Flea Bites from Forward Management, LLC Pittsburgh Apartment

Flea bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment (right ankle).

I thought that by wearing pants and socks around the apartment that I would avoid being bitten to pieces. I was wrong. These all appeared yesterday (although the photos are not all-inclusive).

Even as I sit here writing this post, I just caught another flea biting my arm. It's in the bag with its brother. The apartment has been treated with Diatomaceous earth on my own dime. 'Should hopefully destroy them in a week. I'll still have to call the landlord to get an exterminator in. This is awful.

I have never had fleas in an apartment before, so I do not know where these are coming from. We do not have pets, so the fleas must come from the building itself or possibly neighbors with untreated cats.

Bug bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment (right hip).

Bug bites from a Forward Management, LLC Pittsburgh Apartment (left calf).

Flea bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment (left ankle).

Flea bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh, LLC Apartment (right thigh).

Flea bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh, LLC Apartment (right calf).

Bug bites from a Forward Management Pittsburgh, LLC Apartment (left forearm).

Fleas Living in a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment (right forearm).

Fleas from a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment (right wrist).

Fleas in Forward Management, LLC Pittsburgh Apartment

Fleas in a Forward Management Pittsburgh Apartment.

After a couple of weeks of not seeing my bug biters, I finally caught one trying to get my right hand. It took about two days for it to die in this plastic bag.

I'm fairly certain it's a flea. It's sort of flat-ish, and the other three times I saw one biting me, they just disappeared (probably by jumping). It has some long back legs, and doesn't appear to have wings.

We do not have pets, so the fleas must come from the building itself or possibly neighbors with untreated cats.

Fleas in a Forward Management, LLC Pittsburgh Apartment.

Biting Bug Problem

Bug bites from Forward Management Pittsburgh apartment (right foot).

I haven't left the apartment in two days, but I somehow ended up with ~10 new bug bites all over my legs and feet. This has been happening off and on since I moved in this month, but these past two days have been terrible. All the photos show bites that have occurred in the apartment in the last two days (i.e., labeled "new"), and scars from older bites (labeled "old").

I've checked my mattress for bed bug evidence and haven't seen any fleas. However, the upstairs neighbor has multiple cats, so it's possible these are fleas, it's just an early infestation and we haven't caught any yet. I put out some DIY flea traps, but didn't catch anything.

'Called the Forward Management Pittsburgh today and they said the whole building was treated before we moved in and the exterminator wanted to do a follow-up. Apparently other units have been having similar complaints over the past few months. They'll put up fliers before doing their autumn extermination follow-up.

Bug bites from Forward Management Pittsburgh apartment (left hip).

Bug bites from Forward Management Pittsburgh apartment (right calf).

Called Forward Management w Maintenance Requests, Waiting

A quick review of how long it takes Forward Management Pittsburgh to respond to a fairly important maintenance call:

I called Forward Management Pittsburgh (412-885-1094) at 10:47 am on October 1st to have the water damage above the shower painted and to have them change the locks on the apartment.

[Edit 10/8/12: No one has called to schedule the lock change yet, and the bathroom wall is still water damaged. Called again at 1:45pm.]

[Edit 10/16/12: I called Forward Management Pittsburgh again at 1:20pm today to report that the lock change has still not happened.]

[Edit 10/17/12: A maintenance guy stopped by today and installed new locks and plastered/painted the water-damaged bathroom wall. It only took three weeks and three phone calls to Forward Management Pittsburgh. Three weeks!]

Forward Management: The Good

In this move (2012), I'm moving from one Forward Management property (APT1) to another one, a half mile away (APT2). The new tenant for APT1 wanted to move in on the last day of the month, which required that I move out a day early (on Aug 30 rather than 31), which required that the current tenant of APT2 move out two days early (Aug 29 instead of 31).

By some miracle, the Pittsburgh account manager made it all happen. Everyone moved. We all had to take our apartments 'as is' (i.e., no painting/cleaning in between, whatever the prior tenant left behind). But it worked. No storing stuff in a moving truck overnight!

Moved Out 5540 Covode

I've moved out of 5540 Covode Street #201 and into a larger Forward Management Pittsburgh unit in Squirrel Hill!

Forward Management Pittsburgh and Bathroom Leak Call #10

At approximately 2:30pm today (5/10/12), I called Forward Management Pittsburgh and submitted a maintenance request for the bathroom leak, again. It appears that since the last time they painted over the leak, the leak has decided to move across the replaced dry wall to come out at the seam between the bathroom window and the wall. You can see where the water comes out most of the time, as the paint is tinted orange in that area. See photo below:

[Edit 5/21/12: A maintenance guy entered my apartment at ~11am on 5/16/12, mumbled something about getting permission from the upstairs neighbor, and has not returned since.]