Bedbugs taking over Charleroi senior apartment complex

CHARLEROI, Pa. — A bedbug infestation in Washington County-owned apartments is getting worse instead of better for residents.

“A year and a half ago, a family brought a couch, and unbeknownst to them, (it was) full of bedbugs,” said resident Kathy Kovsck.

County leaders and residents agree that secondhand couch is how the bedbug issue began at the Crest Avenue Apartments in Charleroi. However, they don’t agree on how it’s being handled.

“We have one apartment that is, I don’t know how to describe it -- millions of bugs, crawling on the walls, crawling on the ceilings. Her furniture is full,” said Kovsck.

She said she is desperate for help and had residents sign a petition. According to Kovsck, 117 apartments at the complex are infested with bedbugs.

Residents of the senior apartment complex shared photos of having to pack up their whole apartments so pest control could come in – not an easy task for the residents with physical disabilities.

Dolores Prentice said her sister, who has dementia, is covered in bedbug bites.

“I think they are on her arms and her legs,” said Prentice.

Washington County Redevelopment Authority officials told Channel 11 that they are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it, but their evaluation of the problem differs greatly from the residents’.

The authority said the bedbugs were discovered 4 to 5 weeks ago and that only two units are infested, noting that one unit was "heavily infested but in much better shape now."