It's easy for UNM's Bugman to say when he gets the most complaints about bugs on campus - it's right now.
At the end of the spring semester, the bugs on campus start getting active, he said. They stay active through the summer, but with less people around, he said there's less concern.
Richard Fagerlund is UNM's Integrated Pest Management Technician, but he prefers to be known as the Bugman. The Bugman takes a firm stance against pesticides on campus.
"I never spray," Fagerlund said. "That's called 'spray and pray,' where you spray chemicals and you pray that they do something."
With about 25,000 people on campus, he said there is a pretty good chance that some of them are allergic to the chemicals. He would rather not take that chance.
Fagerlund said pesticide companies that use chemicals are merely putting on a show.
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"They come to your house or business or whatever, and they spray the baseboards," he said. "Bugs don't live on baseboards. Those guys don't want to kill the bugs because they want repeat business. I know all the secrets they use."
Instead of chemicals, Fagerlund uses bait stations and Niban bait, which is made from boric acid. Though these methods don't work as quickly as pesticides - they usually take anywhere from three days to a week to have noticeable effects - Fagerlund said they get the job done.
"It's better than making everybody sick," he said.
The bait he uses lasts from six to eight months.
Fagerlund has to use pesticides sometimes, primarily in the dorm trash rooms. No matter what, he said he always prefers non-toxic methods of pest control. Still, Fagerlund said he can't perform miracles.
"I've seen people who've got more groceries in their desk than in a supermarket," he said. "You can't have food in your desk and expect not to have ants."
He said there are only two ways for roaches to get into the dorms - the drains and the doors. Fagerlund suggests dorm occupants without drain covers fill Ziplock bags with water and put them over the drains.
But Lisa Romero, a resident adviser in the Student Residence Center, said keeping pests away is also about student responsibility.
"If people just kept their apartments clean, they wouldn't have problems," she said. "We're all adults. I think you should be able to clean up after yourself."
Romero said messy dorm rooms provide warmth, food and water to bugs. She gets calls about bugs from dorm residents mainly during this time of year, she said.
"A lot of times, it's just exaggerated," she said. "They call in and they say there's hundreds, but there's like two or three."
Isolated problems with bugs crop up in the fall, Romero said, in rooms that haven't been occupied.
"If your room hasn't been lived in the summer before, that's when they kind of like lay eggs," she said. "If there's people around to keep it clean, it's not a problem. But if not, that's when they get really bad and really big."
Fagerlund said there aren't any really dangerous bugs on campus except for black widows. But, he said, nobody has ever been bitten by a black widow on campus as far as he knows.
Sometimes, Fagerlund said, bees will swarm on campus.
"A couple thousand bees will land on a wall or something," he said. "They're not dangerous. We just put some yellow caution tape around them until they go. Or, if it's really bad, we call a bee keeper."
