When Elaine Huber’s daughter returned to her Orange County home over Labor Day, she was shocked to find her 18-year-old covered in bites.
The young woman had moved into an Isla Vista apartment in the 6700 block of Del Playa Drive just two weeks earlier to begin classes at Santa Barbara City College.
Soon after, she noticed small bites all over her body.
She had dismissed them as mosquito bites. The apartment’s other tenants, who also had experienced the bites, had done the same.
But Huber took one look at her daughter and knew it must be something else.
“From the base of her neck to her toes … She’s just covered,” Huber told Noozhawk last week.
A local pest control company told her its technicians suspected bedbugs.
Huber said she was later told by the building’s management company, Wolfe & Associates Property Services, that the tenants would have to pay for the extermination, since they might have brought in the parasitic insects themselves.
The company has since agreed to pay for the extermination.
Huber said her daughter had not suffered any bites before she moved in to the apartment. But since then, the bites had become so bad that her condition sometimes kept her from going to class.
“There needs to be more education among this demographic,” she said. “It’s not reaching them, and parents should know that there could be bedbugs.
“We have a lot of 18- and 19 year-olds, and they aren’t dealing with it.”
When Huber and her daughter started asking around, others living in Isla Vista chimed in that they, too, had suffered similar bites.
“My question is do parents know that they are sending their kids into rentals where this is an issue?” Huber asked. “You’re paying $800 a month for your kid to share a room with someone … There’s no education.”
Bedbugs are tiny insects that feed on blood, and can live in linens, mattresses, headboards and even walls and flooring, according to the California Department of Public Health. Click here for more information on how to deal with bedbugs.
Among the highlights pertinent to Isla Vista:
» Don’t take upholstered furniture off the street.
» Check the spines of discarded books before bringing them inside.
» When apartment hunting, check corners and cupboards for dark patches, which can be a sign that bedbugs are in the house.
The bugs predominantly feed at night, and often the only indication of a bite is an itchy welt that can develop days later.
In the largely student-dominated, and transient, population of Isla Vista, the moving of furniture as well as people roaming in and out of residences make it easy for the insects to get around.
Huber has taken extra care to make sure the pests don’t enter her own house.
“I’m so careful when my daughter comes home but the other parents are unsuspecting,” she said.
Several of her daughter’s roommates are from outside the United States, and Huber worries they could be vulnerable and may not be able to speak up for themselves.
“One of the roommates is from Italy, and she’s all bitten up,” she said.
Huber filed a complaint with Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Services, and an extermination was conducted Sept. 18. As of last week, however, she said the girls in the apartment were “still being bitten as if nothing had been done.”
Ron Wolfe, a principal of Wolfe & Associates, told Noozhawk the company has dealt with six cases of bedbugs already this year, more than ever before. All of them were in Isla Vista.
Because the bedbugs can spread quickly, they need to be dealt with quickly with good follow up, he said. Usually, the bugs must be killed with high-temperature treatments, which have the potential to damage personal items as well as blinds and floors.
“As we understand it, bedbugs are commonly introduced via suitcases, backpacks, bedding, clothing, etc., frequently by persons who have been traveling internationally,” Wolfe said.
“They can be brought in by residents or visitors as well as their shoes, clothing and furnishings.”
Wolfe said that once the bugs are introduced, most are found close to the beds. None of the company’s units are furnished and all have steam-cleaned or new carpet, he said.
“With one exception, our experience to date is that the problems have been brought to our attention two to three months or more after the start of occupancy,” he said.
Wolfe said legislators are working on state laws that would address bedbug infestations and specify tenant and landlord obligations and responsibilities. Just who bears the cost is currently determined on a case-by-case basis.
If the bugs have been a problem in the unit before or if residents advise the management company quickly that the insects are present, he said the company will bear the cost of extermination.
“In cases where a problem is reported two or more months after occupancy, there is a very high probability that there were no issues at occupancy, thus the cost is probably the responsibility of the residents,” Wolfe said.
As far as UC Santa Barbara-owned and managed residential buildings in Isla Vista go, bedbugs aren’t an issue at present, UCSB spokesman George Foulsham said.
“We are not having bedbug issues right now that I’m aware of, but what we have found in past years is that that often what residents think might be bedbugs are sand fleas,” he said.
“If we find any pest-control issues, we aggressively treat the rooms using heat treatment.”
David Chang, general manager of the Mosquito and Vector Management District of Santa Barbara County, which includes Isla Vista, said bedbugs are “consistently a problem” in the area.
The district is a public health agency, so “our involvement can be for advice and enforcement,” he explained.
When the issue becomes more of a neighborhood problem, rather than an isolated incident, and “somebody is not doing something about it, whether it is your neighbor or landlord, then we might ask for some compliance,” Chang said.
“We get more calls from apartment dwellers and landlords,” he said. “We’ll try to see who is responsible and get them to step up.”
Chang said the agency has responded in the past, including for large infestations such as a 2013 incident in downtown Santa Barbara that led to tenants suing the property owner.
The agency usually tries to encourage the responsible party to address the infestation, but fines could result if nothing is done.
“We do have that authority,” Chang said, adding that the Mosquito and Vector Management District can be reached at 805.969.5050.
“We’re available to help,” he said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
