Ever contemplate all of the extra roommates you have in your dorm — the small spider that sits in the windowsill or the earwig that managed to wiggle its way into your electronic devices? These bugs have been living with us in our homes from day one and our dorms are no different.

After speaking to Dr. Tim Craig, UMD’s Entomologist, its confirmed that the university doesn’t have a cockroach or termite problem! This is due to the climate up here in Duluth being so terribly cold all of the time.

Even though we may not have large swarms of cockroaches in our walls, we can’t escape bugs; these insects can crawl into the building incidentally at any given time Take for example the Asian ladybug, this invasive species has evolved to crawl away into cracks and crevices during the winter months — this includes our heated living spaces. Aside from being an invasive species, they don't really pose an issue to daily life in a dorm, unless they die in the window sill and become a pain to clean up.

Issues can occur is when someone brings in bed bugs. These horrible little cretins are next to impossible to get rid of due to their resistance to toxins. Unless you want to kill the bugs and yourself by overdoing pesticides, it's unlikely that you will ever get rid of them through traditional methods. Instead, exterminators have turned to heat treatment, which basically boils the room and everything in it, but this can cost around a couple of thousand dollars. It's best to avoid them all together by checking your belongings before settling down.

Lastly, it's important to touch on one of the most infamous bugs found within living spaces, spiders. These arachnids set up bases within our corners and ceilings, eating whatever crawls into their webs. Most species are harmless especially up here in Duluth, it's best to just let them be.

Living within a dorm or any building for that matter means that there will always be some kind of bug living among you. Wherever we go they will follow — in our sinks, in our beds and in our walls. They eat food scraps, skin flakes and wooden walls, so there is absolutely nothing we can do about creating a house that is bug-free. No matter what, new bugs will always incidentally enter your home. The only thing we can do is live with them and just accept that they will be our lifelong roommates.

Freeloader Roommates