House Centipedes and management that won't do anything (apartment, lease, tenants)
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Hello, since I have moved into my apartment we have had house centipedes problems (just problems in general but that's on another post). Before we moved in we had the place sprayed and everything seemed okay for a while. For the past two weeks however I have been killing about 5 house centipedes a day. We have notified our property manager, who hasn't been responding to our emails, that the pest control company said they could spray again but that wouldn't get rid of the problem. The management company or landlord need to fix the leaks in the damp basement and put a dehumidifier in. Today a inspector came over (I'm pretty sure they were supposed to do that before we moved in) along with the property manager. My boyfriend told him again about the issue which he acknowledged and said that he would have someone come spray... wtf, did you not read my emails? Spraying will not help, but of course me not being home with my boyfriend and him being ignorant and passive about these things, he didn't say anything about it to the property manager.
I know if I email again it will be in vain so my question is, what are my options here? I am so freaked out that I covered our vents up with mesh in hopes that they can't squeeze through it since that's where I have seen them come from mainly. Also sorry if I am posting to the wrong forum, I am still pretty new to this.
Having the house centipedes live harmoniously with us is not an option so please don't tell me about how they are eating other bugs for me I do not care! I haven't seen any other bugs except dead ones that come across the spray from the first exterminator which I clean up. Why the house centipedes aren't dying from it I do not know.
They are so gross. I killed one on my kitchen wall.. the body fell but the legs stayed on the wall and were twitching. So gross. I just kept killing them, like one a day and eventually I never saw them again.
Diatomaceous Earth it is the best bug killer imo. It takes a week or so, because it dehydrates whatever bugs are there, but it works and keeps working....spread it around the edge of the wall on the floors in the basement.
The landlord is having professional spraying. You aren't going to get him to do any more than that.
You can buy your own dehumidifier if you want one because your landlord isn't going to do it. I suspect it will make no difference in the bug situation, but you are welcome to try it.
If i owned a damp basement, I'd try to get the moisture fixed, but I'm not your landlord, and some basements are just damp and nothing can be done about it. Maybe yours is one of the ones that can't be fixed.
You can keep complaining and the landlord can keep spraying, or you can spend $10 on a gallon of home defense or a bag of diatomaceous earth and treat around the edges.
You can pay your lease termination fee and leave. Damp basement is not a get-out-of-lease free card.
You can wait until the end of the lease and move.
Those are pretty much your options, except maybe ask the landlord to get someone to seal up all the cracks, or seal them yourself.
The landlord is having professional spraying. You aren't going to get him to do any more than that.
You can buy your own dehumidifier if you want one because your landlord isn't going to do it. I suspect it will make no difference in the bug situation, but you are welcome to try it.
If i owned a damp basement, I'd try to get the moisture fixed, but I'm not your landlord, and some basements are just damp and nothing can be done about it. Maybe yours is one of the ones that can't be fixed.
You can keep complaining and the landlord can keep spraying, or you can spend $10 on a gallon of home defense or a bag of diatomaceous earth and treat around the edges.
You can pay your lease termination fee and leave. Damp basement is not a get-out-of-lease free card.
You can wait until the end of the lease and move.
Those are pretty much your options, except maybe ask the landlord to get someone to seal up all the cracks, or seal them yourself.
oregonwoodsmoke - I can't rep you, but "yes" to the post.
I'll add you can also look at the terms in your lease to vacate early.
House centipedes are tough to eradicate, even when you do everything right. I lived in a house that had house centipedes and we sprayed, we used a dehumidifier, we used diatomaceous earth, and we even called in professionals but certain times each year we were still overrun by them.
Hard to fight nature sometimes, and landlords aren't magicians.
If the landlord is spraying, not much more you can ask.
Now, it’s obviously gross, and probably ultimately a bad look for a landlord to have a bug problem in the rental, but legally, you don’t have much of an argument.
As others have mentioned, keep everything dry. Try to find any water issues if possible
I love how the landlords on this forum are so unforgiving about anything that tenants do -- the immediate response is always "SEND EVICTION NOTICE" -- but are totally understanding and forgiving about what they and other landlords are expected to do.
It's not true that nothing can be done about a damp basement, for one thing.
I love how the landlords on this forum are so unforgiving about anything that tenants do -- the immediate response is always "SEND EVICTION NOTICE" -- but are totally understanding and forgiving about what they and other landlords are expected to do.
It's not true that nothing can be done about a damp basement, for one thing.
This isn’t really surprising. Kind of human nature. Still true though.
The problem always can be corrected, and quickly. It doesn’t take months to diagnose leaks, or other things. It comes down to how much money a LL wants to spend.
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