When College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Joanna Kubik needed a loveseat for her living room, she didn't head for a furniture store or consignment shop. Instead, she took it from the dumpster behind her Commonwealth Avenue apartment.
"I sprayed some Febreze on it and it's as good as new," she said.
Bur according to Juan Gonzalez, a director at the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation, Kubik could have brought home some unwanted guests.
The piles of dressers, desks, couches and chairs that line the streets in Allston-Brighton during fall move-in can often harbor bedbugs, which many residents unwittingly invite into their homes.
The parasites - which are about one-fourth of an inch long and feed on human blood - have infested about 61 sites in the neighborhood since 2001, Gonzalez said.
Infestations tend to increase around September because of the large amount of discarded furniture on curbsides, he said. Many people - both students and year-round residents - hit the streets during September move-in to claim abandoned furniture.
"There's a mattress on the street that may look really, really nice but may have bedbugs in different stages," Gonzalez said.
Taking the items to other apartments leads to new infestations, Gonzalez said, and September scavengers often come from other areas to claim furniture incoming students throw out.
Gonzalez said this year he saw two men from Everett - a city just north of Boston - walking through Allston with a grocery cart and picking and choosing items from trash. He also heard rumors that used furniture dealers had been picking up pieces from the curbs and reselling them.
"The practice is very, very risky," he said.
To help prevent further infestations, Gonzalez and a group of 20 volunteers from the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation conducted a neighborhood sweep last Wednesday. The volunteers placed warning stickers on abandoned furniture, handed out pamphlets and spoke with residents about the hazards of bedbugs.
Gonzalez said the amount of trash on the street this year was "incredible," and that volunteers said it was the worst year they had seen recently.
"I hope we made an impact," he said.
Gonzalez said the best way to prevent an infestation is to avoid bringing furniture in from the street - even non-upholstered items that may seem safe.
"If the infestation is severe, the bedbugs could be anywhere," he said, including dressers, television covers and books.
He also recommended students ask their landlords about previous infestations and be sure to check any place they plan to stay overnight for bedbug activity.
Typical signs of a bedbug infestation, in addition to rashes, include rusty or reddish spots of blood on bedclothes, as well as a sweet "buggy" odor, according to the University of Kentucky's Department of Entomology website.
Although bedbugs do not typically carry diseases, their bites can cause itching and, in some cases, allergic reactions as well as a great deal of psychological distress due to the sleep loss they cause, Gonzalez said.
"One family said they were able to sleep just one or two hours per day," he said. "Any kind of sensation that something may be crawling on their skin may wake them up."
Eliminating bedbugs typically requires help from a professional exterminator, Gonzalez said. Exterminators must spray the site to kill the bugs in all of their stages. Residents must also vacuum their floors frequently and wash clothing and fabrics in hot water in order to kill the bugs and their eggs.
However, the problem is preventable - provided students and residents do their best to refrain from scavenging.
"It's better to go to any kind of store rather than dealing with an infestation," Gonzalez said.
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