KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana |Getting Rid of Bed Bugs

Getting Rid of Bed Bugs

May 27, 2004
Reported by Rhonda Kitchens

Vicki Manuel says she hasn't gotten any peace since bed bugs invaded her home.

"I haven't been eating," she says. "I haven't been sleeping. I stay up three and four nights cleaning and cleaning and cleaning all day and all night and I finally just pass out from exhaustion and then you don't care what's chewing on you."

Manuel says her life has been a nightmare since the bugs arrived.

She says, "I know my neighbors probably think I'm crazy, but you get a little crazy when you've got these things in your house and you've got to get them out and nobody to help until y'all came along."

We didn't join Manuel's fight alone. Kevin Savoie from Cal-Cam Termite came to help after we gave the company a call. Savoie and his team went right to work.

Savoie says, "all of that stuff is going to need to be put in a washer with hot, hot water and washed and then given back to her. It's one of the worse cases I've seen in 15-years, for sure."

Manuel says, "this is hell. I have never experienced anything so terrible, so horrible, so unrelenting."

Savoie says, "these will actually bed down into the skin, and they live off the blood so they've got to have the blood to start their metamorphosis and what happens is they continue to grow and continue to feed and unfortunately they're doing this on her.

"Areas like around the door frames where the bed bugs like to bed down, all of this will have to be sprayed with the insecticide all throughout the home."

Although Cal-Cam says they will continue to treat Manuel's home free of charge until the bugs are gone, some precautionary measures had to be taken. Her bed had to go, but the Salvation Army donated another.

That's not where the community generosity ends: Erwin Superclean says they will be at Manuel's home next week to clean the carpets and give her a fresh new start to bug-free living.