Bedbugs bedeviling Baltimore County library branch in Dundalk

Bedbugs like romance — also thrillers, true crime, biographies, historical fiction and even Young Adult novels. These bibliophile bugs will take to just about anything, though they prefer hardcovers.

Who knew that America’s loathed pests were booklovers?

As long as we have contended with bedbugs, we’ve dealt with these insidious pests migrating to the books on our nightstands. Warm, dark spaces, with spines to anchor cover jackets perfect for hiding? They get so comfortable they don’t want to leave. Thus, they hitchhike in books between homes, bookstores and, of course, libraries.

The North Point branch of the Baltimore County Public Library has seen bedbugs on and off over the years, as many libraries do. Library associations have long educated members on how to get rid of them.

But the bedbugs that a patron at North Point felt crawling on him in early October signified more than the usual problem.

The customer saw bugs on the wall, according to Anita Bass, president of IAM Local 4538, which represents county library workers. Library employees reported that exterminators didn’t treat the problem for 48 hours, while protocol dictates spraying right away.

A North Point staffer who asked not to be named because they were told not to speak to the news media described the extent of the problem.

“Probably it’s been in the last several months we have been seeing them in our branch on a very regular basis. It went from every other month to every month and now it’s two or three times a month,” they said. “We had them in our personal staff area. We have had them crawling from a computer onto a staffer’s arm. We got bedbug spray for our cars.”

Bass said library officials did not act with urgency to protect the staff and community at the airy, maritime-themed branch in Dundalk.

Library spokeswoman Emily Williamson disagreed, saying that the system acted swiftly at North Point, and that the problem was not widespread.

“While we have not experienced an infestation, we have had occasional sightings in specific areas of the building such as our book return room,” she said. “When we are alerted to a bedbug sighting, we act as quickly as possible to minimize impact on customers and staff.”

Yet two North Point staffers — Morgana Schuirmann and Michael Barron — attended the library’s October board meeting to say that the bedbugs were having a “negative impact” on staff, according to minutes. Board members seemed unaware of the problem’s breadth.

When James Cooke, the library’s chief operations officer, explained that delays sometimes occur in scheduling remediation with pest control companies, board president Yara Cheikh pressed him on why that was.

“Ms. Cheikh encouraged Mr. Cooke to make sure these issues are expedited as much as possible,” according to the minutes.

Cheikh declined to comment further. She was concerned enough after the meeting, though, to visit North Point to talk to staffers about the problem, according to staffers familiar with her visit.

Schliemann and Barron could not be reached for additional comment.

Other board members asked Cooke if the pest control operators had specific protocols for libraries, which have book drops that can become bug vectors. Cooke responded that the library’s property managers “maintain an ongoing dialog with the vendor and implement new methods when available.”

Treatments for bedbugs include thorough cleaning, spraying insecticides, and applying extreme heat or cold to kill them and prevent them from reproducing. At home, place books in a sealed plastic bag and freeze them for a few days.

The North Point library is one of the few in the system that also has a “bedbug oven” to “cook” the books and remove bugs, Williamson said. She called these “preventive and proactive measures.”

As soon as the library management learns of the problem, Williamson said, “we immediately begin work with Baltimore County Property Management and their pest control contractors to identify the problem, and to propose and execute a timely and appropriate treatment or treatments.”

County spokesman Dakarai Turner said library staff requested additional preventative measures at the North Point branch in the last few months, including bed bug monitors, which help determine where bed bugs may have traveled. Turner said the measures include an additional monthly inspection of North Point branch.

Maryland libraries are no stranger to bedbugs, or sharing the information with the public when they’re found.

The Urbana library in Frederick, the Cambridge library in Dorchester County, and four libraries in Caroline County all have closed at times over the past 15 years because of bedbugs. Patrons were alerted through social media and news reports.

That was not the case with North Point. The county library system’s Facebook page did not announce that the library was closed Oct. 11 through 13 because exterminators were treating the branch for bedbugs. All it said was that all the libraries would be closed Oct. 13 for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

While county officials said the problem falls short of an infestation, the staffer said it felt like one to her and others there.

Turner said libraries are closed during treatment and for four hours after, but sometimes the exterminators can spray when the buildings are closed, minimizing disruptions.

When library CEO Sonia Alcántara-Antoine visited North Point in September, staff asked her to investigate a grant program to treat bedbugs in the surrounding community, according to the staffer who was present. Her response, they said, was that bedbugs are a system-wide occasional nuisance, and they were handling it as best they could.

Alcántara-Antoine and the library system parted ways last week after a backlash over her decision to fire 14 part-time librarians shortly before Thanksgiving, and then quickly reinstate them.

The North Point closed Dec. 16 and will remain closed until Dec. 29, but not because of bedbugs. Workers fixing the HVAC system found undisturbed asbestos and have to remediate it before the library can reopen.