Bedbugs won’t leave Denise Thomas alone.

The 72-year-old lives on the third floor of the Bushkill House, a public housing high-rise in Easton.

The bugs show up in her carpets, her bed, her clothes, her Bible, her couch. They started coming in November and won’t stop. She found a cluster of them in the folds of her leather recliner.

“They were having a convention in there,” she said, adding, “I feel like this apartment has the plagues of Egypt.”

She documented the problem with 38 photos taken on 16 different days from April 29 to May 31.

Thomas started holding back her rent in April. She has rent for April, May, June and July in an escrow account, she said.

The Easton Housing Authority has sent an exterminator to spray Thomas’ apartment nine times since December, according to Housing Authority Senior Property Manager Brenda Colon. Thomas got a heat treatment June 5.

“We are diligently working at all times to mitigate pest issues to the fullest realistic extent. It is an endless uphill battle,” said Easton Housing Authority Executive Director Tyler Martin.

The heat treatment worked for a few weeks but the bedbugs came back again, Thomas said. Another heat treatment was scheduled for July 5.

‘Zero pests ... almost impossible’

Orkin Vice President Andy Tay said bedbugs are among the toughest pests to eradicate. Orkin has the pest control contract with the Easton Housing Authority.

Anyone coming to or going from Bushkill House could bring them in. Then they can spread quickly from apartment to apartment, Tay said.

Most of the bugs hide until nightfall. By the time a tenant is aware of them, they’ve multiplied and taken root. Orkin encourages tenants to remain vigilant and report bedbugs immediately so they can be treated. Tay said the Easton Housing Authority takes pest control seriously.

“Together we have made great strides in reducing the occurrences of pests over the past years using various methods of treatment and inspections,” Tay said. “However ... we realize a goal of zero pests is almost impossible to achieve.”

Colon says the authority sent bedbug-sniffing dogs through its three high rises in February and December 2023.

“Whenever a resident reports suspicions of bedbugs, we prioritize inspections promptly,” she said.

She suggested Thomas’ infestation may have originated from a secondhand scooter Thomas purchased from a neighbor or a couch she helped a neighbor move.

Thomas is convinced they’re coming from a neighboring apartment into hers. She got the scooter well before her infestation. She briefly touched the couch when it was in the hall and had left her neighbor’s apartment. After she touched the couch, she immediately stripped and showered.

She wants her neighbors’ apartment treated for bedbugs, although they haven’t complained so nobody has inspected the apartment to see whether bedbugs are in there, Thomas said.

Thomas would like a building-wide treatment similar to treatments for roaches in late December 2022 and early in 2023. Roaches were a constant problem until those treatments. Thomas doesn’t understand why similar treatments can’t be done for bedbugs.

“They don’t want to take responsibility for this,” she said.

Senior Director of Administration Craig Updegrove said at a housing authority meeting in November that Orkin was employing the “clover” method to treat bedbugs, that apartments to the right and left of the infested apartment would get treated, as would the ones on floors immediately above and below the apartment. The four apartments make the shape of a four-leaf clover.

He also discussed using bedbug-controlling “volcano” devices, although he mentioned that the devices may be cost prohibitive.

‘Ongoing tensions and mistrust’

The extent of Bushkill House’s bedbug problem is unclear. Fifth floor tenant Alice Levens said she had bedbugs in April. Colon mentioned an apartment down the hall from Thomas’ was sprayed for bedbugs three times earlier this eyar.

Lehighvalleylive.com couldn’t track down any other tenants to comment on the issue. Thomas said she would invite her neighbors to weigh in, but none of them reached out to lehighvalleylive.com.

Thomas said her neighbors are either resigned to living with bedbugs or afraid that complaining could put their housing in jeopardy. Martin, the housing authority executive director, has encouraged residents to speak up if they have problems, to attend monthly meetings with management and to attend the housing authority meetings. That’s the only way management will know how to meet their needs.

Tenants are afraid to be branded complainers, Thomas said. But she isn’t.

She believes her outspokenness has led to hostility from the property managers, and claims she was accused of bringing bedbugs to the housing authority office on purpose. Thomas said she made an appointment and went to the office to pick up some papers. When workers realized Thomas was grappling with a bedbug issue, she was ordered to leave the lobby. Thomas is no longer allowed to talk to a property manager one on one.

“Due to ongoing tensions and mistrust, we prefer to communicate with Ms. Thomas in writing and with a witness present, especially given recent events,” Colon said.

Thomas left a message with a low-cost attorney who she hopes can help her keep her rent money in escrow without her being evicted.

She says her demand is simple. She wants a clean, safe place to live. Her quality of life has deteriorated because she’s constantly dealing with bedbugs, she said.

“If they hadn’t put me in this situation they wouldn’t have heard a word from me,” Thomas said. “They expect me to just live with it and I don’t think I should be living with it.”

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Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.