Two days after notifying my landlord he finally "reported" the problem to the other tenants in my building. Actually, what he did, was email all tenants saying that now that we'd all been in the building for a year, it was time for a maintenance pest control treatment. He also asked if there were any sign of "bugs" without specifying the type of bug. He asked for several dates in the next week or so that would be convenient for them to provide access to their unit and he would pick one that was convenient for everyone.
Here we started a back and forth. My upstairs neighbors with their new baby understandably didn't want any chemicals used in their apartment. As far as I know, the tenants in the other upstairs apartment had no objection to the type of treatment. The other downstairs unit has been empty since my neighbor vacated to join the Foreign Service sometime in mid-August. Everyone said there were no sign of bugs. Well, other than the bites, I hadn't any "sign" of them for serveral months, other than the welts from the bites I'd thought were a rash.
That's the point. You don't see signs of them until you start to look. Or unless you happen to be lucky (unlucky?) enough to have one crawl out of its hiding place to feast on you while you are awake and say, sitting on your sofa watching TV.
By 5:00 pm that day, email exchange between landlords and tenants ceased, with no resolution whatsoever.
Note to California landlords of a multiple-unit dwelling: California State Public Health Department Guidelines say you are supposed to specificly notify tenants of vermin infestation (type, location, etc), that you are supposed to do so immediately, and that you are to have an inspector on site within 48 hours of first notification. Further, a plan for treatment is also to be developed in that first 48 hours, and then implemented within the first 72 hours. Everyday you delay, more eggs are laid, more laid eggs have hatched into larvae, more larvae turn into nymphs, more nymphs turn into adults and all but the eggs are feasting on your tenants' flesh.
Note to California tenants of a multiple-unit dwelling: California State Public Health Department Guidelines say you are required to comply with the landlord's treatment schedule. It isn't a matter of your convenience. If they are in your unit, you need to make sure they don't make it into other units if the infestation hasn't already spread. If they aren't in your unit, it behooves you to move quickly because every day of delay the chances increase that the infestation will move into your space. Trust me on this one, a couple of hours of inconvenience to have your apartment inspected is well worth the trouble. Otherwise you're potentially looking at spending hours each day dealing with them in your space for weeks if not months.
Unfortunately for me, my landlord didn't seem to understand the urgency. And never really seemed to (but more on that a little later in the story).
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