Flea gone: Few Quad wall reconstructed, confirmed absence of fleas

The second semester returns many students to campus from abroad, but some notable residents have finally been evicted: the Few fleas. 

Fleas first appeared in the first-floor bathrooms of Few GG dorms in October 2019 and continued to persevere for months through multiple rounds of treatment. During Winter Break, maintenance staff entered the wall between GG101T and GG109 to confirm the extermination of all fleas as a “precautionary measure,” wrote Jordan Viars, residence coordinator for Few Quad, in a January email to Few residents obtained by The Chronicle.

After reconstructing the wall, facilities officially reopened GG101T. As Viars put it in the email, “the on-going flea issue in GG 1st floor has come to an end.”

During Fall 2019, bathrooms and individual rooms were administered with various means of pest control, and some affected students were provided the opportunity to move to dorms in Edens during chemical treatment. Still, through December, one bathroom, GG101T, remained closed. 

Viars asked residents to alert Housing and Residential Life if fleas reemerge. Still, he reminded them that residents have not reported flea activity since December.

This is not the first health issue for on campus residents in recent years. Concurrently with part of the flea infestation, an opossum roamed the air ducts of Few GG from at least September 2019 through November 2019, as HRL tried to remove it with a cage. On East Campus, Bassett and Alspaugh residents noticed excessive mold growing in their own rooms, in common rooms and on air conditioners. At least one resident contracted bronchitis. 

Few also had a fire in December 2017, along with a fire in Edens Quad in February 2018.