Home Rental Bed Bug Problem

by Yvonne Scott
(Waynesboro PA USA)

We moved into a house and throughout the winter months nothing ever happened until it got warmer outside. My son woke up one morning with a ton of little red bumps all over his feet, arms, legs and his face.

I took him into the doctors and they treated him for scabies. It got worse so I took him into the Emergency Room and they treated him again for scabies.

I had changed his mattress, washed all his clothes and bedding. When we got home that night a ton of tiny little bugs were all over his bed. I took a good look at them and they were bedbugs.
After that night my son was still being bitten and then we found these monsters in other rooms of the house.

We brought Terminix into the home and they told us that the chemicals they had would not kill the bugs and the only way to get rid of these monsters was to fumigate the whole house and it would cost 40,000 dollars, because the house is really badly infested with bedbugs.

I spoke to an attorney about what we could do, she told us to send a certified letter to the landlord about the problems in the home. We did that and we gave him 20 days to get it or fixed due to us not paying rent.

On the 19th day he came by with an eviction notice for us to leave the house. He stated that we were the ones that put these little monsters in the house and we never had bedbugs as long as I have lived. Now he is taking us to court trying to make us pay for something we didn't infest.

Now we have lost everything we worked so long and hard to get. It's really sad as we are a low income family that now doesn't have anything. It's all gone.....we are going to take him to court to get something back for all that we lost....if this happens to you get as much proof as possible that you didn't bring these monsters into your home and sue the landlord for all he has.

Editor Comment

Thank you for sharing this story about the consequences of beds when you rent a home. Sorry to hear about the bed bug infestation and eviction problem. This is definitely a story that every person renting a home should read.

For anyone reading, it is common to confuse scabies with bed bugs. As noted, one way to tell is to look for the bugs in the seams of the mattress. Also, scabies rashes don't have a clear center, while bed bug bites have a clear center surrounded by a red raised area.

Also, it might pay to check in with your local and State Government agency to see if their is any legislation regarding bed bugs and tenant rights. This would include the Franklin County Human Services Department (717-261-3141) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.