A rumor of a bedbug infestation at the Jessamine County Public Library is unfounded, executive director Ron Critchfield said Monday.
Critchfield said he first heard of a supposed bedbug problem in late June when a concerned citizen showed him a picture that was circulating online of a bedbug in a DVD case supposedly procured from JCPL. While Critchfield said some bugs inevitably come through the returns, the library staff checks each item upon its return.
“There’s only a certain level of precaution that one can take, and she wanted to check to see if we were doing what is common library practice — checking the DVDs, checking the books when they’re returned — and I said, ‘Yes, we’ve done that for years,’” Critchfield said.
Still wanting to take reasonable precautions, Critchfield used a bug spray around the perimeter of the DVD stacks the same night he received the concern and then treated each shelf and DVD with an all-natural pesticide Tuesday, July 3.
But the pesticide evidently did not kill the rumor, as the library received two inquiries last week about a bug problem, and Critchfield said he heard from a local pastor Monday that churchgoers had been talking about a “bedbug infestation.”
Critchfield said the library staff has never seen a bedbug in the library. The picture of a black DVD case circulated online is the only supposed evidence that a bedbug was in JCPL, he said.
“We’ve taken reasonable precautions, and we are, in fact, proactive when we check in materials so that bugs don’t circulate, only books and other library items,” he said.
