bedbugs!!!

You realize bedbugs are not scorpions, right?

You also realize you have 2 hands and 2 feet and go to an exterminator store and buy some Bed Lam bed-bug spray right? Are you really so incredibly dependent on others to take care of your problems?
I had bed bugs in my apartment. After $80 and about 3 hours of work they were gone (two applications over a two week period).

If you don't want to go the chemical route, and you know there are bedbugs in your building, you can spray the perimeter of your apartment with lavender water (make your own from lavender oil from the health food store). Also add lavender water to the rinse cycle for your bed sheets (and what the heck, your clothes too).

Lavender is a natural repellent for bed bugs.

Love lavender!

We don't have bedbugs--yet! But the tenant--and the landlord have done nothing to get rid of them or alert the other tenants.

NYCMatt--If I get bedbugs, can I bring some over?
Jazzman--Why did you assume I had them? I don't. I'm glad you didn't have a lot of trouble getting rid of them, but I know other people who've gone through hell.

Hey, lavender is great. But is this the ADD website?

Use this website- they are hard to get rid of- usually requiring multiple treatments usually not just one method works unless you heat the whole building.

http://bedbugger.com/

1. you should take bedbugs very seriously
2. recent reports state that some carry staph infection
3. which kills about 20,000 Americans per year
4. including children and young adults

Imagine the bedbugs down at Occupy Wall Street.

you can also paint your doorframe with lambs blood. whatever works for you.

It would be great if people with no interest in the building would find something else to do.

"2. recent reports state that some carry staph infection"

And some mosquitoes carry West Nile Virus.

And ALL black widow spiders carry potentially deadly venom.

You can't protect yourself from everything.

uwslady - here is a CDC/EHS page with a number of links on the topic. Hope it helps:

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/Topics/bedbugs.htm

Evidently the tenant TURNED AWAY the exterminator today (a man with a spray can!), that management sent almost one week after the report!

Thank you for the helpful post, midageguy.

The tenant has also evidently refused to let in the bedbug-detecting dog w/ the exterminator.

there are no bed bugs at 98 riverside drive, there is a rider added to the lease that discloses this.

No surprise to me, all of the bedbug cases I have seen originate in RS/RC apartments (yes, all). Most of the time the tenants (or their illegal sub-letters) co-operate, but many times you have to fight tooth and nail to even get in to inspect, yet alone get them to comply with the per-treatment instructions. If more people understood the reality of RS/RC, there is NO WAY it would still exist.

MAV, what do you think it is about rent regulations that creates bedbugs?

arthur, do these claims have merit because you didn't say they didn't?

why does a building need do have a rider about bedbugs?

what is the recourse if bedbugs meritoriously appear?

What does being a RS/RC tenant have to do with it? What is your documentation of such an, OK, I'll say it, insane assertion?

sounds like MAV is a LL who bought a bldg, full of RC RS tenants, on the cheap--now he's become a vociferous opponent to rent regs--go figure

I thought he was a biologist with a new theory.

I am just providing real life info from my Manhattan buildings and management company. This is now a major part of property management. I would say my receptionist spends at least 10% of her time dealing with bedbugs and false bedbug claims (hysteria).

A bedbug rider is required for all NYC apartments, stating if there has been an infestation in the last 12 months in the building, floor or apartment. I sign about 10 of these in various leases a month. The recourse is the LL is responsible for removal of the bedbugs and getting the tenants to comply. There is NO recourse for the tenants who bring the begbugs into the building (Just as there is no recourse for people caught abusing RS/RC).

@yikes: I did not buy anything 'on the cheep', that is a joke. I am more than fair (often times even beyond the existing laws, at my expense) with my RS/RC tenants and respect their rights to exist within the framework of the law. I do have a problem with the widespread ABUSE of rent regulations (which is more than obvious to anyone in the trenches of property management), and unlimited succession rights. If RS/RC renters were verified every year or two, people living legally would be able to live in peace and the abusers would stop ruining it for those who follow the rules. The city would also gain millions in taxes. I do not know what legal RS/RC tenants are not more vocal about this, but then again, I wonder the same thing about religion too sometimes.

What about RS/RC causes it/has to do with it? I will not go there for now. I was just stating an observation which I have experienced and I know of other owners with similar stories....

>NO recourse for the tenants who bring the begbugs into the building

Where do you think they get them?

what "abuses" are you seeing in your buildings, MAV?

your receptionist spends 10% of her time on this?

Outrageous! That is six minutes per hour!

I am glad you are not my landlord.

'here is NO recourse for the tenants who bring the begbugs into the building (Just as there is no recourse for people caught abusing RS/RC).'

That is 100% unenforceable. You can never know how the bedbugs got in the unit. It could be the delivery people, handymen, a a visitor, who knows who. Since bedbugs WILL spread to other units if untreated (always WILL) its retarded to think the LL would NOT pay for their eradication.

Matt is full of shit as always. Every reputable website on bedbugs (and I include the NYT and scientific american in this) say there are NO 'repellents" that work since bedbugs get in EVERYTHING - your clothes, pillows, books, CDs, EVERYTHING. You cannot spray repellent EVERYWHERE, and none of them WORK. Heat, freezing, or chemicals is ALL that works.

jason, you realize it is self-politically incorrect to use bandy about the term "retarded".

Hasn't anyone heard of diatomaceous earth? Seriously, google it and learn that it is the only thing, beside chemicals, that really works. I had bedbugs and had my apartment sprayed for 9 MONTHS!!!!!! When I finally learned of DE, the bugs were gone in 3 weeks!!! And have never returned since I treat the baseboards every 2 months with a solution of a spray bottle of water with 2 teaspoons of the DE earth. It works!!!

Crazycardo65, are you back on your meds?

MAV...you have a lot of negativity about RS/RC, and cite widespread abuses.

Please provide info on the abuses engaged by RC/RS tenants in your buildings.

Certainly you can provide numerous specific examples. Educate us.

http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

@yikes you are trolling and poaching. This is not the place for me to go into details about numerous specific examples. You would need to offer me a television series or book deal for that!

Again, my negativity is just the ABUSE of it. Well, also the 'golden handcuffs' that people surrender their lives for, and the sociological issues therein, but that is off topic.

no troll at all--just figure that, since you take the time here to repeatedly refer to all the RC/RS abuses, and since you describe here yourself to be a reasonably large independent landlord in NYC, you could easily take a moment to describe some specific RS/RC abuses you have seen in your own buildings. given how numerous they are, shouldn't take but a several seconds to list a few......not sure why youre resisting this...

Again, the abuses are more than obvious to anyone working in property management. However, as I actually have** said before in RS conversations here, it is not about the MICRO of specific examples, there are plenty on every side right and wrong in a city with millions, its about the MACRO concept. Until people on both sides get their heads out of their own asses enough to least understand that it is not about any one you or me, but the issue as a whole, then the focus becomes on specif examples and the bigger issue is lost.

**For the record, I have never, nor would I ever say I was 'large' at all. Especially not in this pond.

From Falcon's link: 'Some companies have used the bedbug epidemic as a way to make a quick buck. Jones notes that many "natural" pest-fighting alternatives have questionable value. For example, diatomaceous earth, a popular nonpoisonous insect killer, may take weeks to work, while lavender- and cedar-based bug killers are unproven. At best, she argues, they are "a Band-Aid on a gaping wound." At worst, they are completely useless."

I am telling you, HEAT is the best if your home qualifies. Its 100% effective. Chemicals are second best. These "natural" remedies are BS.

jason, you know a lot about bedbugs. family?

It's easy to win on performance when you're presenting lies. Coverage for pre-existing conditions--just to mention one lie that Romney told Wednesday night? Sure, only if you already had health insurance, and managed to hold on to it when you lost your job. Please ... I promised myself I wouldn't get involved in this, that I'm on this site only for real estate matters, but as a former resident of Massachusetts, let me just say you do not want this man as president.

wetlands, what in the fuck are you talking about? the thread is about bedbugs in a building on the west side of manhattan, not your political stance.

>It's easy to win on performance when you're presenting lies.

I agree, and since the POTUS is only expected to deal with easy situations and straightforward people, the whole so-called debate was completely unfair. Furthermore, I'm upset that he had to go straight to a location and then work, instead of being able to acclimate for a few days in advance.

Sorry about my post--went into wrong thread. I trust you are all smart enough to figure that out. I'd move the post if I could.

liar