Family faces public housing eviction because of bedbugs

The family of seven is accused of not doing enough to keep bedbugs and cockroaches out of their place. Boston Housing Authority says it's sent exterminators to the unit up to 10 times in the past year. (Boston Herald)

Comments

[Jack]

"St. Germain’s husband, a volunteer pastor who is out of work, used his car keys to squish tiny bugs crawling up the walls."

Wow, he has time to volunteer but no time to get a job... must be nice!

[Howie Feltersnatch]

Sleep tight,
Don't let the bedbugs bite.
No, really, don't let them bite or we'll evict you.

[Joe]

10 times doesn't sound all that strange -- one of my co-workers got infected with bed bugs after having made an trip and staying in a hotel. It took 4 ? 5 ? sprayings before they got rid of the bed bugs. (and they replaced their matress after the first spraying, only to have it re-infested). And of course, the guarantee on the spraying was 30 days -- it'd take about 5 weeks for the signs to appear again ... so they paid at least 3 times. (the last one, they just called at day 28, to get it re-sprayed, before there was a chance for them to take hold again).

And when I lived in an apartment, because I was next to the garbage chute, they'd spray extra-heavy in the chute, driving cockroaches into my apartment. I never saw the damned things except for the week or two after the spraying.

[Natalie]

It isn't really that hard to keep bugs out of your house. I've had apartment neighbors have roaches and they don't bother coming into my apartment. The only explaination for this is these people are dirty.

[SwarthyTroll]

Volunteer pastor?

Did he try to get a job at Vandelay Industries too?

[pdg]

Natalie - you said "It isn't really that hard to keep bugs out of your house."
I have no experience with anything like this - how would it be easy in a situation like this? This is public housing......

[SwarthyTroll]

Now that the infestation of poor people are gone, the bugs can get back to living their lives.

[TomW]

In an effort to make us sit up and bark about mean old government housing people picking on the poor dirty people, the writer sort of wanted us to not pay too much attention the the dude's occupation of volunteer pastor. How does one live and provide for his family as an out of work volunteer pastor? Oh yeah, on the tax payer thats how. The people won't cooperate with the attempts to exterminate their bugs, then throw them the hell out. Maybe then they could move on to some place where Mister can find a church full of volunteer worshipers and they can live happily ever after.

[Phranqlin]

If your apartment building is full of people who are filthy slobs, you'll share their roach problem. One of my brothers once lived in a building like this. His apartment wasn't dirty, but there were so many roaches in the building that they literally boiled up out of cracks in the floor.

Also, bed bugs are making a big comeback. They'll hitchhike in luggage or used furniture and are incredibly hard to eradicate once they're established.

[ReginaFilangee]

Natalie, bed bugs are MUCH more difficult to eradicate than cockroaches or other pests. It has nothing to do with being 'filthy.'

After having seen several of those 20/20-like news shows about their reemergence as a problem even in upscale hotels and neighborhoods several months ago, the first thing I did when I checked into a hotel on a business trip the very next week was to check all the places they said to, before I even brought my luggage in. If I had seen just one, I'da been outta there!

Since I live out in the country, we occassionally get little bugs inside the house...no biggie. You can't avoid it. But when I got back from that trip and started seeing new bugs around my computer desk that I'd never seen before, I immediately went online to look for a pic. Thank God, that's not what they were. But I was a little freaked for a bit.

[Swangirl]

Regina, those 20/20 shows on bedbugs in hotels always freak me out! I have a friend who used to work in hotel/restaurant management and she brings her own sheets if she stays in a hotel.