Tenants leave bed bugs behind in Matawan, NJ apartment

Some renters mistakenly believe that they can escape bed bugs by packing up their bags and moving out of their bed-bug infested unit. It’s a bad strategy. By failing to tell the property manager of the infestation, they put the incoming tenants at risk as well as the entire building.  Also, invariably, there are hitchhiking bed bugs somewhere in their belongings, and bed bugs will continue to follow them like a bad rash. All these departing tenants did was relocate themselves and their bed bug infestation to a new location. This is a prime example why bed bug infestations just keep spreading, especially in apartments and other multi-family housing where its residents are more transient. 

 Here, with this unit in an apartment complex in Matawan, NJ, serviced by Cowleys, maintenance staff had come into the unit to get it prepped for new tenants. Fortunately, they were observant and found evidence of bed bug activity. Oftentimes, we have to deal with clutter which makes the bed bug treatment more challenging. Even though this was a heavy bed bug infestation, it was a relief for me that I could treat an empty unit stripped down to its bare walls. These bugs had limited places to hide. And if you think that without any human hosts, they’ll just move to another unit in the building, they won’t — at least for awhile. Bed bugs can go without a blood meal for up to a year, or even a bit longer, depending on the temperature and humidity levels. So, even though these insects temporarily had no human hosts, they were in no rush to look elsewhere.  

Upon inspection, to ensure that this infestation would be completely resolved before any new tenants moved in, I asked the maintenance director to have his staff remove the baseboards from the wall perimeter as well as the outlet receptacle and light switch covers. I explained to him that bed bugs like to stay out of sight in dark, tight areas where they enjoy the security of pressure on multiple sides of their body. These insects are flat like pancakes, especially between feedings, so they can easily squeeze into the narrowest spaces. With no other hiding spots now that the unit was empty, I was confident that many of them were holed up behind the baseboards or inside the outlet and light switch boxes. 

Now, with their harborage areas exposed, i could begin treatment. I injected a residual dust in all of little light and switch boxes. This dust, a highly effective desiccant, kills the bugs by extracting the moisture in their body and drying them up. With the baseboards removed, I applied a liquid application along the interior perimeter to penetrate all of the cracks, nooks, and crannies along the wall. The maintenance staff here was extremely helpful getting the unit ready for an effective treatment. With bed bug infestations in apartment buildings, a cooperative maintenance staff can make all the difference in achieving a quick resolution of the problem.