Bed Bugs Invade Southside Apartment

JACKSONVILLE, FL - A Jacksonville mother said her apartment complex doesn't seem willing to do anything to get rid of a bed bug infestation plaguing her family.

"You can see right here by his eye where he's been bitten," Misty Tressler said.

Tressler said she moved into the Matthews Crossings Apartment complex off Atlantic Boulevard last month and immediately started asking for help against the bed bugs. When she noticed that her children, specifically her newborn, had bites she started pushing even further for the complex to clean up the bugs.

"I have been asking for a month for them to clear the bed bugs," said Tressler. "Then they said they'd send someone out in two to three weeks to spray, I said 'I can't wait that long.'"

Apartment complex manager Willie Conn said the problem was dealt with.

"The issue is being addressed and has been addressed, I can't comment more than that because of tenant confidentiality," Conn said.

Exterminator David Higgins said the bed bugs are a huge problem and getting worse across Jacksonville. When Channel 4 told him about Tressler's problems with the bugs he said, "that doesn't mean they brought them. It means they were probably already there."

A local attorney said when a renter has a problem with bed bugs it is the landlord's burden to exterminate. But the problem is becoming so pervasive, the lawyer said some apartments are now writing addendums into their leases so that tenants will have to assume the responsibility for bed bugs.