Trick-or-treating won’t be allowed in one neighborhood in a small Michigan city due to a severe cockroach infestation.
Wyandotte City Councilman Todd Hanna told the Detroit Free Press that the roach infestation had gotten so bad that the annual Halloween tradition for children wasn’t allowed to take place on a half-mile stretch of 20th street to “prevent roaches from grabbing on to kids’ costumes.”He also told the newspaper that even if people stepped on the roaches, their eggs may survive and be tracked all over the neighborhood.
Barricades and signs will be placed outside of the affected area that prevent people and cars from entering the street for trick or treating between 4 and 8 p.m. on Monday, according to a letter sent by the city and obtained by WXYZ-TV
The infestation stems from a since-vacated property on 20th Street in Wyandotte, a city of over 24,000 in the southern suburbs of Detroit.
Neighbors told WXYZ that the problems were first noticed in August when garbage men were picking up trash outside the house and noticed the discarded items were covered in cockroaches.
A wellness check was done at the home and one neighbor told the station that conditions were “terrifying.”
“I understand that the children were sitting on the couch for a wellness check and cockroaches were crawling all over them,” next-door neighbor Lisa LaBean told WXYZ.
The homeowners were told to wrap their belongings so exterminators could spray them down safely, but the belongings weren’t wrapped, causing the bugs to spread up and down the street.
Killing the roaches — and their eggs — has been a challenge ever since. The city’s Building Authority commissioner wrote in an Oct. 25 letter that exterminating the roaches will “take some time,” according to the Free Press.
A resident in the affected neighborhood told WXYZ that exterminators say it will likely take about a year before all the roaches will be cleared out.
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