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Md. City Housing Agency Wages 4-Year Bedbug Battle

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) -- The Hagerstown Housing Authority says its battle to eradicate bedbugs from public housing costs $100,000 a year.

The Herald-Mail reported Tuesday that the agency has one staff member dedicated solely to working with an exterminator on the problem.

Executive director Ted Shankle says he's been trying to rid the agency's nearly 1,200 housing units of bedbugs for at least four years.

He says he believes the bugs come in on used furniture that tenants buy or scavenge.

Shankle says some tenants refuse to let exterminators into their apartments to kill the bugs. He says the agency has gone so far as to evict tenants so an exterminator can go in.

Information from: The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md.

(Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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