Walmart finds live bedbugs crawling in the fitting room of a store where employees discovered pill bottles containing the insects

AP

Pill bottles containing bed bugs were discovered at a Walmart store.

• Live bedbugs were discovered Friday crawling around the fitting room of a Walmart store where employees found pill bottles containing the insects.
• Pennsylvania state police said they are investigating the incident and testing one of the pill bottles for fingerprints.
• Bedbug infestations are notoriously hard to eliminate because they can survive months without feeding and treatments can be costly.
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Walmart employees and investigators found live bedbugs in a men's fitting room and multiple pill bottles containing the insects at a Pennsylvania Walmart store last week, according to police.

Pennsylvania state police said they are investigating the incident and testing a pill bottle for fingerprints.

Some of the insects were initially discovered Thursday, when a Walmart employee found a pill bottle containing dead bedbugs in the pocket of a boy's jacket for sale in the clothing department of an Edinboro, Pennsylvania, Walmart store.

The store disposed of the jacket and contacted the safety company Ecolab, police said.

An Ecolab employee visited the store on Friday and located bedbugs crawling around the men's fitting room.

On Saturday, a second closed pill bottle containing several dead bugs was found lying on the floor of the men's department near the belts.

At this point, a Walmart manager contacted police and said someone may have released bedbugs in the men's changing room.

A Pennsylvania state trooper responded to the scene and collected the bottle for fingerprint processing. Police said security personnel are reviewing surveillance video from the store.

Walmart contacted other stores in the area and verified that the incident was isolated, police said.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bedbug infestations are notoriously hard to eliminate because they can survive months without feeding and treatments can be costly. The insects feed on the blood of humans or animals, but they are not known to spread infectious diseases.

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