In many cities the housing authorities will not help people that claim they have been attacked by bed bugs until they can deliver an actual bed bug. The bed bug may be delivered dead or alive. However apartment tenants often have a difficult time capturing a bed bug since they are often attacked while they are sleeping.
A person could take a couple of weeks or a few months or even a year to finally catch a bed bug and meanwhile the odious insects have infiltrated a large number of apartment units. Perhaps a bed bug pest control expert has a better chance of finding bed bugs, especially if he is accompanied by a bed bug detection dog.
Housing authorities and apartment managers should be trained in detecting bed bug bites on humans. If the skin irritations reasonably appear to be created by the blood sucking work of bed bugs then perhaps the prudent thing to do is to invite a pest control expert to examine the dwelling for bed bugs. In the long run it could save a lot of money.
In Clinton Mississippi a man filed a complaint against a motel. He stated he had bed bugs and their cohorts the obnoxious ticks in his bed. That doesn’t sound good. The housekeeper claimed she could not find any bed bugs in the room. The housekeeper was probably not a bed bug sniffing Beagle. Health inspectors confirmed there were no bed bugs in the room. However a pest control company has been asked to check into the situation.
How qualified are people that look for bed bugs in hotels that are not professional bed bug pest control exterminators? In Clinton Mississippi, New Jersey, New York City and in other parts of the nation are hotels that have received complaints about bed bugs being cleared of the matter by people who don’t have the expertise to find bed bugs? How many clearances have been given without a bed bug detection dog sniffing the accused hotel room? Perhaps travelers would prefer to be accompanied to their hotel room by a bed bug detection dog and get his approval before entering the room.
Sure most people would think heart attacks and being attacked by a wolverine could easily be regarded as emergencies but the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development consider NYC bed bugs complaints to be emergencies which places the complaints near the top of the list.
Most of the time, NYC bed bugs complaints are regarded as Class B violations which provides the owner 30 days to fix the problem. However electricity outages or no hot water are Class C violations and need to be fixed in 24 hours. I’m wondering how many New Yorkers think running out of hot water is a bigger emergency than being bitten by bed bugs on a nightly basis.
NYC also has the 311 for calling in bed bug complaints. Apparently numerous New Yorkers have been calling in with skin rashes that have nothing to do with bed bugs.
Another big New York City bed bug problem is due to some people living in apartments that don’t have a reaction to bed bug bites and so they don’t realize they have bed bugs and they don’t report them. This gives the critters plenty of time to spread to other apartments.
Bed bugs are becoming a significant problem in New Jersey. New Jersey law states that landlords are responsible for needed extermination, however it does not clearly state if the landlord can pass the cost to the occupant. A lot of people living in apartments don’t mention bed bug problems due to concern they will end up paying for it.
New Jersey lawmakers are writing legislation to make sure the landlords of multi-unit buildings in New Jersey have to pay for all needed bed bug extermination. The lawmakers want to fix the NJ bed bugs apartment problem and fix what they call the basic injustice of NJ apartment owners not paying for the bed bug pest control services.
I feel sorry for the tenants but the apartment owners could easily argue that some of the tenants brought the critters into the building and so why should the building owners be forced to pay. So far, I don’t think any apartment owner has been brazen enough to sue a renter for bringing bed bugs into the building and for causing his property value to diminish and for all the money he spent on bed bug pest control. It would make an interesting court case.
