Professors are overrun with
swarming box elder beetles and
stink bugs that have infested the
Penn Hall offices, and caused a
distraction in the classrooms during
the autumn months.
Penn Hall has a perennial bug
problem in the fall season that
causes frustration and disgust
among some faculty and students.
Once the weather starts to cool
down, box elder beetles come
pouring into Penn Hall faculty
offices by the dozens on unusually
warm days.
Language and literature
Professor Erangee Kumarage has
a first-floor Penn Hall office on
and she described her problems
with the infestation. “I’ve had this
problem every year around this
time for the last four years I’ve
been here. They came out in
what seemed to be in the hundreds
when the custodian sprayed
the radiator with a cleaning product.
It looked like a scene from an
Alfred Hitchcock movie.”
These bugs might be getting in
through the ventilation, but they
haven’t stayed there. Kumarage
said, “They mostly stick to the
window, but they also nest in big
clumps inside the hem of the curtains
and gather behind pictures.
Sometimes they fly around.”
The problem has not been isolated
to the first floor either.
Professor Sherry Eichert has asecond-floor office and has encountered
the same problems. “.
I had a couple of bad days, a few
weeks ago, when swarming lady
bugs, stinkbugs, and box elder
beetles invaded my office.” When
asked how often this occurs,
Eichert said that it happens several
times a semester.
The insects don’t have a strict
preference for instructors’ offices;
they have been known to invade
classrooms as well. “Several instructors
have had to temporarily
change classrooms in order to escape
the nuisance in class,” said
Eichert. One student reported that
the trailers behind Penn Hall are
especially vulnerable to the box
elder beetle invasion.
Physical Plant staff have tried to
fight the autumn onslaught, but
maintenance has their work cut
out for them. “Last year they vacuumed
my office at least five
times. The union also took this
issue up last year, so many people
must have complained,” said Kumarage.
The nuisance doesn’t stop at the
doors of Penn Hall. Eichert said,
“One of the concerns is that they
will take the bugs home in their
book bags or on their clothing.”
Though not easy, the problem
will hopefully be solved soon so
that professors and classrooms
aren’t overrun with insects.