To control bedbugs, tell potential tenants about past infestations, study says
Pretty much anybody who’s been apartment hunting knows what they’re looking for in a place to live, and bedbugs usually aren’t on that list. So it might seem like a crazy idea for landlords to tell potential tenants about past bedbug infestations, but Alison Hill believes it will pay off in the long run. A John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellow, Hill is the co-author of a study that examines a requirement — proposed in a number of cities across the country — that would mandate such notifications. The results show that while landlords would experience a modest drop in rental income in the short term, they would make that money back in just a handful of years, and that the policy could dramatically slow the spread of the insects. The study is described in a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We find that in most...