does a landlord have to provide pest control for a tenant

A landlord owes his tenants a warranty of habitability.  He must make sure the rental is not infested with rodents, insects, and other pests when the tenant moves in, and, except in the case of a single family residence, control infestation during the tenancy unless the infestation is caused by the tenant.  If you have a single family residence, you must take care of pest control on your own.  If it is a multiple family dwelling, condo or apt., your landlord needs to do this for you.  If that is the case, contact the department of health in your county and file a complaint right away.  Let your landlord know that he must provide pest control because the presence of insects is a danger to your family's health.  If he still refuses, contact an attorney in your area.

Insects -- vermin of any sort -- are dangerous to everyone's health.  The fact that you have small children, of course, makes it that much more urgent.  Please call your local health department right now, to report this!  As soon as you can, talk to an attorney in your area.  One place to find a lawyer who can help you deal with this is our website, http://attorneypages.com

I'm not a Florida lawyer.  But there are some very basic legal rules that almost always apply, even without a written lease, and even if you have a written lease that tries to say something different:  the landlord has an absolute duty to keep your apartment habitable, and huge roaches simply don't fit into that, especially if the landlord is doing nothing at all about the problem.  Get a lawyer, and don't let the landlord get away with this.