McCargo still bears the scars from her ordeal with bed bugs two years ago. A resident of Riverview Tower Apartments on Mickle Boulevard, she had to move to another apartment when exterminators couldn't get rid of the infestation in her old one.
"They tried," she told Action News. "They sent somebody out a couple times and they were still in there because we had to throw away everything."
"I don't sleep too good because they would bite," said 75-year-old Mary Crocker.
Crocker is now dealing with the same problem in her seventh floor apartment at Riverview. She had to go to the doctor yesterday to be treated for the bites on her neck and arms.
"When I sat in the big chair thousands of bugs coming out just biting me," she said.
"I literally took the bug to the office yesterday," said her daughter, Kathleen Downs. "And what they said was, 'We know it's all over the place.'"
Camden County health inspectors visited the building today and confirmed that Mary Crocker's apartment is infested. The building management company wouldn't comment but complied with an order for immediate treatment.
The inspectors also found evidence of past infestations on another floor that had already been treated.
Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and are easily spread. You sit on a couch or bed that's infested, they'll be going with you to your next stop.
"We can knock the live population down, but you have your eggs there," said Ralph Green of County Environmental Inspections. "They hatch, and then the cycle starts over again."
Green says that's why immediate and ongoing treatments to control bed bugs are necessary. And he says the health department will continue monitoring the situation at Riverview Tower.
