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We just found out that the apartment next to us and the one below them have bed bugs *shudder*. The building management brought in a bed bug dog and we were told we're fine but I'm wondering if there is anything we can do to stay that way and also, if we get them, who is responsible for the cost of getting rid of them, given that management knows there is a problem.
1. Make sure your neighbors don't bomb their apartment. The bugs will scatter and go through the cracks in the walls and may come into your apartment.
2. If you are renting, technically the management company should pay for the pest control company. However, I have seen a lot of landlords drop the ball on this. My building has a guy come by every month and he sprays the building as well as any apartment that signs up (and this is for bedbugs as well as other rodents).
3.Just as a precaution, you can use double-sided tape and place it on the legs of your bed and couches to trap them should they try to come in.
4. If you go to the hardware store and pick up some bedbug spray (not sure the brand, but it is a large, white spray bottle) and spray it around the walls, that should help. My neighbor had them and they crawled through the electrical outlets (they like warm places), and I sprayed and three days later I found four dead bedbugs.
That sucks man. Been there, but actually got them. Honestly, we luckily only had a few months left in the lease. Threw most of our furniture away and got the hell out.
When did you move in? Is there a bedbug discloser form with your lease? Patterson signed into law that the landords must provide a discloser form about any bedbug history in the building. However in my mind, that is a tricky thing. Who's to say that the tenant didn't bring them in? It's your word against the owner's. Anyway, check your lease. Maybe you can legally break it. In the meantime, AT THE VERY LEAST get some good bedbug covers for your mattress and box spring.
My building's policy is to treat all the adjoining apartments to any that have seen an infection. I am not sure what you would do to "treat" an uninfected apartment? Perhaps diatomaceous earth.
What I would do in your circumstances is to seal ALL possible entry points, meaning a bead of silicone or latex caulk at the base of all woodwork and tight seals around all plumbing and venting.
If you can get into the walls be generous with boric acid and diatomaceous Earth.
If you don't mind pyrethrin insecticides use them on the periphery with any infected neighbor.
And then PRAY!
Resist the urge to kick your neighbor in the balls but this might be tough.
(Remember, bedbugs die at 113 degrees...if it were my apartment, I would work with that fact.)
Thanks for the advice, everyone--I'm off to Home Depot tomorrow!
Also, availableusername, we moved in February--bugs are recent and we think they came in with some new tenants. I'm just really hoping they don't come into our apartment.
2. If you are renting, technically the management company should pay for the pest control company.
In New York, the landlord is legally obligated to resolve bedbug infestations by whatever means possible. If this does not happen, tenants can (and should) sue in housing court to have the problem resolved, and to gain rent abatements and/or damages if applicable. The landlord is also legally obligated to inform each prospective tenant, in writing, of any bedbug issues and how these were resolved.
Several tenants in our building have bedbugs; we do not. A dog also came to check out our entire building, and after he did, the tenants across the hall told me that they are infested, but that the dog had detected nothing ! i.e., that the dogs do not work.
I have heard many times that mattress protectors are the most important step in dealing with a possible, or even potential, infestation. We purchased these immediately, even those there are no signs at all of bugs in our apartment, and we will leave the protectors in place as a safeguard.
I have heard many times that mattress protectors are the most important step in dealing with a possible, or even potential, infestation. We purchased these immediately, even those there are no signs at all of bugs in our apartment, and we will leave the protectors in place as a safeguard.
This isn't true. The only thing mattress protectors do is to save you from having to throw away your mattress if you get infested. They certainly do nothing to prevent infestations.
I suppose it's posible they would also help you spot an existing infestation more easily since you would see the bugs more easily (they couldn't be hiding in the seams of the mattress) but that is not part of prevention, it's part of eradication.
If I had bedbugs in adjoinging apartments, I would seal and caulk, get a pest operator to undo the outlets and puff some diatomaceous earth inside the walls, and I might get some passive monitors (there are some new ones that came out within the past 6 months) and would inspect my mattress every week so if I ever saw anything I could get the treatment started right away. Also reduce clutter and increase vacuuming.
Perhaps also do an education campaign so that neighbors do not constantly re-infest one another (by throwing infested items away unwrapped, etc.) and keep the building infested for years. there are many education materials available on bedbugger.com.
Also there are some people who are non-reactors, meaning they are not allergic to bites. They are the ones who need the education campaign the most so that they will do the regular bed inspections as they can't rely on bites to tell them they are infested. Of course you would never know if you're a non-reactor unless you have them so the education is important for everyone.
This isn't true. The only thing mattress protectors do is to save you from having to throw away your mattress if you get infested. They certainly do nothing to prevent infestations.
Granted, I have not personally experienced this. As I said, we do not have bedbugs in our unit.
However, we received the mattress protector advice from all three of the exterminators who visited our building and from the half a dozen people we know who had bedbugs, including a woman whose landlord paid her and each of her roommates $50,000 for damages to their belongings.
Not all protectors are equally good. They need to be absolutely sealed, and several people advised me to seal the zipper areas with duct tape as well.
One of the exterminators said that lacking a place to hide and breed - i.e., a mattress - the bugs will infest with diminished capacity.
Fyi, Borax will kill a lot of kind of bugs, but bedbugs aren't one of them.
I think boric acid will provide the same limited controll for bedbugs that it does for roaches. Penn State Agricultural agrees with this:
From their discussion on bedbug control:
Quote:
Inorganic materials such as silica gel, boric acid, and diatomaceous earth will provide long-term control, provided they are used in an environment with low humidity. These inorganic materials have very low repellency, a long residual life, and can provide good control if thoroughly applied to cracks and crevices. However, they are typically white in color and may leave the surface of items with an undesirable film unless they are carefully applied
I am aware that BB are sucking insects but part of the old arguments for the use of BA involved crystals cutting into the insect carapace and they dehydrated (not quite sure I ever swallowed that one entirely.) If true, this effect should be the same for BB. And who knows, maybe they clean themselves with their suckers or ingest the poison though their "breathing."
I also realize that there are conflicting claims about boric acid and effectiveness against bedbugs so I would use it as an adjunct inside walls but not depend on it as the sole agent...I'd use heat as the big gun.
If BA's effectiveness against BB's is limited it will still have some usefulness against other critters.
If you can buy it for a buck at the Dollar store and it lasts forever boric acid should be in EVERYONE'S walls for whatever control it can give.
But yes, sekhmet, I will not say you are wrong about boric acid.
Last edited by Kefir King; 08-26-2011 at 07:14 AM..
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