Bed bug invasion in NJ apartment complex

  Eyewitness News

(New Jersey - WABC, May 22, 2007) (WABC) -- The health department is investigating a bed bug invasion at an apartment complex in New Jersey.

Residents at the Hilltop Apartments on Dayton Drive say they've been battling bed bugs for years.

Eyewitness News reporter Carolina Tarazona talked to the residents to find out just how bad things are.

"They're small like cockroach size ...don't know what they call it here," said resident Pragnesh Patel.

They're called bed bugs. Here, they're on the wall during the day and in their beds at night.

Pragnesh Pakel has two small kids. They moved their mattress's to the hallway because their scared to sleep in their rooms.

''It's come at the nighttime...take out the blood," Pragnesh said.

We found one by the door, another next to the ceiling in one man's second floor apartment.

''Also daytime they come out ... '' said resident Amallad Sate.

One woman we talked to lives in the basement of the Hilltop Estates in Edison. She showed us her most recent bed bug bite. It left a scar.

Many residents in this complex on Dayton Drive complain of the same problem. They say management fumigates but not often.

But Raphael Rios from Middlesex Management, who cares for these apartments, says the residents need to do much more on their part if they want the problem to disappear.

''They have to vacuum, they have to take everything off the walls ... wash their clothes in hot water," Raphael said.

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