Iowa State Department of Public Safety officers found themselves in the middle of a methamphetamine lab Tuesday morning after executing a search warrant to enter an apartment at 127 University Village.

John Tinker, manager of the Central Iowa Drug Task Force, said DPS officers found a man in his bathroom in the early stages of making meth.

DPS immediately called the state lab team; Tinker said the volatile chemicals posed a dangerous situation for police.

An article in The Des Moines Register on Wednesday said Rodney Backous, 41, of Ames was arrested on a drug charge. Also charged was Sally Reedholm, 38.

The Register reported that both were living in the University Village apartment, located about a half-mile north of campus.

The apartment is leased to Laurie Backous, sophomore in agricultural systems technology at ISU, who was not charged.

A school-age child also lives in the apartment but was at school when police executed the search.

Tinker said police had suspicions about the lab because of information they had received from area businesses who sold Backous and Reedholm some of the ingredients required to manufacture meth, such as ether and paint thinner.

The article in The Register said police found paint thinner, ether, acetone and sulfuric acid near a child’s red wagon on the patio of the apartment.

Tinker said the lab is the first in the Ames community that has been found in some time. He said other labs have been found in Des Moines and in Boone County.

Tinker said the number of labs found in Iowa has increased dramatically in the past year. He said last year there were about 50, and this year there have been more than 150 already found.

Tinker said meth labs pose a dangerous fire hazard and are dangerous to the surrounding apartments and houses.

He also noted the cost of cleaning and dismantling the labs.

“They cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a piece,” Tinker said.

Reedholm and Rodney Backous were jailed on charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, and child endangerment charges also are pending, according to The Register.

Neither Rodney Backous nor Reedholm are students.