A bedbug infestation at a residence at the University of Alberta forced students to pack up their belongings Wednesday in preparation for a fumigation over the next two weekends.

The bugs were first spotted in two apartments in the Newton Place student residence in late June.

Building management will fumigate the entire building in order to aggressively treat the problem, meaning approximately 325 students will have to scrub their units, wash and pack up all their clothes and move furniture.

"My first reaction was not really good, because right now I am so busy with my papers, in my research," said Guadalupe Maldonado, who is a PhD student.

"It's just a hassle. We work right now full-time," said student Luis Vasquez who has a summer job. "And now we are going to have to pretty much pack everything, wrap it in plastic as if we were going to move out from the apartment."

Even though the infestation hasn't spread very far, the university decided to fumigate the entire building, given how persistent bedbug infestations can be, said Doug Dawson, executive director of ancillary services at the University of Alberta, which is in charge of running student residences.

"In order to ensure that we're dealing effectively with it, our contractor and our residence services staff have agreed that the most effective treatment is to treat the whole building," he said.

Dawson said students have been told to stay out of their units for four hours following the treatment. He's not recommending students stay overnight somewhere else because they want to contain the infestation.

"That's not desirable because of course we'd have to treat the place where we send them," he said. "We want to contain the circumstance to the extent possible."

Newton Place has one- and two-bedroom unfurnished apartments that make up a total of 320 units.

Residents face a $150 fine if they don't comply with the cleanup.

Building management is letting residents use the washers and dryers for free to help with the cleanup, something Luis Vasquez discovered last week before he knew the reason why.

"I was like, whoa, that's good," he said, thinking free laundry was a new perk for residents.

He changed his reaction after he received notice about the upcoming fumigation.

"Its nothing positive," he said, laughing.