West Side Renters Fight Bed Bugs
Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Cincinnati, ohio |
Residents of a West Side apartment building say an insect infestation is driving them from their homes.
They say they’re going back-and-forth with their landlord, to find a solution to their battle with bed bugs.
They’ve called the health department for help. The landlord says he’s been working with tenants and a pest control company to get the bugs out of his building.
“We got most of the stuff that we live with in bags,” said Harold Heekin, apartment infested.
Heekin’s life is wrapped up in plastic, his furniture turned on its sides. He sleeps on an air mattress.
“Here’s a blood mark from one of them that got us while we were sleepin’.”
Heekin says several apartments in the building have bed bugs like these.
He and his wife have bought a house and they’re ready to move.
“The problem is, what do we do? Do we throw everything away and start over so we don’t take them with us? We don’t know what to do.”
Another neighbor says he’s being eaten alive every night.
According to residents, it started when one unit got infested and the tenants were evicted, but the apartment was never cleaned out.
“I mean there’s still furniture, bed bugs all over the walls,” said Tina Reynolds, resident. “Name it, it’s nasty.”
“If that apartment was cleaned out from the get go, like it should’ve been, we wouldn’t be having this problem,” said Reynolds.
Residents say black spots all along the walls are bed bugs and their waste.
The landlord uses a local exterminator, Delhi Pest Control, to treat the building.
There’s also notices in the buildings urging residents to stop visiting known, infested apartments.
Experts say that’s one way the bugs spread.
“What’s typical is a neighbor visits a neighbor and bed bugs are hitch hikers and they commute through that way,” said Charles Tassell, Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Apartment Association.
Experts also say it takes several visits from exterminators to kill the pests.
People living at the apartment building wish the bugs would stop sucking the blood out of their bodies and the money out of their pockets.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Heekin.
The health department has received the request for service from the tenants. They should be out to look at the property either Monday or Tuesday.
The Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Apartment Association says in some cases tenants have trouble getting their homes ready for inspection and treatment.
Treatment usually requires many items, including some furniture, be lifted off the floor.
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