Was just notified by my tenant of two years in a duplex apartment that she has bed begs and what am I going to do about it. I noticed a few weeks ago she got new mattress and I said well maybe they came from the new mattress. She did not reply (she never said she had them earlier). Is the landlord responsible for paying for the extermination which quite costly? I think it would be unfair if the landlord had to pay. Am I incorrect in my thinking? --198.203.xxx.xxx

If she did not have them prior to the delivery of her new bed then I bet they came on the delivery truck. Most bedding stores offer disposal of the old with purchase & delivery of the new beds. Bed bugs can easily ride out of someone else's house with the old beds & make a nice home in the new beds while they ride in the truck to the next stop. --72.85.xxx.xxx

Chances are very slim they came from a new bedding product, they are wrapped in plastic to prevent this, there are hardware store shelf treatments which are pretty effective, if this is a single family place I would buy them the first treatment and advise them they must follow the directions closely to prevent the newborn eggs from reproducing again. --76.241.xxx.xx

First make sure they really are bedbugs. By law, in some places new mattresses have to be sealed in plastic before they are delivered. This is because the mattress store picks up the old infested mattress at the same time they deliver the new one. Since they are in the same truck, contamination occurs. I bet this is what happened. Her kids may have even gotten it from school. They are found in theaters now so you can sit in the movies and take them home with you. If it were a SFH it would be her problem. Local law is going to prevail here. Even if the other duplex is clean, and it is clearly only her unit it should be her problem. But in multi's it usually falls to the landlord. You have to have her complete co-operation to eradicate them. Whatever you do, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. Seal the bag with the dirt and rebag and seal it. I found it easier to get rid of the tenant, clean, spray every two weeks with the same stuff my exterminator uses. Whatever happens or who is responsible it needs to get treated sooner rather than later. You do not want to let it get bad. --174.130.xxx.xxx

pounce on this asap, cheapest way is to have inspection with bb dogs and then eradicate check lease I now have bb inspection inbetween tenants and if found I pay and have treatment but then tenant that caused is responsible for final bill. get copy of bill for new mattress. this is a huge hot button issue in ct and will cost you. get documentation it is tenants fault before they go to free attorney. --98.77.xx.xx