Edgemont Estates    |    Gia Davis    |    Los Angeles    ,    California 90029    Landlord Complaint 21-8109

A bit after moving into this studio apartment, I began to notice that I was itchy and had small bites in suspicious patterns. I asked the manager to inspect the apartment, which they did and supposedly found no signs of nesting. Later, I actually saw a live bug and reported it to management. My apartment was treated with pesticides and pursuant to all of the instructions, I washed all of my belongings, and prepped my apartment for proper treatment. In addition, I purchased mattress encasements, plastic bins for my books, and other limited application pesticides. I also purchased diatomaceous earth, which I regularly apply along the baseboards and around my bed. Two months after this pesticide treatment, I began to notice bites again. Recently, I have spotted live bugs in various stages. After all of my trouble and expense just 2 months ago, I am right back where I started. I have since learned that there are several units including my neighbor across the hall that has this problem. Her apartment has been sprayed 3 separate times. On the bed bug report online, past tenants wrote that the building has had a problem since 2007. The manager told me that the pest company said that these pests do not travel from unit to unit, but any superficial internet research will tell you that is not the truth. In fact, since my neighbors were sprayed, I think they have migrated back to my apartment. Because of improper treatment, I believe the bugs are probably in the walls of the building at this point. The management owes it to all of the tenants to thoroughly treat the building, rather than just spraying pesticides every now and again--a technique that is shown not to have long-lasting effects. I will definitely be moving when my lease is up at the end of July 2012, but I am extremely worried that because this apartment and my neighbors' have not been properly treated, the bugs will hitch a ride to my next dwelling. As a resolution to this issue, I would like to hire a pest control company to come in to steam or heat treat /apply pesticides to my apartment and my belongings shortly before I move out, and have management pay for it. Proper heat treatment is the only real way to deal with this, as pesticides alone are not enough.