Louisiana is home to numerous insect species that gravitate into residential homes and urban buildings. Insects like cockroaches, mosquitoes, termites and flies are well suited to the the state’s wet, humid and hot environment, and they can also survive within indoor habitats. Homeowners and tenants within the state are well acquainted within insect infestations, and so are landlords who have an obligation to provide pest control services to tenants when needed. Not surprisingly, landlords in the state often grow impatient with handling insect pest complaints made by the tenants of their rental property. Sadly, it has become common for Baton Rouge landlords of low-income homes to evict tenants that complain about insect infestations. However, politicians in the city will soon put an end to this practice.

Metro Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis authored a proposal to enact legislation that would give residents of Baton Rouge the right to remain within rental homes for two months after being evicted for complaints concerning insect infestations. This proposal was filed after a hearing where tenants in the city recounted their own experiences with being evicted over insect complaints. Many of the council members sympathized with the victimized tenants.

Rental homes and apartment units within low-income areas of Louisiana often become infested with bed bugs and cockroaches for several reasons. While insect infestations are often blamed on unsanitary indoor conditions, many infestations in low-income homes result from inadequate trash removal and the low availability garbage receptacles. Insect infestations are common in more affluent residential areas of Louisiana as well, as numerous termite species within the state infest homes and apartments within the French Quarter of  New Orleans. Homes in all areas of Louisiana report cockroach infestations often due to the state’s massive roach population. In fact, New Orleans was deemed the most roach-infested city in the US by researchers.

Have you ever contacted a pest control professional about a cockroach infestation in your home?