Single mum Kirsty Shaw says she is forced to sleep in her bath to escape bed bugs that have infested her rented flat in Bradford.

The 19-year-old said she has begged managers at social housing group Incommunities to help but her repeated pleas had fallen on deaf ears for weeks.

She has had to move her four-year-old son out to stay with his grandmother and is worried he will not be able to start school because he also has bite marks.

Miss Shaw said the infestation at the property at Underwood House in North Wing, Barkerend, is so bad even friends will not come to visit and she feels a social outcast.

She said: “It’s embarrassing. People have stopped coming round because they get bitten. I feel dirty but it’s not my fault.

“All I want is Incommunities to come and do a proper job of getting rid of them so I can get my life and my son back.”

Incommunities did get a pest controller to spray Miss Shaw’s bed but the bugs have not gone.

Miss Shaw said: “It’s just got worse. They are everywhere. I’ve been catching as many as I can. Some are as big as ladybirds but that’s because they’ve been biting me.

“I’ve had bites all over the top of my back, my arms and elbows. I had been sleeping with trousers on tucked into my socks but now I’m sleeping in the bath. I can’t use the duvet because they might be on that so I’m just using towels to try to get as comfortable as I can but it’s impossible.

“My son’s had them on his face so now he can’t sleep here. It’s horrid.”

Miss Shaw’s mother, Amanda Shaw, said: “We’ve been on and on at Incommunities and they say if she wants the pest controller out again she’ll have to pay for it but she’s 19 a single-mum on tax credits, she can’t afford it. All the furniture is Incommunities’ anyway.”

An Incommunities’ spokesman said: “Although Incommunities is not responsible for the treatment of pest infestation in residents’ homes, as a caring and responsible landlord we have assisted Miss Shaw with the treatment of bed bugs in her home.”

An Incommunities official visited Miss Shaw yesterday after inquiries by the Telegraph & Argus.