How to Identify and Dispose of Bed Bugs in Your Rental Unit

Tenants have a right to fit and habitable housing, which includes living in a dwelling free of bed bugs. Left untreated, your tenant might be able to break their lease because of a bed bug problem, especially if they can prove the bugs were there before they moved in.  Here’s how to deal with a bed bug problem and prevent a future infestation.

Does the Unit Have Bed Bugs?

Bedbugs are small, oval, brown insects that feed on the blood of animals and humans. Their flattened bodies allow them to live in tiny spaces of a unit. They tend to live in groups in hiding places, and move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings. They can live for about 10 months to a year.

You can distinguish bed bugs from other pests by checking whether there are blood stains on sheets or pillowcases, or rust-colored spots on sheets from bed bug excrement.  You should also check for bed bug skins that have been shed on the mattress.  If these conditions are present, you most likely have bed bugs. 

How Can You Rid Your Property of Bed Bugs?

Serious bed bug infestations can be a nightmare to fully remove. The first step is to vacuum every surface in the room, including the baseboards, all the furniture, the mattress, box spring, and bed frame. The next step is to chemically treat the area.  Use professional strength product.  Once that has been completed, enclose the mattress and box spring in encasement bags. Encasement bags have special zippers that trap the bed bugs and prevent them from escaping. Keep these bags on for at least a year.

You should also bag up all your clothes, towels, bedding and curtains in plastic bags. Place them in a washing machine, wash with hot water and dry thoroughly. Temperatures over 120 degrees Fahrenheit will kill bed bugs and any eggs they’ve left behind.

Call an Exterminator

If your willing to spend the money, another option is to hire an exterminator.  Exterminators have special equipment that raises the temperature in the infested area to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit and then maintains that temperature for 70 minutes to kill both adults and eggs.  Expect to pay about $200 per room to kill bed bugs. Professional heat treatments will cost even more. 

Who Is at Fault for Bed Bugs?

It can be difficult to determine how the bed bugs arrived, especially in an apartment building.  A resident of another unit could have brought in the bed bugs, and those bed bugs could have then traveled from the infested apartment to your rental through floorboards or small cracks in the walls.

How Can You Prevent Bed Bugs?

A cluttered apartment or house presents an ideal environment for bed bugs. Clutter provides a perfect place for bed bugs to hide, and it makes the treatment process more difficult.  General cleanliness will also go a long way to prevent pest infestations of any type. Your tenants should be keeping the rental unit clean, especially if you have carpet in the unit.

Hopefully you never have to deal with a major pest infestation, especially bed bugs. These critters are the bane of any landlord’s existence. Unless you’ve caught the problem early, serious bed bug infestations can be difficult to fully remove.