Managing Bed Bugs in Multi-Unit Housing

Editor’s note: This article previously appeared in an issue of PCT Canada. To learn more, visit https://www.pctonline.com/page/pct-canada/.

Bed bug work is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. Throw in multiple residences and a few uncooperative tenants, and controlling the pests can become more like an expensive game of whack-a-mole.

Pest management professionals shared reminders to help improve the game-day strategy for eliminating bed bugs in multi-unit housing:

1. SHOW SOME RESPECT. “That’s kind of where it starts,” says Doug Smith, president of Apex Pest Control, Milton, Ont. Bed bug work is “way more intimate” than other pest control services, and technicians, like first responders, see a lot. “Unless you know the (tenant’s) entire story, you can’t pass judgment,” he says. Even contrarian tenants are more cooperative when shown respect, says Daniel Morgan, president of GreenTech Bug Heat, Toronto. “We can win people over quite easily by just explaining to them that, look, you don’t have to live in a place where you’re getting bit every night, and we’re here to help you,” he says.

2. DIG INTO DETAILS. Controlling bed bugs requires a strict, almost obsessive attention to detail. “They will hide in the craziest places you’ve ever seen in your life,” says Morgan, who has found them living in the gap of a crescent wrench, a Wi-Fi router and the pinch pleats of draperies. Jim Petty, owner of Petty Pest Control Services in Hamilton, Ont., has asked landlords to remove baseboards — not an easy task in old buildings when heavy molding is covered in decades’ worth of paint — to get better access for an insecticide dust application.

3. LOOK UP. When inspecting units, don’t overlook the ceiling. With longer-term, multi-generational bed bug infestations, female bed bugs often crawl upward, laying eggs in the crease where walls meet the ceiling and in the ceiling corners. “If you look up and you see a little cluster of bed bugs up at the top of the ceiling, it tells me right away that this is not a new problem, and from there I know I need to do things a little bit differently,” says Morgan of choosing a treatment strategy.

4. PREP FOR THE PREP. Inadequate site preparation “is the biggest impediment to a good treatment,” says Petty. So before his technicians arrive onsite to start treatment, he works with landlords and tenants to secure their buy-in and help them understand why it is so important to prepare units properly despite the inconvenience. Petty’s crew lends assistance to elderly and infirm tenants. “It needs to get done if they want to get rid of them,” he says of the pests.

5. TEACH TENANTS. Bed bugs spread when tenants are afraid to report them. “We educate the tenants on behalf of the landlords and tell them No. 1, you’re not in trouble, and No. 2, we want to know if you have bed bugs, because the sooner you report it, the easier it will be for us to fix the problem and the less expensive it will be for the landlord,” says Morgan. Also helpful: clearly worded preparation checklists and hand-outs explaining the treatment and how to prevent reintroductions of the pest.

6. SET UP REMINDERS. People are busy and have short memories. As such, it pays to remind landlords in advance and more than once of impending treatment or follow-up visits. Before Apex set up a reminder system, technicians might show up to find notifications unposted or units unprepared and then have to charge unable-to-treat fees. “If a client starts getting tagged with too many of those, then that’s not a good relationship,” Smith says.

7. CONSIDER MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS. “There is no Holy Grail in our business with bed bugs. It takes a whole bunch of different approaches” to eliminate the pests, says Smith. Depending on the client’s needs and infestation, experienced PMPs use a mix of pesticides — liquids, dusts, aerosols — along with vacuuming, steaming, mattress encasements, heat treatments and canine inspection. If cost is an issue, just encase the box spring, which provides more harborage for bed bugs and is more difficult to access, advises Smith.

8. BLOCK (AND TACKLE). “If you get a unit that is totally infested, you definitely have to inspect the adjacent units,” namely those located next door, above and below, says Petty. Landlords can be “very leery” of inspecting and treating neighboring units due to cost, since many tenants are unable to pay rent due to COVID, he says. It’s important to help landlords understand the cost benefit of the block inspection and treatment strategy, because it helps prevent bed bug infestations from spreading further.

9. INSPECT ALL UNITS. Apex Pest Control recommends full-building inspections for bed bugs at least once a year. This preventive approach costs money but helps identify infestations before they spread to adjacent units. At one complex, Smith found bed bugs traveling two stories up into other units. The source was a unit to which he was consistently denied access. Inspecting every unit also provides important data that can be mined monthly and yearly to improve your service and prove its value to clients, he says.

10. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. When faced with a moderate or severe infestation, Apex bed bug technicians are required to enter detailed notes into the company’s online job tracking system. “It just can’t be ‘found bed bugs in closet;’ it has to be solution notes” that address what Apex, the tenant and property manager need to do differently to create a successful outcome, explains Smith.

11. ELIMINATE THE MIDDLEMAN. The call center at GreenTech Bug Heat handles tenant questions and concerns regarding bed bug site preparation and treatment. Communicating directly with tenants is more prompt, effective and eliminates misunderstandings compared to when information is passed between multiple parties. As a result, busy property managers are more available to address “real issues that require their help,” like dealing with uncooperative tenants, explains Morgan. “We take the minutiae away from them and we deal with it for them,” he explains.

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT.