Bedbug Hell

It's been about 2 months since I last posted. Let me explain what I've been dealing with these past few months.

After this post I will post another with how to combat the bedbug problem, and/or how I sought help to terminate my lease.

Since I moved into the studio apartment in July of 2010 (moved out now) within a week I kept waking up with bug bites. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what it was. I didn't know anybody who had bed bugs, and I know I didn't bring them with me because it was my first apartment and all my furniture was hand me downs from my parents who do not have bed bugs. My cat had kittens so I thought I was having an allergic reaction to the dander or something. I did a lot of research online about bedbugs to arm myself with knowledge.

For months we searched for bugs but found no bed bugs... Until the end of November. One night I woke up at 2 in the morning having horrible itching urge. I turned on the light and found one bug on my blanket. I knew instantly it was a bedbug. I looked under my pillow and they were all over the place!

After that I sought to get rid of the bugs myself. I rented a rug doctor, got some insecticides from a janitorial store, and used boiling hot water that I heated up on the stove. We then used the insecticide. The next day we found the bed bugs climbing up the walls! When my efforts failed to remove the problem, I went to the office for help.

They tried to make it seem like I was the one who had brought the bugs into my apartment! After some prying they admitted that the unit beneath me (who had recently been evicted) had a bug infestation. They sprayed twice and within 2 days after the spraying the bugs were back in full force.

After that I called the County to complain about the bug issue. The office had 10 business days to submit paperwork proving they were attempting to fix the infestation. When they failed to cough up the documents, they had an inspector come to the complex and ordered them to follow certain guidelines. They then sprayed the entire complex. Ha.

By that time the 5 day health and safety notice I had served them had expired, and thus they terminated (voided) the lease in failure to repair the problem. Technically because they were not registered with the County correctly in the first place, they voided any binding contract before I even signed the lease!

My next post will be all about bed bugs and then the next will be about who I sought help to terminate my lease!