Bedbug search is on at Suffolk library, nursing home

Bedbug investigations were under way at two Suffolk County sites Tuesday as exterminators began a hunt for the insects in a Riverhead library, and the state health department continued its investigation of a Smithtown nursing home.

The Riverhead Free Library was closed Tuesday after a bedbug-sniffing dog picked up the scent of the creatures in several areas of the building, officials said. No bugs were found.

Library director Lisa Jacobs said the dog was brought in following reports of bedbug infestations in other public buildings and libraries.

"We were really shocked, initially, at what the dog apparently found," she said.

When the library failed the canine sniff test, the building was closed Tuesday and will remain closed Wednesday. An exterminating firm set dry-ice - carbon dioxide - traps Tuesday and will check them today for evidence of the six-legged creatures that dine exclusively on human blood. The library's reopening hinges on the outcome of the test. It will also be closed Thursday, as scheduled, for Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, the New York State Department of Health continued its probe Tuesday of Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Smithtown.

A state health department spokesman Tuesday said a state official is interviewing the center's employees, administrators and residents, as well as inspecting the facility. The state health department oversees nursing homes in New York. After that investigation is complete, the health department will make its recommendations.

If bedbugs are present, Avalon Gardens would be in violation of state environmental health law, which stipulates that such facilities must be free of insects and rodents.

Avalon Gardens has not responded to Newsday's inquiries.

Bedbugs burrow into bedding, bed frames and crevices in walls near sleeping areas. They generally come out at night and are drawn by human body heat and the carbon dioxide emitted as a person exhales.

With Erin Geismar