Bedbug outbreak reported at Overlook Apartments in Chattanooga

Sixty-eight-year-old Vietnam veteran Karl Epperson thought his fighting days were done, but for the past three months he has been in the heat of battle, a battle with bedbugs.

"You can't sleep because they come up in the bed with you," said Epperson.

A short-sleeved shirt revealed raspberry-sized bug bites that spotted his arms.

Epperson has lived in the privately owned Overlook Apartments in the Westside for nearly a decade, but contemplates moving because of the creepy crawlers.

Overlook management officials could not be reached for comment.

At least a dozen bedbug infestations in Chattanooga hotels and public places have been reported to the Hamilton County Health Department within the past two years, said Bonnie Deakins, director of environmental health.

The Health Department gives hotels with infestations 10 days to get rid of them and the hotel has to close the infested room until they do.

Bedbugs don't carry disease, Deakins said, but they are hard to exterminate. The problem is getting to them. They're in the cracks of the walls, inside the mattress and in the bed, said Deakins.

"It's been a big problem within the past eight years or so," she said. "For years we didn't see them but apparently they've become resistant to the pesticides."

Epperson said that Overlook Apartment officials called an exterminating company for his unit but that they didn't eliminate the pests. There are scuff marks on his wall from where he has tried to kill some with bug spray and a fly swatter.

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Bedbug outbreak reported at Overlook Apartments in Chattanooga