UF IFAS
As part of the legislative protections that were passed to help citizens during COVID-19, The CARES Act was passed by Congress to ensure renters were not being evicted for failing to pay rent. Many states and local governments have similar companion legislative pieces that support the people in those jurisdictions.
But the fact that more people were staying at home, especially during 2020, may have helped bed bug infestations to increase in apartment settings because many renters during that period weren’t comfortable with having someone in their home. The dangers of COVID-19 were relatively unknown at the start of the pandemic, so most families didn’t have relatives visit, much less pest control technicians.
One of the biggest issues apartment management companies face throughout the pandemic is that the cost of bed bug treatments is not minimal, so not all tenants expect to be able to cover that fee when trouble arises.
Andrew Davitt, B.C.E, is the Corporate Commercial Pest Services Manager for Alabama-based Cook’s Pest Control. One of the largest pest management firms in the country, Cook’s does quite a bit of bed bug work in not only Alabama but also in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.
“Bed bug treatments can be pretty expensive and not every lease that people have covers it,” Davitt says. “They will make the renter cover it and a lot of times the renter can’t afford it. In the corners, on the walls, it can be pretty bad if left unchecked.
“That also definitely happens you get an apartment that nobody’s been in for a while and the tenant leaves, and you can get some pretty intense infestations. Then you have to strip the room down and take all the furniture out.
Thomas Sieminski, M.A., is President of Sayville, New York-based Team Pest Control, which does a lot of bed bug work and has experience with rental units.
He says that educating the renters is tremendously important in ensuring a bed bug problem doesn’t become a full-blown infestation. It feels natural to him as a former high school biology and chemistry teacher.
“Rent protection has been a double-edged sword,” he says. “Not many people are moving and not many people are complaining about bed bug issues.
“When (rent protection) ends there will be an increase in work, no doubt. In order to be proactive, I offer property managers a free lecture on bed bug management protocols, strategies and overall knowledge to help them prepare for what’s coming later.”
According to Kyle Kromer, Multi-Housing Operations Manager for Minnesota-based Plunkett’s Pest Control, bed bug issues can vary for a number of reasons.
“There is no surefire way to know at this time how many untreated infestations there are. One gauge is surrounding units in a multi-housing setting. We are very successful in finding ‘source’ units when inspecting our surrounding units as the ‘source’ unit is typically not the unit that reports the infestation(s) initially.
“In single-family home rentals, owners may end up with extensive infestations of pests that have gone unreported. Plunkett’s firmly believes in implementing quarterly proactive bed bug inspections for sites that have ongoing or extensive bed bug infestations or are high-risk of non-reported bed bug issues; as well as move-in/move-out inspections.”
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