WESTFIELD – A resident at Robert McGinn Apartments on 12 Alice Burke Way reported that exterminators had recently come to treat an apartment for bed bugs.
The resident, who did not wish to reveal his name, said his concern was that it seemed to be happening more often, and he was fearful that the pests were spreading in the building.
“We are trying to alleviate the problem,” said Daniel Kelly, director of the Westfield Housing Authority,(WHA) located at the same address. He said they have been dealing with them for about a year at the McGinn Apartments, and five years in the Washington House, the other high-rise apartment building managed by the WHA.
Kelly said the WHA spent $12,000 to $15,000 in the last fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) on bed bugs alone.
There are two ways to treat for bed bugs, according to Kelly. The first is to use a powder residue, which is a cheaper solution at $500 a treatment, but must be applied three times at two week intervals.
“This seems to work better for us,” Kelly said.
The other way to treat for the bugs is to heat the apartment up to 150 degrees, which also kills them, and costs $1,000 a treatment. The problem with the heat is they seem to come back, he said.
Kelly explained that the biggest problem they have is in educating the residents.
“They find some stuff at a tag sale, or on the street, and bring it into their apartments. When they find they have them (bed bugs), they drag them through the halls or throw them away,” he said.
“Dragged down the hall, it’s going to spread. Really, they should leave everything alone,” he said.
Kelly said all maintenance requests should be called into the main office, and put on the record. He said as soon as they are called, they bring in an exterminating company within 24-48 hours. They also have two people with exterminating licenses on staff.
Kelly said with the proper maintenance and extermination the problem can be resolved, but it has to be treated by a professional.
“No one should try to do it by themselves, because it’s not going to work,” he said.
“A lot of people don’t even call us. We find them in an apartment, and check the neighboring apartments, and the ones above and below,” he added. “I’m as concerned as they are.”
“It’s an ongoing battle,” Kelly said. “In a perfect world, I wish we didn’t have them. It’s an awful thing for people to go through. I think we’re doing everything we can to try to alleviate the problem.”
