The bed bugs bite apt. residents

COATESVILLE, Pa - October 28, 2008 - (WPVI) -- Senior citizens living at a Coatesville apartment building have a hard time sleeping tight.

That's because the bed bugs truly bite.

The landmark Coatesville Towers apartment building in the heart of downtown has been evacuated, except for the exterminators.

The 100 elderly residents are out of there because of an infestation of bedbugs.

Al Burgess is one of many victims who's been bitten in recent weeks.

"You can't hardly sleep at night, " Burgess said. "But, it's got to be done, so we have to go through what we have to go through."

Burgess is one of 23 residents evacuated to a Norristown apartment building owned by the same company until the problem is eliminated.

The balance of senior citizens resident are staying with relatives.

But those with no where to go are being well cared for.

"It's worth it, we've been taken care of very well," said apartment resident Arthur Stroman.

"These folks we brought down here didn't have anywhere to go, so where bedding them and feeding them and making them happy," said Judy Ann Turney, the AIMCO apartment manager.

Bedbugs have made a resurgence because of the reduced use of pesticides.

Bites can have no effect at all, or generate sores and allergic reactions and perhaps transmit bacteria or viruses onto open sores.

Exterminators are now hot on the case. The bedbugs will be eliminated over the next 24 hours by raising the temperature in every apartment to 140 degrees, using heaters and generators on every floor to help blow heat into each apartment, killing the existing bed bugs and the eggs they leave behind.

If all goes well the residents of the building should be able to go back home to their apartments around 7:00 Wednesday night.

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