In some places, landlords don’t have to provide bed bug treatment.

According to this site, Florida isn’t one of them. The site notes,

General Landlord Duties

Landlords are required to deliver possession of the rental property to the renter when the lease period begins. Failure to do so may entitle the renter to sue for damages. A landlord must ensure that residential property is habitable. This includes complying with all building, housing and health codes … Certain pests (e.g., rats, mice, roaches, ants, bedbugs) must be exterminated. … If a landlord fails to keep up with required repairs, a tenant should give the landlord written notice of the noncompliance. If the landlord fails to make the repairs within seven days of receiving notice, the tenant has the right to terminate the lease.

I’m not sure of the situation here (if there are exceptions, as in some places), but this Jacksonville tenant is tossing out her furniture and trying to self-treat because she can’t afford a pest control professional. Click here for the video, or here for the article.

Update 11/26:  The Jacksonville woman, Nicole Fenton, has now had Turner Pest Control bring their bed bug dog Abby in and treat her home free of charge.  Thank goodness!

I hope her bed bugs are completely gone very soon.

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MSNBC reports that an Eatontown, NJ man blew his apartment up while trying to get rid of insects with bug spray in his apartment:

The accident occurred as [Isias Vidal] Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment’s front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

Eighty percent of the apartment was destroyed and the neighboring apartment suffered smoke damage.

There’s no indication of whether the problem was bed bugs, though it would not surprise me, as this is one pest people often try and self treat, rather than admit to their landlords that they need help.

I think this is more true with bed bugs than with other pests because people often feel embarrassed about having bed bugs, especially if they normally keep their homes pest-free. Since this is one pest that is not attracted to messy or dirty homes, it’s impossible to prevent.

Bedbugger doesn’t recommend self-treatment of bed bugs for a variety of reasons, one of which is that they can be dangerous if misused.

An even more tragic story featuring an attempt at self-treating for bed bugs is here.

If you’re still tempted to do it yourself, read this, and remember: if you must use pesticides, always use them carefully and as labeled.
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