little nervous because the three of them were just in story time rolling around on the rug and playing with all the different things that were in there," said Clagett who learned of the bugs as she and her children left the building.

No one may have noticed the oversized lady bug on the wall above the book racks, the “Baby Bug”

book on the shelf or even the stink bugs crawling around outside the library’s windows, but that may have changed on Friday when a worker began checking books that had been dropped off overnight.

"We always inspect the materials carefully to make sure there are no ripped pages or damaged materials, and our staff member immediately recognized that there were several small bugs inside one of the books," said Elizabeth Cromwell of the Frederick County Public Libraries.

Not just any bugs.

Bedbugs.

"What exactly are bedbugs?" we asked Clagett.

"I don't really know. I guess little creatures," she replied.

Creatures or flat little reddish insects that feed on human blood.

"We immediately bagged up all the materials that were in any proximity to that book---bagged them up and removed them from the building," said Cromwell.

Fumigating the building was the easy part, but then library officials had to decide what to do with the bed bugs they already had on hand, and they came up with two options: either to freeze them or to fry them.

Well, actually they opted to bake them placing them inside the back of their delivery truck where they believe once the temperature reaches 120 degrees, no bugs, only books will survive.

"I don't want them in our house. That's all I know," said Clagett as she packed up her children in her van and drove away.

Exterminators will treat all of the county’s eight libraries, its two book mobiles and its delivery van.

A total of five bugs turned up in two books and the library has notified the patron who dropped them off.

In Baltimore City, there have been 446 reported cases of bedbugs.  That's up from 83 cases last year.

If you want to learn more on ways to prevent bedbugs and how to treat them, Baltimore City has organized a series of meetings. The first one is scheduled for next Wednesday at noon at the War Memorial Building