Fight against bedbugs in public housing continues – Yahoo News

May 16Bedbug infestations at public housing properties managed by Meadville Housing Authority are down significantly since last fall but will likely continue as "a minor problem" as long as tenants spread the pests to one another through visits, an agency official told board members last week.

A Holland Towers resident, meanwhile, told the board that any level of bedbugs is unsettling and argued that the intractability of the problem stems from specific tenants using common areas, not from general visitation patterns.

In a monthly update on insect treatments, Executive Director Vanessa Rockovich told the board that 12 units at Holland Towers were being treated for bedbugs and two were being treated for roaches. At William Gill Commons, two units were being treated for bedbugs and five for roaches. The total number of units being treated was up slightly at both facilities from the previous month up from 12 at Holland Towers and from six at Gill Commons.

"That's where we're at," Rockovich told board members, staff and about seven audience members assembled inside the Holland Towers community room. The slight increase, Rockovich suggested, was likely driven by tenants whose units are free of bedbugs visiting an infested unit, leading to additional spread or re-infestation.

"With that occurring, that's going to keep things going," Roockovich said. "Until they kind of quit bouncing and sharing items from each other's apartments, we're probably still going to have a minor problem, but it's a lot better than it was."

A November update on the infestations revealed that 39 of 132 Holland Towers units and 41 of 100 Gill Commons apartments were being treated. Rockovich told the authority board then that nearly $30,000 had been spent over a six-month period on extermination efforts at Holland Towers and Gill Commons.

The pest problems were among several factors cited by a group of more than 10 Holland Towers residents who protested in front of the building before the authority's October meeting.

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By February, the number of units undergoing treatment at Holland Towers had dropped to 19, with 13 being treated for bedbugs. At Gill Commons, no units were being treated for bedbugs and 12 were being treated for roaches.

But while the problem has been reduced in terms of overall units, the presence of pests has persisted with bedbugs in particular the source of frustration, even for residents who do not have them in their units.

Holland Towers resident Darlah Egger told board members she had recently spotted a bedbug in an elevator rug. She removed the insect and the rug and sanitized the entire elevator herself, she said.

"It's stressful," Egger said of the experience. "My anxiety at getting off the elevator, finding the bedbug it's terrible."

Rather than tenant visitations among units, Egger said the continued presence of bedbugs could be traced in large part to a few tenants in particular. After office staff members leave the building at the end of the workday, she said, these tenants frequently occupy the building's common area in the ground-floor lobby, use the elevator and go to floors throughout the building, increasing the chances of bedbugs being spread beyond the already-infested units..

"This is very frustrating for me living here when I do everything I can not to get them," Egger said.

Rockovich said she would consider removing the rugs from the building's elevators. She also said that extensive renovations planned for later this year at Holland Towers might give staff a better chance to attack the problem.

"I would like it to be totally gone," she said. "Maybe someday."

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .

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Fight against bedbugs in public housing continues - Yahoo News