Bedbugs

[cl0udy.livejournal.com]

I think I have bedbugs. Can anyone recommend a pest control place that services the Somervile area and is good at dealing with bedbugs?

I'm looking at Best Pest Control, Green Planet and Sniff K-9. Anyone have experience with these places or with others? If you'd prefer corresponding privately, my email is swamibythesea [at] hotmail.com.

Thanks!

Comments

[ron_newman]

I've added the 'pest control' tag. There are a couple of old posts about bedbugs which may be helpful.

[notpiecebypiece.livejournal.com]

are you in an apartment? if so your landlord is legally required to take care of it.

[cl0udy.livejournal.com]

I know the landlord is legally required to take care of it, but my landlord is extremely uncooperative :( The first time I approached my landlord about this problem he refused to hire a professional pest control company and asked me to do it. I called in a Somerville Health inspector since I heard that the Health department can order a landlord to hire pest control if they find evidence of bedbugs, but they didn't turn up any visible evidence of a current infestation. (I wasn't present during their inspection, but my roommate tells me that it was a pretty cursory search. I guess calling in a state inspector to help with a recalcitrant landlord would only pay off if you have a really obvious infestation.) The fact that we showed them a body of a bedbug we had found in a previous search wasn't considered enough evidence to order my landlord to hire an exterminator.

I’m going to try and persuade my landlord again. Hopefully he'll listen this time.

[squirrelitude]

If you're planning on moving, make sure to be present when the landlord shows potential tenants the place -- and let them know there are bedbugs. >:-)

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

Best Pest all the way

[ksushis.livejournal.com]

+1
http://bestpest.com/

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

One thing you can do is call the Boston Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service, and they can pair you with an attorney who can help you out (someone who deals with landlord/tenant issues, for example). You don't necessarily have to take anyone to court -- sometimes, a letter on a law firm's letterhead is enough it get an uncooperative landlord to suddenly cooperate. Also, the attorney can advise you on what steps to take to give you the best chance of having your landlord fulfill his/her obligation.

[gingicat]

Or just call Joe Ross, who helped write a great deal of the tenant rights legislation (he's also a totally goofy old-school SF fan in his off hours).

http://www.attorneyross.com/

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Awesome guy who gave great advice when I was in a similar situation.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Seconded. Joe's a great and helpful guy. Just be prepared to spend a little extra time just talking with him about The Marx Brothers or Firesign Theatre :-)

[ifotismeni]

I know someone who went through a bed bug nightmare fairly recently and she can't say enough good things about Ecologic Entomology (specifically Ken Spencer).

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, a well done heat treatment is the most effective solution. The people who heat treat a house will give you a guarantee; those who use chemicals won't. That says something right there.

As for landlord obligations: before saying it's the landlord's to fix, double check. There are some situations where the landlord is not obligated to solve your bedbug problem. A smart landlord will still foot, or at least split, the bill because if the tenants move out leaving an infested house the bill comes right back to the landlord.

You can hire a bedbug-sniffing dog to come through and check for the pheremones the bedbugs leave behind. Just be aware that they won't do it if you've used chemicals to try and kill the bedbugs.

If you go with a place which has a guarantee make sure there aren't any notes which might invalidate the guarantee. The bedbug treating companies have inspectors who like to put in things like "The third floor bedroom's stuff is too tightly packed." If they do, fix the problem and have the inspector note that it was fixed before treatment... or their guarantee won't be honored.

Bedbugs suck.

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Just curious, how do you know they are bedbugs? And are they using the humans in the house as a food source? Just wanted to know what to look out for.

[cl0udy.livejournal.com]

We found mysterious itchy swellings on ourselves. The bedbug we found was ID'd by someone who had an infestation and knew what they looked like.

Thanks so much for the advice, everyone!