Category Archives: Bed Bugs West Virginia

Can You Sue a Hotel for Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are a fear for anyone who travels and with good reason. These tiny bugs are painful, and they can be extremely difficult and expensive to get rid of once they have infested an area. If bed bugs hitchhiked onto your clothing or your luggage from a hotel room, you may be feeling like someone should compensate you for the cost and nuisance of their removal, which might even include alternative living arrangements until the bugs have been cleared from your home.

These insects are small about the size of an apple seed brown, and oval. They live off the blood of people and animals. They crawl across floors and ceilings. Like lice, they dont fly but they are excellent hitchhikers and have been known to hitch onto travelers luggage or clothing after staying in hotels.

Some people assume that bed bugs are from dirty residences, but thats not necessarily the case, and they dont transmit diseases. Any area can get infested with bed bugs; all it takes is one to infest an entire residence. They have been found in 5-star hotels as well as low-income housing.

Getting rid of bed bugs isnt easy once one has found its way into your home. Wash and dry all clothing and bedding in the hottest water cycle of your washing machine. They can be killed by heat. You can try to vacuum your beds and furniture, but in the worst cases, youll need to discard them. Steam clean any carpeting in addition to vacuuming. When you empty the vacuum bin, put the refuse into a sealed container.

The good news is that you can sue a hotel for negligence if you got bed bugs after a stay. The more difficult news is that you must prove the hotel was negligent and that negligence is what caused your luggage or clothing to become targeted.

To prove negligence, youll have to prove the hotel knew about the infestation and didnt take proper measures to rid the rooms of the bugs, or that the hotel didnt do proper inspections and that lack of care resulted in the bed bug infestation. What makes this difficult to prove is the initial invisibility of a few bed bugs. How would a hotel know if there was an issue at an early stage? One hitchhiker could populate your entire home. It would be impossible for a hotel to have this kind of foresight at least that is likely what the court will think.

If you have had an infestation, be sure to keep all evidence of your hotel stay as well as receipts for everything youve paid for treatment and bed bug removal.

You can file a lawsuit if you find enough evidence that the hotel acted negligently in their response to bed bugs. Your possible damages may include:

As early as last year, West Virginia was still in the throes of a bed bug epidemic. Tenants of homes infested with bed bugs had no protection under state or federal laws. Current state law requires that hotels be free of bed bugs, but there is no state law regarding rentals.

Because the prevalence of bed bugs in this area is such an issue, hotels should be diligent in their prevention of bed bug infestations. If you think your home was infested because you stayed in a hotel with bed bugs, contact an attorney at Tiano ODell, PLLC to discuss your case.

Sources:http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2011/11/how-to-sue-a-hotel-for-bed-bugs.html

http://www.register-herald.com/news/bedbug-epidemic-plagues-west-virginia/article_9bd4a83c-c477-5c60-b26e-af06bf4a0ce5.html

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Can You Sue a Hotel for Bed Bugs? | Tiano Odell Law

Ive Found Bed Bugs In My Rental Place. What Do I Need To Know?

Uh oh. You've discovered what you think might be bed bugs in your rented apartment or house. How did this happen? What should you do? Where can you get more information?

Bed bugs are small, oval flat, reddish-brown insects. Adult bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed. Here's a picture that should help you understand whether the bugs you see are likely to be bed bugs:

Bed bugs live anywhere people live, work or play. They live in or on our belongings - clothes, linens, upholstered furniture, mattresses, inside walls and baseboards, or in nightstands or dressers. But bed bugs do not live ON PEOPLE, or in your skin.

Adult bed bugs can survive for up to six months without feeding!

The US Centers for Disease Control say that bed bugs do not carry disease:

"Bed bugs should not be considered as a medical or public health hazard. Bed bugs are not known to spread disease. Bed bugs can be an annoyance because their presence may cause itching and loss of sleep. Sometimes the itching can lead to excessive scratching that can sometimes increase the chance of a secondary skin infection." CDC FAQs on Bed Bugs.

Here's what the US Centers for Disease Control says on their web site:

"Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep. These areas include apartments, shelters, rooming houses, hotels, cruise ships, buses, trains, and dorm rooms. They hide during the day in places such as seams of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, inside cracks or crevices, behind wallpaper, or any other clutter or objects around a bed. Bed bugs have been shown to be able to travel over 100 feet in a night but tend to live within 8 feet of where people sleep." CDC FAQs on Bed Bugs.

In your home, bed bugs will most commonly be found in:

For example, here's a picture of bed bugs hiding at the end of a mattress:

Or on a sofa under the cushions:

Here's more information from the CDC:

"Bed bugs are experts at hiding. Their slim flat bodies allow them to fit into the smallest of spaces and stay there for long periods of time, even without a blood meal. Bed bugs are usually transported from place to place as people travel. The bed bugs travel in the seams and folds of luggage, overnight bags, folded clothes, bedding, furniture, and anywhere else where they can hide.Most people do not realize they are transporting stow-away bed bugs as they travel from location to location, infecting areas as they travel." CDC FAQs on Bed Bugs (emphasis added by LAWV).

Bed bugs are tremendous "hitch hikers." Suppose you put a box or a bag or a purse down on the carpet in a place that has bed bugs. It could be a movie theater, a restaurant, a hotel, or a friend's house. A few bugs might get in, and you don't notice. Then they "hitch a ride" with you, wherever you take that box or bag: to your work, to your home, or to a another friend's house. And you may never even be aware that they're riding with you.

Once bed bugs are in a building, they can spread rapidly. They can go through the walls, to move from one apartment to another.

Possibly anyone and everyone. High income people and low income people. Anyone who travels through a building with bed bugs has a chance of picking them up and taking them somewhere else.

Bed bugs are not caused by "bad housekeeping." You can't prevent them just by keeping your house and kitchen clean. You can't get rid of them just by cleaning your house or kitchen better.

But it is important to reduce "clutter" in your home: piles of papers and newspapers, magazines, posters, or clothes on the floor. Those are the kinds of places that bed bugs will hide, once they find their way into your living environment. For more information about cleaning to help reduce or remove bedbugs, read this article from the WVU Extension Service.

Let's start with one fact. The presence of bed bugs, by itself, does not prove that any one did anything wrong. There may be "fault," but you have to look deeper to find out what really happened.

Landlord Obligations:

Buying a can of bug spray at the grocery store is not a "reasonable step." Controlling bed bugs is not that easy. The landlord should be consulting professional exterminators, or qualified entomologists, for guidance on appropriate methods of treating bed bug infestations.

Tenant Obligations:

The truth is that much of the time it isn't anyone's "fault." In those cases bed bugs are a problem that has to be addressed. Both landlord and tenant are going to be part of the solution. Both landlord and tenant are likely to lose some money in solving the problem.

That depends on whether anyone did anything "wrong." Sometimes bed bugs appear and it's no one's "fault." In that case, there's no one that is obligated to pay for your loss. The landlord will have to pay for treatment. You will have to pay for replacement of your stuff.

Suppose your neighbor knew he had bed bugs, but didn't tell the landlord. So the problem got worse, and the bed bugs spread to your apartment. You may be able to sue the neighbor.

Suppose the neighbor DID tell the landlord, but the landlord didn't take appropriate steps to treat the bed bugs. You may be able to sue the landlord.

Suppose the landlord knew the building had bed bugs before you moved in, and didn't tell you about them. You may be able to sue the landlord.

But if no one did anything wrong, then there's no one you can force to pay for the damage.

This is a really important question. It is your obligation as a tenant to take "reasonable steps" to prevent bringing bed bugs from the infested building to a clean building. If you don't take "reasonable steps," you could wind up on the hook for all sorts of trouble.

The Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force has good web page with "Moving Tips - Don't Take Bed Bugs With You!" Clickhere to go to that page.

The short version:

Read more:
Bed Bugs in Rental Housing - Legal Aid of West Virginia

The following FAQ was written entirely by Sean, a Pest Control Operator and entomologist in Vancouver, and is posted with his permission. Check out his Bed Bug Resource [site no longer active, link removed]. Thanks Sean!

If anyone wants to add to this topic, click comments, and let us know what you know!

Advice on getting treatment to eliminate bed bugs, from a Pest Control Operator

I can not stress enough how important it is to do a bed bug treatment correctly right from the onset. The slighest misstep can literally make a solvable problem a nightmare.

All too often you get do it yourselfers that think they can do the job just as well as a licenced technician can. This is simply not the case 95% + of the time.

As I have said many times leave this one to the pros.

The trick is for the general public to decipher who the pros are in their area. I will not lie to you, there are good companies and bad companies. There are also good companies with some bad individuals.

Two things to watch out for; underpricing and overpricing. Ask them what the job breaks down to on an hourly basis per technician that they are sending (some companies use two techs per job). This puts all companies on equal footing for comparison.

Underpricing means you will get what you pay for; poor service and inexperience.

Overpricing means that the company likely does not want to do bed bug jobs. They price so high that they are looking to discourage people from hiring them. They just plain cant or do not want to do bed bug work.

Look for a company with middle of the road pricing. Check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they have received complaints recently. Ask the company to provide references from clients that have been satisfied with their bed bug work. Many companies will have letters of praise on hand.

Some other things to look for;

1) Do they offer a guarantee?2) If so, what does it entail?

Keep in mind that many companies will NOT offer guarantees to hotels or multiunit dwellings because the chance of reinfestation is too great. If you live in an apartment ask what their guarantee is for a freestanding home. This will give you an idea of how confident they are about their work.

3) Do they have liability insurance?4) If yes, how much does it cover?If no walk away.

5) Do they have dedicated bed bug technicians?Many companies are now forming bed bug task forces if you will. These companies will likely have more experience.

6) How long do they expect the treatment to last?A thorough bed bug treatment (inspection plus application) is going to take a minimum of two hours (based on a normal hotel sized room).

7) How many treatments does the price include? (Editors note: in order to have some confidence that they will eliminate bed bugs in your home, it should usually include at least two treatments, spaced about two weeks apart).

8) Ask the company how many treatments it will take to eliminate bed bugs in the home.If they say one walk away.If they say two-three they are being honest.If they say several (3+) they likely are not doing the job right.

The last thing is that people need to realize that they are going to need to be bait for the treatment to be most successful. They essentially need to carry on their routine of sleeping in the bed, etc. This will maximize the chance of the bed bugs coming in contact with the pesticides.

SeanEntomologist / Pest Professional

Update 11/2007:

This is what one PCO posted on the forums in this thread, in answer to the question of what traditional treatments entail:

BugologistMember

This is what you should look for (as a person knowledgable in the topic):

1. They dont rely solely on pesticides. Non-chemicals measures are a plus and they should use bed encasements or at least recommend them, vacuums and hopefully steam. Current research is showing tolerance and resistance to a lot of pesticides we have available so relying on them may be a mistake.2. Some sort of crack and crevice treatment, and hopefully a dust, is an absolute must, these bugs hide in cracks and crevices and if youre not getting to them youre not addressing the problem.3. Follow-up treatments. Having done lots and lots of jobs I almost never eliminate bed bugs in one treatment and depending on the conditions (infestation level, clutter, construction, etc) is will take 3 or 4 typically, maybe more.4. They address most if not the whole structure. If they just do the bedroom that has the known problem, or the bedrooms or just the couch its a mistake. These bugs distribute throughout the structure and you cant limit yourself to one area. The treatment should encompass the entire structure.

I could probably go on and on but these are the big ones. The rest is a personal decision.

Editors note from Nobugsonme: Readers, feel free to add a comment below which tells us what PCO you used (and your location), and the kind of service you got. Be sure to tell us what you know about the treatment used, how many times they came back, and how long your problem has been solved (or going on, as the case may be.) Obviously, we are not responsible for the mini-reviews below. Anyone is welcome to comment. Please be honest and fair, and dont recommend yourself!

Read this article:
FAQ: advice on getting treatment to eliminate bed bugs

Hi Jon,

Let me enlighten you on my experience.

In 2005 I became the worlds first dedicated exterminator of bed bugs having worked extensively on them for the previous 2 or 3 years.

I have now completed in the region of 11,000 infestation and my company treat up to 12 properties per day.

We look at and review all available technologies which have either become available and a few that did not make it through field testing.

My comments about crevice saturation come from a rather detailed knowledge of gas movements and how they mix in various atmospheres. Unfortunately when you are dealing with micro climates which tend to be generated around bed bug refugia you see that the edge effect and limited atomic movement mean that mixing is not complete and fully efficient. Therefore gases have problems getting into locations where bed bugs are hold up for about 98% of their time.

Now if you are telling me that Ozone behaves in a different way to all others gases please provide data to illustrate this.

I have read previous work on Ozone and bed bugs and although I cant lay my hands on the information as to what ppm is needed to be fatal I am sure someone who has tested this type of system will dig it out.

As for being out of my ball park, I hold two university degrees in biological sciences and had a very successful career in technology evaluation and commercial development before I decided to become a pest controller. My first degree covered many aspects of science from microbiology and genetics to obscure subjects like micro climatology and environmental physics. The UK higher education system works on very different principles to the US and we tend to cover subject in a lot more detail earlier in our studies than the US system.

My argument is that gas based technologies regardless of the gas all need to overcome the issues surrounding Brownian motion in micro climates, Ozone may have less of an issue being a smaller molecule but the laws of physics still apply.

I am not trying to put the concept down just highlighting the fact that you need to do more than just post, a little evidence would go a long way to convincing people that you have the concept right as opposed to the others that muddied the water before you.

I hope that clarifies.

David

Here is the original post:
Ozone Experiment Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

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