“It’s the worst situation I’ve seen in a long time,” Jersey City health officer H. James Boor told NJ.com describing “a very bad infestation of roaches” after evicting a 60-year-old woman from an apartment where she lived with 20 cats and 2 dogs. “The conditions were horrible and the stench was unbelievable.”

When authorities entered the house, they found it scattered with animal feces and overrun with bed bugs, cockroaches, cats and kittens. Previously cited for hoarding animals, the woman will be cited for creating a public health hazard and animal cruelty. All of the animals were removed to the care of the local humane society.

The incident points out the problems New Jersey and New York City landlords can encounter in maintaining pest-free housing when tenants fail to cooperate. Tenants in the second apartment of the two-family residence had been forced out by migration of bed bugs and cockroaches from their neighbor’s side of the building. When the landlord tried to investigate, he was denied access by the pet hoarder and had to call police. The landlord now faces a lengthy and expensive clean up and pest control process before he will be able to rent his property again.

Exterminating entrenched bed bug and cockroach infestations requires the services of expert commercial pest control professionals like the Stern Environmental commercial pest control team.