Hello. I'm hoping for some expert insight into the particular situation of my apartment building.
This is a large condo building in an urban area. The building instituted a bed bug policy in early fall after a couple of units were found to have had bed bugs (my understanding is that these were unrelated cases, in different parts of the building, with different known causes). As part of the policy, owners with infestations are required to hire one of the approved PCOs to treat their units, as well as to have the PCOs inspect surrounding units and treat as appropriate (either preventative, or full treatment if bugs are found in surrounding units).
Since instituting this policy, bed bugs are being reported at a rate that is concerning to me. Every two or three weeks, there is news of another unit with bugs. The good(?) news is that, as far as I know, the individual cases ARE being resolved. And with the exception of one infestation, they have been low/moderate level.
By the way, in most cases, it is not clear whether these infestations are related to each other. One case definitely came as a result of picking up a discarded item from an infested unit. Generally speaking, some of the units that have been affected are near each other; others are on opposite sides of the building. As far as I know, bed bugs have never been found in an adjacent unit DURING an active infestation of the original unit, if that makes sense.
My questions are:
-Should we be alarmed at this rate of infestation?
-Should we be questioning the efficacy of the PCOs that are hired? And/or whether they are correctly IDing bugs?
-Is there such a thing as hiring an expert to investigate the patterns of infestation on a building-wide level? And if so, should I suggest this to the property manager?
-Are there any other considerations to keep in mind?
I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you all for your help on this forum!