Nicholas Brown’s “The Bedbug Chronicles: Part 6″ sounds pretty familiar
By nobugsonme on Nov 14, 2007 in Huffington Post, Nicholas Brown, apartments, bed bug epidemic, bed bug treatment, bed bugs, bedbugs, dealing with bed bugs, disclosure, get rid of bed bugs, housing laws, how to get rid of bed bugs, how to kill bed bugs, ignorance, landlord knew, landlords, law, lawsuits, legal, living with bed bugs, new york, nyc, pest control, professional pest-control services: reviews, suggestion, tenants, treatment, usa
In this installment, we learn that bed bugs are taking a significant toll on Brown’s self-identity and social life:
Despite my anger, even our bug-laden living situation is finally normalizing. This process started first as a change in identity: I now think of myself as ‘the guy with bedbugs.’ It’s how I introduce myself. Maybe it’s not the first thing I say, but it will come up in the first five minutes of a conversation. I am taking an acting class and in the first session I said “hey, I am Nick and I have bedbugs,” as if I was in some particularly gross AA session. When I hear someone mention bedbugs in a conversation at a table next to me, I feel obliged to chime in.
They’re also making home very disorganized and uncomfortable, no small problem for someone whose office is at home. Things are not where they used to be; instead, they’re in bags all over the place:
While I am tempted to reassemble my room and my office (which are the same place), I realize there is every chance that the bugs will be back again so I have stopped trying to create a livable space and now just settle for someplace with interior heating.
We also learn that Brown still has bed bugs, well past the 30-day window landlords are given to eliminate bed bugs, under local housing laws. It is not unusual for landlords to need more time, though. Turns out, there are other reasons to be angry at the landlord:
Day 39
Our landlord, we discovered today, knew this apartment had bugs. The previous tenants moved out because of the bedbugs. The whole building - minus our apartment - was sprayed for bedbugs in the months after we moved in. No one mentioned this to us.
Isn’t this illegal? As I commented on the paragraph above, on Nicholas Brown’s blog, this should be illegal. Landlords should not be able to rent out an apartment that is known to be infested with bed bugs, to an unsuspecting tenant. I have a suspicion, however, that it already violates the housing laws. If any NYC rental housing experts are reading this, perhaps they could clarify.
Moreover, if the entire building except one apartment was being treated, any experienced PCO and even the landlord should realize that this might drive even more bed bugs into this unit.
What strikes me most about Brown’s saga, through these six installments, is how very typical it is. We at bedbugger.com have heard it all many times. While I am horrified to hear Brown’s tale, I thank him for sharing it in such a public medium.
By doing so, he may just convey the mess that bed bugs create in one’s life, as well as how easy it is to get them, and how very difficult it is to get rid of them, to those not yet in the know. And that recognition, my friends, is the first step in getting everyone else to help us fight the problem.
content rss
hopelessnomo | Nov 15, 2007 | Reply
We know exactly how he feels, don’t we? The first two weeks of living with bedbugs are harrowing enough, and those days and nights are long and surreal, but when nearing the two-month mark, you really feel like you are unrecognizable to yourself. All you think about is that it will never end.
And, do people understand that in this sad state of affairs one typically has to live with bedbugs for two months? And that, heaping injury where no more can be borne, two months is actually not bad relative to so many other experiences? Let’s not even go into the period, for so many, beyond the first two months.
I’m so sorry for Nicholas. I reread his first post and there was Isabella (remember the dreadful Isabella? A character that is indelible in my mind, so I hope she’s not just a composite) telling his roommate that their apartment should have been sprayed before they moved in. We completely missed that.
I think that is a good question, whether it was illegal. I suspect not, simply in the sense that these things have not yet been encoded, and someone would have to sue I suppose. Maybe people in the know can clue us in. I have no doubt that this is happening all over the city, however.
I really hope his PCO is a good one. It all comes down to the technicians. If they phone it in, it’s all kind of hopeless, no matter how many visits they make, although making those follow-ups every two weeks is really crucial.
Finally, there seems to be two broad categories of experiencing the end of an infestation: those who see progressive improvement, starting with significant improvement after the first treatment, and those who just get hammered up until the end and then, as suddenly as the bites started, they stop.
nobugsonme | Nov 16, 2007 | Reply
Hopelessnomo,
Wonderful assessment. I agree with you on everything–and I suspect you are right about the legality.
I am skeptical about lawsuits in general, as you know. But I would not blame anyone for taking a landlord to court for knowingly subjecting tenants to this, if indeed that is the story.
Anonymous | Nov 16, 2007 | Reply
I can totally relate to Brown. We have been dealing with this for 5 months. Three sprays has made the problem less but not gone. We still see them on the walls, ceiling, floor, and even in the kitchen. And I believe that the landlord knew about ours also. There were 13 people living in our 3-bed before us with 11 beds that were trashed. Normally the landlord keeps all articles left behind and tries to sell them. The apartment was also infested with cockroaches. It is totally gross. My kids have no beds and most of our stuff is in the garage for fear it will become infested. I have even had to get a bed bug out of my sisters ear one night. Thats how bad these bugs are! What these bugs have cost us is our dignity and our pride.
hopelessnomo | Nov 16, 2007 | Reply
Anonymous, “three sprays” in 5 months are not likely to do anything but annoy your bugs!
That’s terrible. You need to lobby for better treatment.