tenants using pesticide without notifying landlord

By Kerena OConnell

I have tenants renting a home in an upscale neighborhood. 

I was at the rental house the other day as a new kitchen is being installed, construction has been ongoing for almost 2 weeks. As I was leaving, I saw a pest control company pull up and a guy got out and started spraying the outside of the house with something. I told him to stop, asked what he was doing, who hired him. Tenant’s wife came out and said they hired the service because there are black widow spiders living in the leaves of the backyard trees and her boys go into the leaves when they chase down thier baseballs. I reminded her of the conversation I had with her and her husband a few months back, how a prospective renter wanted me to hire a service for spiders because he had black widows at his downtown house, and I didn’t want pesticides and that was the primary reason I turned him down, and wouldn’t that have been a good opportunity to broach the subject with me? She replied that the neighbors use this company and it’s all natural. You may wonder what my beef is – the problem is I have a son who is nuero developmentally disabled and I completely believe it is due to the pesticides we used in that house while I was pregnant with him and continued to use when he was a baby. Because of his issues, we moved into a rental in another district to get him into a special ed class.

I am furious that these people have a fumigation company and didn’t tell me, knowing how I feel about it.

And if spiders are in the leaves, then rake the leaves, don’t use pesticides.

And my research tells me that black widows don’t live in leaves and aren’t killed by sprays unless it’s a direct hit (hours after spraying they can walk on the spray and not be harmed.).

An online search tells me tenants have the right to know what is being sprayed and how often etc. What about the landlord being informed?  

 I can’t find anything in the lease about tenants deciding to use a pesticide company.

BTW, they are only spraying outside. I called the company, they said they were using the following products quarterly : Wisdom Lawn Granular, Termidor SC, Temprid SC, and Suspend Polyzone. I am GREEN. I have a garden at that house that I use for food (when I’m living there).

What are my rights here? Thank you – 

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