spected and I was given a clean bill of no bedbugs. We were told the inspections were going to be done on a monthly basis. The following month on October 17, 2010, was the next inspection and unfortunately to me, the exterminator said I had them and then advised me that the two above apts had them last month. Why wasn't I told a month ago about my above neightbors. I went up to my direct above neighbors and told them that now I had them and asked them why they didnt tell me. They said they were embarrassed and they got them from the apt above them, whose is an elderly sickly man who is a known hoarder and they were told that he had them for months before. OMG! I called the Mgmt co and asked them as to why wasn't I told about the two floors directly above me who had them. They said they didn't want to raise panic. I told them they should have been proactive. Well this problem went on for 7 months and spread to other apts. The mgmt co sent exterminators the first month once a week, then after that it was once every two weeks, then every three weeks, then every month and stopped treatment at the end of March 2011. The problem was not going away. I threw out most of my belongings even famiy heirlooms that were made out of wood from my great uncle, had my clothes washed and dry cleaned and storaged at the dry cleaners for 5 months. Good thing i was a good customer, they didnt charge me for storage. Put everything possible in place tubs and lived in a shell of an apt. The extermintors told me to vaseline all the legs of my furniture including the beds and we did. Bought my own bedbug spray and sprayed almost every night. My fiance caulked my apt in every room that didn't have powder including closets , bathroom, hallway moldings, kitchen etc. this took three months of weekends and I would find one bug at a time but everywhere. Even one was on my stovetop. I wished I could have moved but lived with my sickly mother and could not do so, she didn't want to nor was in any condition. I was born and raised in my apt and my mother has lived in the apt since she was a young adult, too many memories. I spoke to a landlord tenant lawyer and he said it will take time but as long as the mgmt co sends exterminators, he is doing what the law requires. He did tell me that as long as the hoarders apt was not cleaned out, we will never get rid of this problem and to call APS. Well, I did and so did my neighbors. In fact the landlord called me and asked if I called because APS called him. I told him yes and so did others. Well, the landlord took the elderly man to court with APS since he refused to completely clean out his apt and since the apt building was infested they needed to have his apt cleaned out. In early May 2011, a huge truck came with men in hazmat suits taking bags, bags, bags out of his apt which filled this huge truck which was at least three cars long. I didn't see anymore since then. However, Memorial Day wkend the 1st floor tenants by mailboxes had all their stuff out in the hallway and we found out that they had bedbugs. They moved a mth or two later. Since then we haven't heard anything or seen anything but we are still not fully living, we always look around.The outcome is spent close to $ 4000 in tubs, dry cleaning bills, laundry bills, bedbug sprays and Glad garbage bags. A living nightmare!, This has certainly changed how I live and now I am neurotic. I admit I went to extremes, but I had to in order to contain this problem in my apt. I try to take precautions everywhere I go. I dont go to the movies anymore and wont go to hotels. After what I went through I wouldn't want anyone to go through it. My best advice is to be aware and educate yourself. Bedbugs do not like light or alcohol 90 percent. Wash everything in hot water and hot dryer, or dry clean. Bedbugs don't like plastic, put clothes in plastic bags and/or tubs. Do not have clutter, they love clutter!
Now I guess with all the bills the landlord incurred due to this problem, extermintor bills, lawyer bills to go to court and other bills, this winter we have not received much heat as we normally have in all the years.