PEST controllers are struggling with an infestation of bedbugs in three council homes in Colchester.

Tenants in Foresight Road, Colchester, are calling on Colchester Borough Homes, which manages the borough’s council homes, to step up efforts to deal with the bloodsucking parasites.

Sarah-Jane Robertson says she and her children, Jamie-Lee, five, and Cacie-Jane, three, are being forced to sleep on their living room floor to escape the bugs.

The 26-year-old single mother moved into her terraced council house four months ago and soon found it was infested.

Jamie-Lee was taken to hospital in the summer after bites on his body became infected.

So far, the house has been fumigated five times, but the insects are still there and keep crawling out of the walls and under the skirting boards into neighbours’ homes.

Miss Robertson said: “We have stripped the bedrooms and the walls and they are still crawling out across the carpet.

“My son is covered in bites and we have spent the past two nights on my lounge floor, because my children won’t go in their bedrooms since the bugs are still there. It’s ridiculous. I constantly feel dirty.

I want this problem dealt with.”

Her neighbour, a mother-of-two, who did not wish to be named, said the problem was present long before Miss Robertson moved in.

She said: “It has been a nightmare. At first, we didn’t realise the children were getting bitten.

“Then we found tiny bugs which, at first, we thought were fleas, because we have cats.

“My £1,500 bed will need to be destroyed and I find I can’t sleep properly because I’m continuously checking myself and my children.”

Gordon Steed, of Colchester Borou- gh Homes, said: “It is the tenants’ responsibility to solve the bedbug issue.

“If a tenant approached us about the issue, we would refer them to the environmental control department at the council.

“In exceptional cases, we may be able to help with the cost of any action, but this is not normal.

“Earlier this year, we took action to remove fleas from Ms Robertson’s property, when it was empty, following the departure of the outgoing tenant, which we have a responsibility to do.

“This was carried out successfully before the new tenant moved in.”