Don't let the bedbugs bite: these night-feeding nuisances can cause financial loss from lawsuits and lost residents and long-term damage to a community's reputation. Learn how apartment owners can bite back.

Bedbugs are back, and according to Dr. Michael F. Potter at the University of Kentucky, they are back "big time" (Pest Control Technology magazine, October 2005). During the past few months, media outlets, such as The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post and MSNBC, have been warning of the resurgence of bedbugs throughout the United States. Within the last few months, the Today Show on NBC, The New Fork Times and USA Today have reported on the bedbug "boom."

What does this mean to the apartment industry? For starters, members of the general public, including apartment residents, are becoming more concerned with the issue and sensitive to the fact that their homes could become infested with these transient pests. Second, once introduced, bedbugs can easily move from unit to unit. An infestation could result in multiple complaints from residents, financial loss from lawsuits, lost residents and long-term damage to a community's reputation.

What Are Bedbugs?

Bedbugs are small, flat night-feeders that, despite …