Please advise if landlord has responsibility for removal of bed bug (epidemic) from apartment building since they are known to infest whole buildings at one time?

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Originally Posted by suem501

Please advise if landlord has responsibility for removal of bed bug (epidemic) from apartment building since they are known to infest whole buildings at one time?

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Hello suem:

You say "known", although I don't know it, and in your particular building, apparently you don't "know" it either.

IF the building IS infested, I'd be willing to bet they WOULD get rid of them. So, you might have to do a little investigation.. If the building is NOT infested, I'd say you're on your own.

excon

Bedbugs live predominantly in the tenant's personal belongings - e.g.. Mattresses, clothing. The landlord may be responsible for the building, but, the landlord has no responsibility to keep his tenant's personal belongings clean. Since 99% of the bedbugs live in the mattresses and clothing and 1% live in the building walls, the tenant needs to pay 99% of the extermination cost.

50% of the problem resides in the bed, predominately the boxsprings. Bed bugs can and will live anywhere near a food source (and their only food source is blood, nothing else) to include furniture near a bed, pictures on walls, on ceilings, behind switch plates and electrical outlet plates, under carpet edges etc. attached is the information from University of Kentucky, a leading group in this pest.

Cleanliness or sanitation is not a factor in dealing with bed bugs either. Clutter will help house them, as it creates an environment where they have more places to hide resulting in difficult treatments.

If you have been there a very short time, chances are the place had them. Find out if neighbors have them, they might not say anything for fear of needing to pay for this situation. Just because someone moves out of an apartment that has them, does not mean the bugs moved out too. In fact, the reality is those living in the cracks and crevices of things other than furniture will stay there. So, what happens is, the tenant moves out, takes bugs with them, other bugs remain behind, you move in and the cycle begins all over again.