Bed Bug Infestation In Northeast Gainesville Apartment
Published September 19th, 2012
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GAINESVILLE - Tenants in a Northeast Gainesville apartment are sharing their homes with unusual roommates: Bed bugs. A few month backs these were just accusations towards the complex but now as the residents' complains increase, there's proof it's more than just a claim.
Latondra Mays has managed to collect a jar of bed bugs from her home. "You don't even want to come right here and walk around here and see these conditions but you want to rent it out to somebody," she says. She feels her apartment complex is not trying hard enough to get rid of the infestation she discovered last month.
She's had to throw away a lot of her belongings. "This stuff is new, tags are still on this stuff and they got bed bugs. I can't even attempt to wear that, she says."
Mays lives in a Section 8 apartment and under HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Phil Koehler an expert on entomology at the University of Florida says there are several rules governing how fast bed bugs should be controlled for section eight apartments like Green Village. Koehler says, "With public assisted housing authorities they are required to have an inspection within 3 days of bed bugs are found and treatment within 5 days."
The apartment's management refused to talk to us about the issue. Mays says it took a lot of begging on her behalf for the apartment to hire terminix and fumigate her home twice. However she says it's going to take a lot more than that, as the bed bugs are impacting many of her neighbors as well. Mays says, "I don't want to live like this, I don't live like this. This is nasty. I ain't have them before I got here, they're not trying to treat them. They are coming up out of the rugs." All she asks is to be moved to another apartment without any unexpected roommates.
Experts say one way to avoid being in mays' situation is to prevent accepting used furniture or picking up furniture off the street.
Reporter:
Stephanie Bechara
