Residents of a Brookline senior housing complex say Pittsburgh Housing Authority officials have promised to inspect and treat all 30 apartments for bedbugs within 30 days.

Staff from the authority's Pest Control Department will cover the entire Frank H. Mazza Pavilion on Brookline Boulevard, said residents who attended a presentation about bedbugs Wednesday in the building's lobby. Housing authority representatives at the five-story building said the meeting was for residents only and declined to comment.

Staff found bedbugs in a third-floor apartment this month, and authority spokeswoman Michelle Jackson said pest control staff treated that apartment and the ones on either side, above and below it, along with hallways and common areas such as the lobby and laundry room. No one else has reported bedbugs since then, she said.

Third-floor resident Marilyn Sullivan said she believes the infestation spread to her neighbor's apartment and others.

“If they don't get a professional company in here to inspect every unit in this building and treat every unit in this building, I don't want to hear it,” Sullivan said. “I'm not comfortable, not one bit. ... They're not Terminix, they're not Orkin.”

Sullivan lives down the hall from the apartment that had bedbugs and said the authority didn't start treating the problem until weeks after the unit's resident left.

“It took them an awful long time,” said resident Carl Neely. “I know they knew two weeks ago.”

His wife, Karen, said the authority and building management should have done a better job notifying residents and explaining what they could do to protect themselves. She hadn't heard about the infestation until her relatives saw it in the news last week.

Residents will get two days' notice before authority staff enter apartments, and they do not have to leave for the pesticide application, Sullivan said the group was told. She planned to set up an escrow account to hold her rent payments until she's satisfied.

Wednesday's presentation offered ways to identify the brown or reddish-brown, apple-seed-sized bedbugs, Jackson said.

Bedbugs can spread by getting into walls, though newer construction and firewalls make it less likely, or by crawling out a door and down a hall, said Steve Jacobs, urban entomologist at Penn State.

Pregnant female bugs tend to wander and spread eggs, and pesticides need to be applied directly to the bugs or their hiding places in beds and furniture, he said.

Dave Namey, the Allegheny County Health Department's program chief for housing, said bedbugs don't spread disease but their bites can itch.

“It would be best to (treat) the whole building, but that may not be feasible,” Jacobs said. “If you have a high-rise, you have to draw the line somewhere.”

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.

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