The Cruelest BITE Is the Financial BED BUG Bite!
Congratulations, you own apartments! Along with that, is a tremendous responsibility of keeping it livable for your tenants.
That means, everything’s in working order, it’s clean, and pest free, right?
Bed Bugs on the Radar
Bed bugs are considered the new cockroach of this century.
They are spreading like wildfire and are terribly hard to get rid of once infestations build.
Ultimately, the burden for exterminating bed bugs is no different than any other bug and remains the property owners responsibility.
If you cause undue fear or shame in your tenants, they will hide the fact they have them from you and turn to self-treating.
Which, by the way, normally causes the spread of bed bugs into other units in your building.
Sure, it doesn’t seem fair, but if you’re not responsible, who is?
Avoiding the Financial BED BUG Bite
Let’s say you own a building with sixteen units. That’s sixteen potential bed bug problems and treatments.
The likelihood of everyone having bed bugs at the same time is not that high, but if you ignore one problem, can become possible.
The truth is, eventually you’re going to get a call that someone is being bitten and they want you to come and see what’s up.
So, you call in your pest control company who sends a tech to investigate.
They find nothing and by law, they can’t treat unless they know what they are treating for.
You tell your tenant that nothing was found and maybe it’s allergies of some kind.
So, a few weeks pass and you get that call again. However, the lady, and now her children are waking with bites.
Your thinking, fleas or maybe a spider.
You then call your pest control tech again and they come out to investigate. Again, nothing found. You still do nothing.
The lease of the tenant upstairs is up and he is moving this weekend.
The following Monday you send in your team to clean, paint and do any repairs needed. Two weeks later, the unit is now ready for another tenant to move in.
From Concerned Call to Nightmare
Meanwhile, the lady who originally called you, called once again and has found a bug she thinks is biting her and her children.
You call your pest control tech and he identifies it as a bed bug.
He begins treatment using chemical sprays and you say fine, just get rid of whatever it is that is biting her.
You ask no other questions.
He never mentioned that surrounding units must be inspected. Or that the bed bugs could have come in from a surrounding unit.
Nor did he tell you that bed bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to chemicals and that chemicals don’t kill the eggs.
You find a new tenant, who signs a lease for the unit upstairs and moves in.
The little girl who lives with the woman that complained was asked to do a sleepover with her friend that lives across the hall to celebrate her birthday.
She grabs up her favorite blanket, a few of her toys and heads to her friends across the hall.
Follow the Bed Bug Trail
Here’s what’s happening:
The man that moved out had a serious infestation and the bed bugs had begun moving into the wall voids and traveled downstairs.
Actually, he may not have been affected by the bites or didn’t care to acknowledge it. He already moved.
When the apartment became vacant, it was cleaned and painted so any evidence of bed bugs was covered up.
Not to mention, this wasn’t done on purpose because the cleaning and maintenance crew knows nothing about bed bugs.
In order to find a blood meal, the bed bugs began foraging.
Now, the little girl took a few items that has bed bugs on them over to her friends across the hall.
Now, you have three units that have bed bugs.
The man that moved out had them behind the baseboards and under the carpet edges.
The lady downstairs has them and now the kid across the hall.
However, your new tenant moves in and calls you four days later saying he was being bitten by something.
Now, you have to treat the unit upstairs, downstairs and pretty soon you’ll be getting a call from the unit across the hall where the young girl visited.
Oh, and did I mention that the whole building uses the laundry which is in the basement under the first-floor apartments?
You can see how easily this can get out of hand, especially if you don’t have a well-qualified professional guiding you all the way so that you can prevent all of this from happening.
However, you can’t cry over spilled milk.
The blatant truth is, if you had a strategy for bed bugs upfront, all this can be avoided.
Bed Bug Education – You’ll Get It Eventually
However, inspecting and treating early will avoid spreading bed bugs rapidly over whole buildings.
The importance of education, having proactive policies and procedures in place, and having regular inspection now becomes a reality.
What “if” you had a program that prevents all this from happening?
And you knew how to handle any bed bug situation swiftly before they become “infestations?”
How would you like to be able to afford heat to get rid of the problem with a single treatment every time?
Imagine how great it would feel “if” you didn’t have to reach into your budget for repeated treatments and your budget stays intact?
We’ve successfully helped owners of multi-unit properties prevent having to make threatening decisions based on “after the fact” situations by providing layers of protection.
Give us a call, we’ll show you how and let us help you and your tenants sleep better at night!
www.massbedbugbusters.com 508-713-8267
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