Bedbugs 1, Charity 0

Never underestimate the power of pests to ruin a good thing on college campuses. This week the notorious villains known as bedbugs forced Colorado State University at Fort Collins to cancel its annual Great Sofa Roundup, which allows students to donate unwanted couches to other folks.

According to the Denver Post, there was “no evidence of mass infestations” in the area. Nonetheless, the event’s organizers feared that continuing the sofa swap was just asking for trouble — annoying, blood-sucking trouble — because bedbugs love to hang out in upholstered furniture, as many colleges have discovered in recent years (see a Chronicle video).

“You can get them in nice hotels,” Jane Viste, a spokeswoman for the Larimer County Health Department, told the Post, “anywhere you don’t know exactly where the furniture came from.” For now, the future of the Great Sofa Roundup is uncertain. —Eric Hoover