Makerere students doing recess have vowed to protest the serious infestation of Halls of Residence with bedbugs.
Notifications reaching us show that Students residing in Mitchell Hall for recess, most of whom are non-residents that have been enjoying comfort in Hostels and at home are having sleepless nights over what some have termed as “vampire nights” of their lives.
The bedbug challenge is an age old issue in Uganda’s oldest institution of higher learning and intel suggests that the challenge is currently being faced by some Hostels as well.
Whenever Students report back to Campus, every hall of residence is always pervaded by unpleasant scents of all sorts of parasite killer fumes.
When the UPDF threatened to eradicate the sturbbon beings, sighs of relief filled most Makerereans but it didnt come to pass as the army men never showed up in any part of the Campus to tackle the aforementioned problem.
Bedbugs are often more red in color after feeding. They are attracted by warmth, and they generally feed during the night, often just before dawn. They tend to feed every five to 10 days, though they can survive without feeding for several months. Bedbugs pierce the skin and inject saliva that contains anesthetics and anticoagulants into the host, which often make their bites painless initially. After feeding on the host’s blood for several minutes, bedbugs will retreat back to their hiding place. They will generally try to remain within close range of their warm-blooded host. Affected individuals may feel and see the consequences of the bedbug bite afterward, though many individuals will not develop any physical signs of a bite. Bedbugs do not transmit human diseases.
The students doing recess have intimated to us that all efforts to reach Hall administration on any possible solutions has been futile as they were told to handle the situation on their own.
Now most of them have resorted to witch-hunting the bugs which leaves them up during the greater part of the night as it is scientifically proven that the bedbugs are most lethal during the darkness of night times.
