A recent survey conducted on pest management control reported that 98 percent of apartments have asked for treatment or already have been treated for bedbugs in the country. College dorms have noticed an increase in bedbug detection by 12 percent, an increase from 35 percent in 2010 to 47 percent 2013. However, not all cases of bedbugs are reported because Michigan law doesn’t clearly lay out what to do if a home becomes infested.

“We tend to get our information from the pest management industries and from the year 2008 on, the pest management industry has seen increases in the amount of treatments and calls they’ve been getting for treatments,” Michigan Department of Community Health Entomologist Erik Foster said.

Michigan has noticed its increase in bedbug populations most commonly in schools, senior housing and libraries.

“They can be found in any type of environment — it doesn’t matter if your apartment is clean or if your apartment is dirty, they can still appear in that environment,” third year law student Andreina Rosa said.

Detection for bedbugs has also been proven to be problematic. Bedbugs are hard to detect because of their small size, about a quarter of an inch, and the many tight crevices they are often found in, Foster said.

Trained dogs have become a resource to detect the vermin, with the dogs able to sniff out the bedbugs in homes and public housing. Effective treatment includes temperature heating, vacuuming, spraying directly and having pest control companies spray pesticides.

“A lot of people have resorted to things like sealing their mattress or things like that, and they can at least keep them in the mattress until they get a heat treatment,” Director of MSU College of Law Housing Clinic Brian Gilmore said.

When bedbugs are discovered in a tenant’s home, it is unclear who is responsible for taking care of the infestation. Michigan laws don’t specify if a bedbug is considered a vermin; therefore, it is unclear whether tenants or landlords should pay for the costs of extermination.

“(People) in a lot of states including Michigan didn’t look for bedbugs as vermin … even though they do have a lot of adverse health affects,” Rosa said. “It’s hard to kind of put the burden on the landlord, for example, to be able to come in and pay for the treatment.”