BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) - The USS Connecticut, one of the most elite submarines in the Navy, is beset with a bed bug infestation. Efforts to quell the infestation on board the vessel, moored at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, are ongoing, a Navy spokeswoman confirmed.
Navy entomologists found the insects in the perforated bulkheads between bunks on board the Seawolf-class submarine, which carries a crew of more than 100 men.
The Navy said the bed bugs were only discovered recently. But several family members of sailors told the Kitsap Sun they believe the infestation has been a problem for a year.
Cmdr. Cindy Fields, spokeswoman of the Navy Pacific Fleet’s submarine force, said bed bugs were first reported in December and only on Feb. 19 did Navy entomologists find them on board. Inspections for bed bugs on the boat have continued daily since then, Fields said.
When the bed bugs were reported in December, Fields said that the entomologists from Naval Hospital Bremerton “found no indication of bed bugs on more than one occasion.”
“Navy criteria for treating submarines or ships requires physical presence of bed bugs to establish existence,” she said.
But sailors’ families told the Kitsap Sun that efforts to rid the boat of bud bugs have yet to be successful. When treatments for the bed bugs began, crewmembers at times slept in vehicles outside the submarine until a temporary structure was opened near Connecticut’s mooring area, one family said. They also feared sailors required to sleep on board could be bringing home bed bugs to their families.
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