3 weeks ago, I noticed a huge lump in my neck, and then quickly developed one behind my ear, one at the bottom of my head, and 3 at the top of my head. I couldn’t get an early enough doctor’s appointment, so I went to a Wellstar Urgent Care, who told me they had no idea what it could be and sent me to the emergency room. After spending 6 hours there, going through bloodwork, a CT scan, and numerous tests, they told me they had no idea what was wrong with me and sent me home, telling me to monitor them.

About 2 1/2 to 3 weeks ago, we found out that we have bed bugs. We noticed a bug and looked it up online, and sure enough, that’s exactly what it was. We immediately went back into our room and searched, and within 10 minutes we found at least 20 bugs. Most of them were enormous! The ones we saw were anywhere between the size of a flea to the size of a ladybug. This was during the DAY. Considering they are nocturnal and hide during day light hours, we immediately knew that we were dealing with a huge infestation.

After looking up more about bed bugs and seeing pictures of the smears and marks they leave on the mattress, I realized that I had seen them on the mattress about 2 weeks before, but I never thought anything of it. That day, we took all of the sheets off of the bed and started to wash them in hot water. When we tried to wash our comforter, our washer overflowed, so we had to go to a laundromat to wash everything. We vacuumed the mattress, box spring, and carpet several times that day.

The start of all this, and the time I first noticed the marks on the mattress, is around the same time that we had neighbors move in below us. My roommates’ bedroom is on the other side of the apartment, and they still have no bugs in their room. But our bedroom has no neighbors adjacent, so they must be coming from below. We confronted our leasing office manager immediately and they said that they had not received any other reports of bed bugs. They set up for an exterminator to come, but not until 5 days later.

That day, we started finding other places to sleep, and have not slept in our apartment since. We did not want to sleep on the couch, because this would infringe upon our roommates and they would have to stay quiet and confined to their room, and we didn’t want to inconvenience them for a problem that wasn’t theirs. I also was not sure if the bugs could be the cause of the lumps I have in my head and neck. Two days before the exterminator was supposed to come, I called the leasing office and asked if they could have them out any sooner, and I was told that they would call me back if they could get in touch with the exterminator. 2-3 hours later, I got a call from our roommates saying that the exterminator had just been by.

Neither me or my boyfriend had gotten a call from the office saying that they responded, so neither of us were there to talk to the exterminator. The exterminator left without spraying, saying that she saw the signs and it definitely looked like bed bugs were present, but because she did not see an actual bug, she didn’t spray. This made us enraged! One of the leasing agents called us and told us that we should try to catch a bed bug to show an exterminator so they would spray, which we did. We went to the office the next day and spoke to the leasing office manager, who had been on vacation the whole time. She was unaware of the problem, and called the exterminator. She told us to throw away our mattress, and when faced with that, we asked if we would be reimbursed for a new one, and she said no. After we asked her to be reimbursed, she quickly changed her story and started saying “Well, hopefully we can find away around you having to throw it away, maybe it can be treated,” etc. so we did not trash it. We called the regional manager and left messages, but never got a call back.

The exterminator came the next day, and the leasing office manager came with him. He treated the two bedrooms- ours, which was infested, and our roommates, who had no bugs. He did not treat any other rooms. We showed the exterminator the bug we caught, which was a baby. When he saw it, he said that since it was a baby, we shouldn’t have too bad of an infestation. When we told him that we had seen ones much bigger, he said that since they were in all the different stages of life, and on the walls instead of hiding, we definitely had a severe infestation. He told us that we did need to get rid of our mattress immediately, so we threw it way (we defaced it first so that no one would take it, and looked every day until the dumpster was emptied to make sure no one had taken it out), and the manager said that they were going to reimburse us for a new one.

The exterminator said that he would be back in two weeks. For the first week, we could/should sleep outside our room. For the second week, we should sleep in there to watch their activity and see how many were left. The first night we were supposed to stay in our room, we walked in to look around, and within the first 5 minutes found about 10 bugs on the walls!

After searching more, we found several more bugs. While my boyfriend was taking a shower, he saw one on the wall in the bathroom, and I found one on the wall in the living room. Our roommates still have no signs of bed bugs in their room. We were immediately killing them, and the smears from that are still on the walls. After that, we decided it would be a good idea to try to catch them instead of killing them, and started sticking them to pieces of tape when we found them. Since they are fond of the poster we have on the wall (they are always climbing on it and behind it) we taped pieces of paper to the wall so we could catch them and kill them. We did not stay there, and still refuse to. No one should be expected to sleep in a room like that! My boyfriend and I have both been staying where ever we can- with our parents and our friends, anywhere there is an empty couch and sometimes on the floor somewhere. The day after we were supposed to start sleeping in our room again, we went back to the leasing office to tell them that the bugs had only gotten worse, and even spread to new rooms, and to have the exterminator come back sooner. He came today and sprayed again, telling us the same thing as he did before.

We are worried about what is going to happen. So far, the management has been fairly helpful and considerate. But we don’t know where to go from here. Obviously it’s going to take a long time for us to get rid of these bugs. Since we haven’t been able to stay there for 2 weeks, our costs are starting to add up. The laundromat is very expensive ($3.75 just to wash a load, and $0.25 for every 7 minutes of drying) and we spent $20 in the first day washing everything that had come in contact with the floor or the bed. We didn’t want to take those clothes anywhere else in fear of taking bugs to someone else’s house.

Our backs are hurting from sleeping on floors and couches, and the loss of sleep is starting to take a toll on my work and my grades. Being displaced, I am going to go to the office tomorrow and tell them that I’m not willing to pay rent for an apartment I can’t go to, and that I also want them to pay for a hotel room for my boyfriend and I. I at least expect them to take half off of the rent, since my roommates are not displaced and can still stay there. They could argue that we could be sleeping in the living room, but now that we’ve seen on in there it isn’t safe. Plus, I can’t be in that apartment for very long because of the lumps I’ve gotten as a reaction to being bitten. These lumps are extremely painful. Aside from them, I have actual bites that are very itchy.

I am not currently too angry with the management. So far, they have down everything we could. They’ve called the exterminator every time that we’ve confronted them about the situation getting worse. They agreed to pay for a new mattress (I forgot to get that statement in writing though). But I have a few more things I want them to do for us, and I will become angry if they’re not done, and I am planning on speaking with an attorney to confirm our rights as tenants and see if we can be guaranteed anything. I am not the type of person to bite the hand that feeds, but as a customer I feel like I deserve more and I believe they are going to refuse the rest of the things we ask of them.

People have given me advice that I should have them give us a new apartment, or let us break our lease with no fees and give us our deposits back. But I don’t think this would solve anything- the bugs have been in our room for so long now that I’m sure they’re in all of our belongings. If you do your research, you’ll see that bed bugs can hide anywhere. They hide in alarm clocks, lap tops, and all other sorts of appliances. They can hide in a crack of your dresser or shelves. There is no guarantee where they are hiding, so nothing we have can be absolutely safe. I’m convinced that the lumps in my head and neck are from these bugs. They have gotten smaller and less painful since I left my apartment. I have an appointment with my family doctor tomorrow to get them further examined, since the doctors in the emergency room could not tell what they were from. If this problem goes on for any longer, I am going to demand that:

1. We don’t owe rent for every day that we have to deal with this problem
2. They pay for another place for my boyfriend and I to stay
3. They replace everything that we have to dispose of
4. Pay my medical costs
5. They pay for all of the additional costs we incur because of a change in lifestyle

If it comes to the point of them asking us to leave, I will ask even more of them.

Does anyone have any more advice?

I turned on the light and told her to get up and when I pulled back her covers there were more tiny bugs around her I freaked out. I killed the ones I saw and moved the top mattress and saw more tiny bugs in the corner of her boxspring mattress. I was upset I didn’t know what those were. So I got on the internet and started researching and found out it was bed bugs.

She had black marks all over the boxspring mattress. I told my daughter to change her clothes and go lay with her sisters. The same day I had my boyfriend left the bottom mattress up and i thought I was going to throw up. There was so many bugs it was nasty. We threw it out side and then went to check my bed since we got it from the same store this year. Well come to find out we had it too just not that bad.

I was wondering why I had all these bites on my back as well. We threw the mattress and the boxspring out as well. We took them back to the furniture store and showed him he didn’t know what to say but sorry. So he came and sprayed the house and bought us new mattress.

Well a week later I saw them again in my daughters room so we told the furniture company and he had his pest control people come out and spray the house. I just took and cleaned all the bedding in the house. I actually threw my comforter and my daughters comforter away and bought more. I did care how much it was I will not let anything like that bite my kid again.

I have taken the beds apart in every room and vacuumed the whole house floors, cracks and all. I want to see if they come back. If they do I will tell the furniture man to bring the pest control people out until they are gone. I never had anything like that in my life.

I can’t even sleep at night any more. I am constantly looking under my sheets and my kids bed at night. I keep a flash light beside me all night. I always fell like something is crawling on me. I can’t believe some one would sell you used mattress or remade at that. This has been quit a nasty experience for me. I feel like we will never get rid of them. If he can’t get rid of these pests I will sue.

That was a month or 2 ago..now since my bites are getting worse my b/f pulled back our mattress and there they were. My point is it isn’t some tenants faults. This apartment complex knew who had them so they will know we didn’t bring these bastards in..and THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!

The bug guy did not check good when he was here a few months ago and its not our fault they hired a laZY unprofessional! Its so bad i don’t even want to live here anymore afraid they will just come back.. we have to get rid of our bed and couches which is expensive and we honestly cant afford all this right now to begin with so compensation would be the right thing to do for us and were going to talk to them about it.

We took pictures of my bites and our bed ..if they do not compensate us then we will fight.. not to mention we have a 4 1/2 month daughter and thank god she isn’t getting ate up and we think its because they didn’t drill in her room (wouldn’t let them..her room is way too pretty :) ) but that would have been a whole different thing if my baby was getting bitten by bed bugs!!! so i think landlords and tenants should take responsibility if they did it!

Here are the pictures (click on them to see large image):

Every person reacts to bed bug bites differently. A neighbor could have gotten them and had no reaction to the bites, therefor not knowing they had them. The bugs could of then moved to the neighbor’s apartment and infested there. If that neighbor is hyperactive to the bites then they would react to it in an extreme way. You can not sue your tenants for that. One there is no proof… Two it is legally the landlords responsibility to maintain his property, not the tenants. The tenants can help. However, they are not the ones who get sued if the problem becomes a large issue. It is you.

If you knew anything about the law at all then you would know this.

NOTE TO ALL: DO NOT USE FOGGERS! THEY WILL ONLY DISPERSE THE INFESTATION, MAKING IT HARDER TO CONTROL. LOOK INTO USING DIATOMACEOUS EARTH!

Good luck everybody! :)

If these renters had common sense, they would report the infestation in the beginning so it could be properly treated

So if my neighbors had a bedbug infestation and it spread to my apartment, I would sue him and make him pay for all the expenses because he started the problem

The treatment for the bed bugs was a 3 step treatment. We didn’t live in our apt. for 2 and a half weeks while this process was going on. come to find out that the people below us have bed bugs real bad. from what the exterminator said they have it so bad that there is blood from them all over their walls.

It’s been a little over a week since the last treatment and I’m starting to get bit again and so is my one daughter. Apparently when there is bedbugs the whole building is suppose to get treated because they will just run to the next apt. Well the down stairs people wont’ get treated so I believe this is going to be a never ending process until we move out next income tax season. this is just bad!

I corrected him and he got all huffy with me but the point is government officials are ignorant of the matter so don’t expect a lot of help. It’s an epidemic that no one person is to blame for. You can get them from the chair in your doctor’s waiting room, the chair in the wic office, the chair at school or work that others have sat in, even from the bus or the restaurant so don’t let anyone tell you you’re dirty if you have them.

It’s an epidemic and the landlord has the responsibility to treat against it and contain it, not point fingers at individuals for where they may have been in public and accidentally brought one home. In an epidemic, those responsible fore containment contain, they don’t point finger s and stick their heads in the sand to avoid having to come out of pocket . When you buy a building, you don’t buy a money machine/free unlimited supply ATM, you buy a responsibility that is not 100% profit; some of the rent has to go back in to maintenance and repair, but first and foremost:

* When you bought that building you bought a responsibility!! guess what else you bought? a risk!! yeah that’s right when you bought the building you understood you were going to be responsible for complying with the law and maintaining health and safety. when you take a risk it’s for better or worse and when the rents come in it’s better but when there’s a problem it’s worse and you don’t get to skip the worse part. it’s people like you who can’t keep marriages together and are ruining our society and our kids because you only want fair weather responsibility!! suck it up and do what you’re obligated to do and quit looking for excuses to sit and watch the problem get worse while not spending any money on it. it’s you landlords; fault that the problem is spreading because if you took care of it immediately like you should people wouldn’t be carrying them around and infesting public places where others pick them up and bring them back home to their apartments unknowingly. that’s how all of this is spreading.

all due to landlord apathy!

The landlords are irresponsible and try to blame each tenant individually but the manager knows who started it because he got a lamp from said lady and it had bedbugs in it so he threw it away and that was before others started complaining. She is a nasty, dirty, smelly old lady and I personally witnessed her leave huge loads of laundry sitting in the laundry for hours or even days before she would come back and wash it, and the laundry was seen to have bed bugs crawling literally all over it.

The big black guy who is half owner yells and calls names to try to intimidate people so that they get scared and stop complaining of the problem. Let me tell you something landlord on this forum (kim?) the first person who complains is NOT ground zero. They are just the first person who complains. I know one tenant in that building who is old and on sec 8 and she flat out told me she won’t complain because the big beefy young black landlord scares the crap out of her and she’s too old to move, doesn’t know how she’d do it. So she’d rather sit and suffer in silence.

You can not prove that the first person who speaks out about it is the first person to notice them or even the first person who brought them in. Some people are just nasty and will live with them because they don’t care, and some are too timid to say anything. BTW the older lady who is scared to speak is also black so though I have a bad opinion of the tenant who brought them I am not racist as this scared black lady I speak of is a dear friend.

Don’t rent a Holiday apt on w renette in el cajon the landlords have known of this bedbug infestation for more than a year now and purposely done nothing because they know all they have to do is blame each tenant who complains and the tenant will get confused because most don’t understand the law. You can withhold rent in CA to to correct situations that should be corrected by the landlord under implied habitability but aren’t.

Withhold rent, people, it’s the only way to get their attention because they don’t care about being decent human beings, they want us to shut up go away but hand them the rent check first. Then shut up and go away til next month’s rent is due. Stop putting up with it!!!