Oct 26, 2006 12:07 am US/Eastern
N.J. Woman Fighting Painful War With Bed Bugs
Lia Battista Tells CBS 2 Of Nightmare With Bloodsuckers
by Christine Sloan
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (CBS) ―
Lia Battista said Wednesday she's captured and bagged dozens of bed bugs from her apartment, bed bugs that have been biting her feet and shoulders.
"This is now healing," she said while pointing to about six bites on the bottom of her foot.
Then she pointed to her shoulders.
"These are actually new bites," she said.
Battista has over 50 bite marks on her body.
"I had them on my torso, feet, the back of my hands, my eyelids," Battista said. "Underneath my breast, arm and they itch terribly."
Battista said she tries not to spend the night in her apartment on North Ridgewood in South Orange, where the landlord confirms at least three other units are infested.
"I've been sleeping with my earplugs in because I don't know where they're going to end up and I don't know the health ramifications are," she said. "I'm completely freaked out by it."
Battista and her neighbor have thrown out their mattresses.
They were covered with dark spots, the dried excrement's of the bugs and the bugs themselves.
"The landlord himself won't get on the phone so I speak to a representative. She said they're not responsible and it's a courtesy they're sending an exterminator to take care of this," Battista said.
CBS 2 pressed the landlord, Al Lownestein, for answers.
He declined an on-camera interview but said exterminators have sprayed the units twice and promises the bugs will be purged by the end of the month.
"It's gotten to be an epidemic," said Stuart Aust, who owns his own pest control company.
He said bed bug infestations are on the rise. A couple of years ago, he never got a bed bug complaint.
"Now we're getting five to 10-plus calls a day," he said.
The bloodsuckers, which can live up to a year without feeding, are carried into homes on furniture, clothing and luggage.
"When I travel and bring suitcases home, I carefully will inspect it, sometimes I'll leave the suitcases in the garage for a period of time," Aust said.
If you're going to a motel or hotel, Aust recommends thoroughly examining the room for bed bugs, in the curtains, in the seams of the mattress and in the cracks of the walls.
"We pull the bed away from the walls, they're usually behind headboards," he said.
If you think you have a bed bug infestation, call a licensed pest control company.
If you're a tenant, laws vary from county to county in each state. However, in general, landlords are obligated to keep their properties free of pests.
Pest control operators recommend washing everything in hot water, even the walls, and vacuuming every piece of molding.
Interestingly, bed bugs give off a sweet, pungent smell. That's usually a sign you may have an infestation.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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