First, some basic information:
How much squalor are you living in, and how bad is the bug problem in your apartment?
I had a roomie who was a pest control guy and he gave our complex free sprays in exchange for a break on the rent. Not everyone would let him in, though, so every month or so the problem would just come back as the bugs in the “no-spray” rooms would just breed out through the rest of the building again.
Given that I (and my cats) have been present in the apartment when the exterminators have sprayed my last place – and I was assured that it was harmless to us, and none of us got sick – I would guess that this is probably a bigger deal (much worse infestation) than your average pest control. It sounds like the entire building is getting bug bombed. As opposed to a simple spray which is just a small wand along the baseboards.
In which case, as inconvenient as it is, wouldn’t you rather deal with a hotel for one day than deal with massive amounts of roaches for the rest of your term at the apartment?
You can board your dog, you can still go to work that day. You can even ask your landlord about compensation for the cost of those. I don’t get what the problem is. Unless you’re planning to move out soon anyway.
There are hotels which allow dogs - I don’t mean doggie hotels, I mean Super 8’s (but only some of them, so call ahead) and some privately owned motels and some ritzy hotels.
They frown on you leaving the dog alone all day, but it might be easiest on the dog if he can sleep with you at night, and cheaper for you to pay for doggie day care than boarding.
I’ve had some good luck with these sites:
Even if you decide to be the pesticide-free island in the complex, I still wouldn’t want your pregnant wife sleeping there the day they spray. All common areas will be sprayed and there will be some seepage into your apartment under the door, etc. Better to just vacate and let them spray.
I was about to say (but got ninja’d) that all Super 8’s and Motel 6’s allow dogs, and IIRC, La Quinta also welcomes dogs mostly. Also, your vet could probably board the dog for 24 hours. Or a kennel.
I don’t know why the dog is such a problem. Do you not have any petsitting friends? What do you do with the dog when you go on vacation or visit relatives afar?
And yeah, I would just call it a mid-week vacay. Why does your wife have to take the whole day off? Pack up the night before. Drop dog off at kennel on your way to work. Keep your people luggage in car (or bring into your office if you have one). After work, go check in. Find some dinner somewhere. Next day, pick up dog after work or on your lunch hour.
Why is this so difficult and complicated again?
When I lived in Philthadelphia, we kept our apartment clean. Never saw a roach. When they were spraying we refused, as we saw no need. Two days after they did the building, we begged them to do our apartment.
I went through this while pregnant as well. Most of the cheaper pesticides are not considered safe, and won’t necessarily be safe after 24 hours either.
My landlord couldn’t even get the list of chemicals that were goign to be used from their contractor; so I gat a note from my OB/GYN saying that it would be unsafe to spray my apartment.
Then I got these two products on-line: (from this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14473825&highlight=roaches#post14473825 )
If you use the Advion and then keep putting down the IGR, you won’t have any problems, and both are safe for Mom and Baby. ** IANAD! Review this plan with yours! **
So combining the Dr.s note and the alternate tretment, I convinced the Landlord not to spray our apt. I did still vacate for 48 hours though,a s the stff was being sprayed and fogged throughout the building, and you just can’t be too careful.
I don’t get all the angst. What else would you expect them to do? Just ignore the problem? Bugs are a reality, and unless the property is very poorly maintained, it’s probably not anything the landlord had control of. Landlords have a legal obligation to keep their property free of pests. It sounds like your landlord is taking a very pro-active approach. Most landlords are hesitant to fumigate, and will dick around with various cheap-but-not-very-effective approaches for months as the problem gets worse and worse. It’s better just to use the strongest methods and (hopefully) be done with it.
I agree that the “island” approach is bad. Not only will it increase your critter load, but it will ensure that the entire building is eventually re-infested, prompting another spraying. It’s best just to get it done with.
Motels are very familiar with people who are fumigating, and will make special exceptions. When I worked in hospitality, they were our favorite customers (you guys pay, don’t tear up the room, don’t make drama, and are generally nice to work with) and we would go out of our way to accommodate their needs. For motel owners, it’s a golden opportunity to build up loyalty with a local family. They may be able to offer you early check-in, rooms that accommodate pets, reduced rates, etc. Just explain your situation, be nice about it, and ask if they have an flexibility or discounts.
Your wife is 5 months pregnant, do you really not have any sort of backup plan for the dog? What if she goes into early labor? You don’t have a kennel, a vet, or a friend to take him for the night? Is the dog crate trained? If you are in town to walk the dog then all you need is a friend who can keep him crated in the kitchen, and maybe take him out for a few potty breaks.
If you don’t have any friends who can take in the dog for a night or two then maybe this is a good time to get your dog on file at a kennel or doggy daycare, so you have the option to just drop him off when you need to. (eta: by “on file” I mean that puppy is up to date on the shots they require, and they have vet records that show this)
Being their IRL friend, I can answer this one: they only have one car. They live close enough to Rand’s school that he usually can get to school through non vehicular means while she commutes into Sacramento for work, but staying at a hotel much farther from school borks that whole set up.
As a landlord, I know that we’d offer to pay for a hotel for our tenant in this circumstance. Perhaps that isn’t the law, but it’d be the right thing. It is entirely possible that my position is colored by the fact that a lot of our tenants are lower income, but I know that a good number of our folks wouldn’t be able to pay for a hotel and would then be forced to put their kid at risk. Sure, theoretically not my problem, but we try out best not to be slum lords.
Sorry, I’m still not grokking. Perhaps there’s a bunch of personal details I don’t know about, and which are none of my business (so I’m not asking). I must not have enough facts to work with.
No no, you’re perfectly right. I was just trying to fill in some blanks, s’all. 
I know other people’s problems always seem easy to solve. I do understand (believe me, I understand!) that having only one car and two places to be is a pain in the ass. Still, it’s not insurmountable. Sure, someone’s going to have to catch a cab or bring a book and wait, but it’s not impossible:
Make a reservation.
Drop wife at work.
Drop dog at doggie day care.
Go to school.
Pick up dog.
Pick up wife.
Go to hotel.
Or reverse spouses or order of dog drop off or whatever.
Consider this a parenting pre-test. The kiddo is going to throw a much bigger wrench into your plans sooner or later. Probably sooner. This is practice for improvising, rolling with the punches and dealing with less than idea circumstances BEFORE you have to do it all with diapers and leaking nipples. 
Thank you for all the responses.
We’ve decided to go with the hotel thing one night. We have friends who pet sit, but when they do they just stay at our place for the time required.
The plan of action is to board the dog on Tuesday morning, go to our respective places of obligation, that evening the wife picks up the dog and goes to the hotel. While she’s there I will spend the evening putting the place back together, cleaning everything, doing laundry, airing out the house, etc. Wednesday morning she’ll drop the dog off back at our place and the house should be ready for her by the time she gets off work.
Now I am working on getting a list of the pesticides used and reimbursement from the complex.
To speak to the pest issue, I guess they’re doing this to prevent an infestation. As of now we hardly see any bugs.
WhyNot, that’s kind of where I was going with this. From what’s been posted, I don’t see where anyone has to be two places at once. Just some logistics planning will be necessary to get everyone where they need to be. Nor did I understand why anyone has to take a whole day off work. Maybe call in and say “I’ve got some extra running to do this morning, I’ll be an hour late,” but the whole day?
Also, there’s so many pet-welcome hotel chains that the whole doggie daycare/kennel thing is really quite unnecessary. Every time I’ve stayed with my pets at a hotel, I specifically request no housekeeping service so that the dog doesn’t get let out or the maid scared or bitten or something. You can always crate the dog. Now I can see, if the dog might bark all day from being left alone in a weird place without its usual smells and sounds, then maybe kenneling might be a better idea. Either way, I just don’t see this as any more complicated than your little outline up there.
I think the OP, though, was more along the lines of “can they put us out for 24 hours without offering to pay to put us up”? Why not just speak with the landlord and see if they’ll cut you a deal, maybe let you hold the cost of the hotel & kennel off the next rent check or something.
Sounds like a solid plan and don’t forget to see if renter’s insurance will cover the hotel if the landlord won’t cover it. I wonder if plastic dropcloths to seal your closets or at least drooped over stuff would save you having to wash everything.
I would suspect that putting a claim in on renter’s insurance is going to raise their premium more than the $50 they are going to spend for a night in a motel, but it’s for this reason that I don’t make a lot of insurance claims.
Diosa
(whose beautiful car was smashed into the other day in a parking lot and the other person took off, there were no witnesses, so I have no idea who did it. It looks to be $500-$1000 in damage, so I’m not filing an insurance claim)
Re: Diosa, the car one you should probably file a claim on if you have $0 glass deductible (or a low comprehensive deductible) - you generally don’t get hit with increased rates for comprehensive claims unless you make an obscene number of them.
A very good point. This is some damage that looks far worse than it is, so my $500 deductible doesn’t make it worthwhile in this case.
