Bedbugs found in Belk store at Berkeley Mall
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on June 13, 2017 7:10 AM
Full SizeBelk at Berkeley Mall has been aggressively handling a bedbug situation since a few of them were found in the store May 22.
Andy Izquierdo, vice president of communications for Belk, said there were two isolated incidents where one was found in a register location and two were found in a couch, both by store employees.
"We are being aggressive in extermination with Terminix," he said. "Terminix has been out to the store six times in those two specific areas for treatment and has also done preventive treatment for the entire store."
As an added measure, Terminix also took its canine unit to the store. The dogs are trained specifically to find bedbug activity.
Izquierdo said the couch where the bedbugs were found was disposed of immediately.
Terminix was at Belk again last week for a post-treatment inspection.
"The inspector said there were no signs of live bedbug activity, and there hasn't been for more than a week," Izquierdo said.
He said Belk has had no complaints of bedbugs from its customers. But if anyone has a concern, he or she should contact Belk's manager.
"We have been in communication all along with our associates," Izquierdo said. "Everything is perfectly safe. But we want to be there for our associates and customers and to have open discussions with them."
He said Terminix will continue to re-inspect Belk to make sure there are no more bedbugs.
"We feel good that the issue has been addressed and the cases of this were really isolated," Izquierdo said.