Not everyone has the ability to maintain a well ordered and clean home, but some people live in excessively filthy conditions that pose a constant health risk to a home’s occupants. One such woman, Erika Murphy, spent years living within a bacteria-ridden home with her four children, and by the looks of it, the home had never been cleaned once. In fact, the home was so disgusting that numerous insect pests found the living conditions to be quite hospitable. In other words, the home’s condition was downright dangerous for humans, but well suited for insect pests that are associated with filth. The insects found within the home included cockroaches, flies, fleas, maggots and many more pests that are known for dwelling within foul conditions like sewers and outhouses. Not long ago, concerned neighbors reported Murphy to the police, as the neighbors believed that Murphy’s excessively soiled living conditions posed a risk to her four children. Unfortunately, the police quickly learned that the resident’s claims were not unfounded, and Erika was promptly arrested for exposing her children to conditions that could have been deadly. She is now on trial in Worcester Superior Court.
Once officers with the Blackstone Police Department arrived at Erika’s home they were appalled by what they found. A variety of insects were literally crawling everywhere, and they immediately began to swarm onto their bodies. After just fifteen minutes, officers had to step outside in order to undergo decontamination, and this process occurred repeatedly at regular intervals. Officers were unable to make out the skin-color of Erika’s three month old baby because she had been covered in filth, and it quickly became clear that insects had been occupying the baby’s ear. According to officers, the insect appeared to be at least one maggot, but they could not be sure until she underwent medical treatment. In any case, the helpless baby had a filthy arthropod organism lodged within her ear canal. The home was like an ecosystem for filthy insects, as trash, rotting food and feces were found smeared on walls, floors and even the children’s beds. Tragically, the rotting corpse of a dog was found in the closet, which attracted a number of carrion flies. When a crime scene cleanup crew arrived to clean the home, they refused and insisted that the conditions warranted demolition. Luckily, none of the children had contracted any diseases.
Have you ever been in a home that contained several insect pest species?