HELP! ROACH HOTEL

[RAINRA]

I have been living with roaches for the past three months. I asked the apartment to take care of the problem but they just put sprays and bates. I contacted a lawyer. The lawyer try to force them to break the lease and they came back saying no we fixed the problem. That is after they came to spray in my apartment. Acording to people I talk to in the building they all have roach problems. It is a apartment tower in Silver Spring, Maryland called the WHITE OAK TOWERS. Look it up if and read the reviews. I came across them only in the last few months. When I moved in there were no roaches in site but when I talked to my neighbors they one said that he has lived there two years and he always has had problems.

The lawyer can not help me break the lease because she said it protects the landlord. I was never told there was a pest problem in the building. Now all my stuff is infested and I am stuck there 9 more months. They just want my money but could care less it seems about getting rid of the pest problem. They stated that the problem has been addressed and solved. This is what I had to live with prior to the last week that I ended up temporarily sleeping in at a friends house.

 

I go back and there are roaches still there. Not to say I am not sure how many are hiding in my stuff.

What would you do. What legal ways could you get out of the lease? What are solutions to make it harder on the apartment that would make them take my situation seriously and address the whole building as the problem and not just little fixes here and there on an occasion?

 

 

How do I clean my stuff? How do I survive there for the next 9 months...

 

How do I rally the other residents...?

 

I filed a complaint with the housing council code enforcement but I am not sure that will do much to get rid of the long term problem.

 

attached are some of the pictures I took at this apartment. (well the board quota is full for images so check facebook) As lawyers, pest management or whatever... I need all the help I can get cause they seem to be laughing at my expense. (These are my thoughts on the matter)

 

look at my pictures on facebook

under name

Javier de la Camara

[beforewisdom]

In college I was in apartment like that.

 

The cheapest way out of this problem in time and money is to pay for a professional exterminator yourself. That is what we did way back then and we were amazed at the results. An independent professional exterminator will do a much better job than someone hired by the building. You know you will be getting good service if before spraying to kill the roaches they use a different kind of spray to draw the roaches out of hiding.

 

For every roach you see, there are many more that hide. Arrange for pets and your GF to be out of the apartment for the full day. Have them come first thing in the morning. After you see the sheer number or bugs that a good professional can draw you will glad you will glad your GF will not be there to see it and that you will have hours to clean up the mess.

 

Once this is done you just have to do the work of going through your stuff.

 

After that hold tight for 9 months and move.

[Vegan Joe]

Not likely much can be done with so many other tenents, unless the whole place is done at once.

Buy as many of those roach motels as possible, changing them often, will at least keep your place from being over loaded. clean up as much as you can, hunt them down, get some caulking and disrupt trailways. Use to have those aboard ship, and when you woke up in the middle of the night with one of those crawling across your chest, well enough said.

[RAINRA]

Thanks, I will do all I can to keep them out. I thought about even putting fine grills on the vents. We also are three doors down from a trash shoot. Which does not help the problem at all. I got my own po box to not deal with the management because they take my packages. I got a storage space that is not in a building that is outdoor temperature so that at least the cold will keep the insects out. I will just keep the essential stuff in the apartment and keep dishes to am minimum. I will pass on a letter to the residents explaining they have a right not to live with roaches and they should demand the apartment to get rid of the issue. If they do not then I will provide them with the number to call the county council housing code inspection and make sure they keep filing complaints. I thought it would be ok living with roaches since I am vegan but I did not realize that they do carry disease which could affect my health. Had it not been an infestation I would have not been bothered.

 

These TOWER ARE WHITE OAK TOWERS IN SILVER SPRING, MD

[mikkah1987]

I read your comments & I feel for you…. You need to hire a new attorney, it doesn’t appear that this attorney knows too much about landlord & tenants laws in your state…. Continue to take pictures, document everything & contact new counsel! Roaches are not only a nuisance but they are a health hazard, they carry diseases! You need to get out of there as soon as possible!

[Octopussoir]

Hey buddy. Contact the news channel. Tell them your story. The media can make a positive influence sometimes.

 

Also get a lawyer who specializes in "rental rights" or tenant rights. A lot of lawyers only specialize in one or two things. You wouldn't want a divorce lawyer giving u advice over tenant issues... Just an example.

[RAINRA]

yeah your right

[DaN]

Killing them in any way is not part of the vegan ethos.You should learn to live with them, or move out and take it as a lesson in life.

 

I once moved into a lovely field in the congo, but soon found out I was sharing it with some lions.I tried to contact an exterminator but strangely couldnt find anybody prepared to exterminate the lions.So I had to leave.

 

 

JOKE!

[Guest]

Haven't you guy's seen Joe's apartment?The roaches are cool and can help you with problems in your life.Seriously though, why are you suing because your house has roaches?Don't all houses have them unless they spray them with poison?Exterminator's use poisons that are tested on all types of animals, sensitize your lungs and can cause cancer even after months of the poisoning.Not to mention the factory's that make the poison contaminating the earth.

 

If you keep your food where they can't get it and clean up crumbs there's no reason for them to be there.I don't clean up much so i have roaches too LOL.Stop being a such girl and accept the roaches.And no they don't carry disease.

[RAINRA]

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, “daytime sightings may indicate potentially heavy infestations.”

 

Which in my apartment there is the case. The other thing is I tried to live with them for 3 months. They came to work on my back, in my computer bags. My girlfriend is a clean freak and even with a clean apartment and no food around they still hung out. Roaches will eat anything.

 

Chemicals suck... I agree but it is the chemicals are the roaches getting into all my stuff and all over my face. At night when the lights were out and I was on my computer I could feel them crawling on my toes. Again I dealt with it for 3 months. 3 months of mass infestation.

 

Cockroaches spread nearly 33 different kinds of bacteria and six kinds of parasitic worms. As cockroaches crawl through sewage, they can pick up and spread germs on the spines of their legs and bodies. - National Pest Management Association

 

I found them multiple times inside the rim of the toilet. Seriously jokes or no jokes this is a serious issue and I am not taking it lightly. I had two months on my lease in my last apartment and we lived with ants they went from the kitchen straight line to the bathroom. But this is far worse.

 

Two months into the infestation I caught a stomach health issue that I lasted a month. I had horrible pain no matter what I ate. I did see them on and over all of our counters and clean dishes and in our cabinets where we kept our clean plates. I decided to drink kambucha since it has live probiotic and after a two weeks of doing that it the pain went away.

[beforewisdom]

Dude, hire your own professional exterminator. It will help. I lived in an infested building once. Once we had the professionals in the roaches did not come back, at least not to the point where we noticed them.

 

It is admirable you don't want to kill or have nasty chemicals used, but you are in a rock bottom situation.

 

You deserve to have your home.

 

Hire them out and get some piece while you resolve your landlord issues.

[DaN]

Oh my god I cant believe you have stayed there more than one night.I literally could not sleep.

 

Leave the apartment, fuck the contract, its doubtful the landlord will follow it up.If he does, threaten him with severe violence if he ever mentions it again.Maybe collect a LOAD of the roaches and set them free in his house.Seriously, get fucking nasty on his irresponsible arse.

 

[RAINRA]

It is a freaken tower. Which means everyone will or had them at some point. I have health inspector coming tuesday. They are mostly all dead now since I moved out temporarily to my friends house to eat and sleep. There are not many there anymore since the is no food or running water going there for almost a month now.

 

They are in some other apartment but they will be back. Meanwhile I have to clean up my house which is over 150 dead roaches from the building sending a their pest management.

 

I plan to hire a professional.

[CollegeB]

Some places and climates just have serious roach problems, but yours sounds extreme. Having the exterminator come out once a month would cut down on the roaches you see, but that's just treating a symptom not really the problem since your neighbors probably will not take similar action. Perhaps it would be more cost effective to just break the lease, pay their fee for breaking the contract and move on. I do find the situation of who is protected where strange. For example when I lived in IL the laws there favored landlords over tenants, and here in Texas renters have more legal protections than landlords (which can be a bad thing since landlords can't just kick out crummy crime causing tenants, but in Texas some folks tend not to put up with those folks too long ). I tend to think a cat or maybe even some new approach like a snake would help limit the number of living roaches in your place, but just because you have not been there doesn't mean the roaches are gone. They can live 3 months on a single human hair and i'm sure you left some of those around.

 

Take care and good luck in whatever you choose to do about this.

[Dr. Pink]

Why not try and live with them. Become one with there clan and they may accept you as one of them. Did Joe call the exterminator when he found cockroaches in his apartment? No. but then again his roaches could talk.

[RAINRA]

my place is no joes apartment. I wish my situation on no one. It just plain stinks!

[DaN]

CollegeB wrote:

 

They can live 3 months on a single human hair

 

Lies

[Barb123]

I feel for you! Have you tried those pest deterrents that plug into the electrical outlet? I read that they're supposed to drive them out by emitting a harmless but annoying (to insects and rodents) sonic pulsing or something like that. Maybe you could put a few in depending on the size of your apartment......but if you have any pet rodents like hamsters or chinchillas you cannot use them. Hope you figure out something soon.

[beforewisdom]

I feel for you! Have you tried those pest deterrents that plug into the electrical outlet? I read that they're supposed to drive them out by emitting a harmless but annoying (to insects and rodents) sonic pulsing or something like that. Maybe you could put a few in depending on the size of your apartment......but if you have any pet rodents like hamsters or chinchillas you cannot use them. Hope you figure out something soon.

 

I was thinking of buying one of those a few years ago. Many reviews from customers on Amazon claimed that they didn't work.

[RAINRA]

I am trying ecosmart products. Hopefully it will keep them away. I don't want to lure them I just want them to go away. I am still care for all living beings just when they crap all over my house and crawl all over me that is when I draw the line. I ended up covering the vents with screen mesh and covered all outlets with child proof caps so that if they come out of the wall that is one more place I blocked. I basically tried to think of all the possible places my apartment connects with the others. I also tried sealing the doors with foam tape but the door kept ripping those off. I will will try to tape those down. I also have a vent foam stopper under the door. Then I sprayed the perimeter of the apartment with the ecosmart non toxic to humans and pets insecticide. This is all I can do. I am now starting to cleanup and vacuum the apartment since they left dropping everywhere.

I guess this just shows what I am able to learn about the law and process. The government will never really do anything much for getting rid of pest but just treat the problem. I hope that next this won't occur.

 

I wish everybody well.

[DaN]

good luck rainra

[estgee]

Hi! I can't stand cockroaches either. These insects are incredibly nasty and terrify me. One day I found that these disgusting creatures had started to inhabit my house. To get rid of them I decided to turn to an exterminator. In the end, it turned out to be the right decision, as this exterminator helped me quickly destroy all the cockroaches in my house. I hope my answer will be helpful for you!