LEWISTON — It’s only a matter of time before bedbugs crawl into Lewiston and Auburn schools, say both cities’ superintendents.

The pest is too prominent and too egalitarian — like junk mail in a mailbox — to spare schools or other places where folks gather, they said.

“We suspect it won’t be long before we share in the bedbug experience,” said Tom Morrill, Auburn’s superintendent of schools.

On Tuesday, Sabattus Primary School began two days of cleaning to rid the school of two small infestations.

It likely became the first public school in the state to close its doors due to bedbugs, said David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education.

“I know of no others,” he said.

The Department of Education is at work on a protocol for dealing with the biting critters.

“We are working on that in conjunction with the Maine Centers for Disease Control and the Maine Board of Pesticides Control,” Connerty-Marin said. “We’re working quickly.”

Until the protocol is released, most schools will likely work from existing pest management plans.

Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque has contacted state officials since a single student — a boy at an undisclosed Lewiston school — was discovered with bedbugs.

There was no infestation there, Levesque said.

“We’ve alerted our cleaning crews to be on the lookout,” he said. However, he believes the bugs will likely appear in schools as long as they continue to be a public nuisance.

Morrill said he, like Levesque, had alerted maintenance crews.

“We’re aggressively cleaning,” Morrill said.

Bedbug infestations can happen almost anywhere where people are present, officials said. They seem to thrive as easily in clean places as dirty ones. It’s not just homes or schools. Nationally, hotels, business offices and movie theaters have been infestation sites.

The public libraries in Lewiston and Auburn are watching for bedbugs but had yet to discover them, librarians said.

Lynn Lockwood, director of the Auburn Public Library, said she planned to attend an informational meeting about bedbugs on Oct. 13, hosted by the Auburn Housing Authority and the city of Auburn.

“I feel like I need to learn more,” she said.

The 9 a.m. meeting at the Auburn Esplanade is open to the public, though space is limited. Call 784-7351 for more information.

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LEWISTON