Palo Alto library closed after bed bugs found on chairs

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- A popular Palo Alto library has been closed after bed bugs were discovered inside the building.

The Mitchell Park Library on Middlefield Road is where the pests turned up, but the impact goes beyond this library.

The library will remain closed until Sunday, so a pest control company can take care of the problem.

Signs have been posted around the building to let people know about the library closure.

Library employees said a patron alerted them about the pests after finding them on two chairs on the first floor of the library.

Bed bugs are known to be human parasites that cluster around beds or chairs.

The area where the bed bugs were found has been cordoned off.

Palo Alto city spokesperson Claudia Keith said it's actually not uncommon to find bed bugs at libraries since their books are circulated throughout a wide region. "There might be different ways that any kind of bed bugs may have come into the library. All of our other branches are open and so we'll be having dogs go in after we get Mitchell Park Library open to go in and sniff for bed bugs," Keith said.

"It's a very clean facility and I'm very happy I come here at least three times a week," Palo Alto resident Gale Parness said.

A lot of people ABC7 News spoke with were surprised to hear about bed bugs situation because they said the library is a clean facility.

There is a pop-up library set up in the meantime for people to go to until the problem is resolved.

The pest control company will return to the library in a week to make sure the problem is solved.