A mum has been arrested after police discovered her three young children living in a cockroach-infested home.
Officers attended the home of Sarah Herald, 27, in Georgetown, in Kentucky, after neighbors reported seeing “filthy” children playing outside.
The kids, aged two, four, and five, were found “rolling in copious amounts of rubbish, dirt, discarded food" the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
Police said the food in the fridge was moldy and foul odor emanating from the home could be smelled outside, Fox 56 reported.
The youngsters were said to be living off Pop Tarts, because Herald said the "food in the fridge was not safe for them to eat".
Police saw three stained mattresses covered in dead and live cockroaches plus bedbugs outside the home.
Herald is said to have told police she’d tried using spray on the bugs “but it’s not working, obviously".
Rubbish, cockroaches, dead insects, and insect feces were found littered through the house.
Bedbugs were also found on the children’s mattress in their bedrooms.
The youngsters were barefoot and "extremely dirty", including their fingernails and toenails, according to the arrest citation.
They were later removed from the home by child welfare officers.
Herald was arrested and placed in custody on Tuesday.
The mother faces three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and three counts of second-degree criminal abuse.
She will appear in court at a later date.
