Sunday, October 15, 2017

What's worse than Bed Bugs?

A Russian saying goes, "trouble never comes alone" (in other words "when it rains, it pours")

Unfortunately, we had to go through an eviction process and kick-out a tenant. This was not a pleasant experience and psychologically difficult for me procedure. Costly and mentally draining.

Once the tenant moved out, neighbors called the City of Barrie because she left literally a ton of garbage on the front yard. The nasty smelling garbage appeared to be alive from buzzing flies and crawling maggots. Official yellow notice on the door knob requested for the issue to be resolved within 24 hours. This was a challenge given that we arrived at the house on a Saturday morning and there were two hours before garbage drop-off would close for the day. We made it!

Needless to say, inside of the house and on the backyard, everything needed extensive cleaning, painting, and repairs. Carpets had to go. We hired a contractor to replace the floors. The contractor called us shortly after starting and advised that the house had bed bugs infestation. Understandably, the contractor wouldn't continue any work until this issue was resolved.

Pest Control to the rescue. After the first treatment, the house had to remain empty for two weeks. All work was set on hold. With outlet covers, light fixtures, and carpets all off, the house remained completely naked and deserted.

2nd treatment followed two weeks exactly after the first one. Bed bugs problem now seemed to be solved and house resurrection project could finally start!

The cost of the house de-bugging was at least 3.6K, $1500 to pest control + $2100 lost rent + flooring contractor who freaked out so much that we never heard from him again. Given that on average I make $200 profit per house per month, it will take me a year and a half to pay this off.

What's the moral of the story and what can be worse than bed bugs?

Upon completion of the job, pest control service advised us that they did not find any evidence of bed bugs in the house. They found some beetles, which could be easily scared away with a $15 Home Depot spray. Pest control team kindly left us with a bed bug identification card, so we can inspect any future bed bug suspects and assess the scope of the issue independently before calling pest control service.

The moral of the story is Look Before You Leap. Spending 3.6K on fake bed bugs is worse than on real ones.

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