Thalia Gardens Nursing: Roaches, Wasp Nests, Hidden Logs - VA
That was April 23. The roaches had been there before the inspection started.
The resident, identified in the report as Resident 109, is in her bed at Thalia Gardens following a stroke that left her with hemiplegia. A cognitive assessment conducted in March scored her 14 out of 15, indicating no impairment. She knew exactly what was in her room. She had told housekeeping. Nothing had changed.
Two days earlier, on April 21, surveyors walked into a room on Unit 1 and heard from both residents before they had a chance to look at anything. The resident in bed 217A, near the door, said there was a wasp nest by the window. The resident in bed 217B, near the window, said, "When they sting me, I swell up."
Both nests were visible between the window screen and the glass. The first was large, wedged high in the corner between the bricks and the screen, with roughly ten round, grayish-white egg sacs still intact and many more empty hexagonal cells surrounding them. A live wasp sat on top of one of the empty cells. The second nest, smaller, hung above the screen with no eggs remaining. At the bottom of the gap between the screen and the window frame, about a quarter inch wide, lay a dead wasp. Surveyors could feel outside air moving through the opening.
The residents in that room said the nests had been there for about three weeks. Staff knew.
At the end-of-day debriefing on April 23, surveyors sat down with the Administrator, Assistant Administrator, Director of Nursing, Regional Nurse Consultant, and a Regional President. They were told about the roaches. They were told about the wasps. They were told that a gap at the threshold between the hallway door and the courtyard was a likely entry point for insects. They were told that resident complaints about roaches had been widespread across the facility.
Then came the detail that made the roaches and the wasp nests secondary.
The facility's contracted pest control company had not completed its scheduled services in January or February of this year because of a lapse in vendor payment processing. The bills hadn't been paid. The exterminators hadn't come. But the gap in service wasn't what the maintenance director left behind. The pest control logs, across all units, had been destroyed. Wiped blank. What remained were logs that showed nothing, recorded nothing, reflected none of the resident complaints about roaches that surveyors had now heard throughout the building.
The wasp nests in that room were never entered into the unit's pest control log at all. Surveyors brought the nests to the facility's attention. The facility had not logged them.
CMS rated the violation at minimal harm or potential for actual harm, affecting some residents. The rating accounts for what regulators can document. It does not account for three weeks of wasps inches from a resident who swells when stung, or for the fact that the records meant to track exactly this kind of problem had been erased.
Resident 109, the woman with hemiplegia whose room the housekeeper cleared of roaches during the inspection itself, had complained to staff before any surveyor arrived. The roaches kept coming back. The logs that should have captured that history were gone.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Thalia Gardens Rehabilitation and Nursing from 2026-04-28 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: September 19, 2026 · Our methodology
THALIA GARDENS REHABILITATION AND NURSING in VIRGINIA BEACH, VA was cited for violations during a health inspection on April 28, 2026.
The roaches had been there before the inspection started.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.