Category Archives: Bedbugs at Home

Bedbug Infestation at Simon Fraser University

Posted on October 14, 2010 by admin| 2 Comments

Officials at Simon Fraser University say they are doing everything they can to put an early stop to a bedbug infestation in campus dorms after bedbugs were found in at least 12 student dorm rooms.

The university held a town hall style meeting with students last month to discuss the issue and ensure everyone was aware of the attack plan.

They have since reported that all the rooms where bedbugs were detected and neighbouring rooms were completely treated, and the students were given laundry cards to wash all their clothing and bedding. Officials now believe that SFU is bedbug free.

“SFU has not been immune to the bedbug problem,” admits Chris Rogerson, associate director of residence life. “No multi-unit housing provider is.”

There have been student reports of bedbugs in SFU dorms in previous years, but never more than one or two isolated cases. So far this year, SFU has spent close to $20k on prevention and treatment for bedbugs.

Rogerson emphasizes that university settings have advantages that private apartments or social housing do not when dealing with bedbug outbreaks. “Universities have departments like mine whose job is to educate tenants, dispel myths and misconceptions, and organize quick reactions to problems. We encourage early reporting, and our attitude is, address the bug, not the person.”

Rogerson explains that at Simon Fraser University, bedbug sniffing dogs have been brought in proactively to check residences annually. The dogs are usually brought in a few weeks into the start of classes in fall. “We don’t get into saying, ‘Well, the unit was clean before you got here.’ The best defence is to make sure there’s no stigma attached, so students don’t decide to suffer in silence.”

Routine inspections are becoming part of the bedbug prevention practice for many schools. Not only do universities have to deal with students, but ultimately have to deal with the students’ parents. Parents are worried about their child’s health, and will be worried about infestations spreading to the homes. Bedbugs travel easily in laundry and on other personal effects.

News of on-campus bedbug infestations makes it into the news. Ryerson University in Toronto has had intermittent problems dating back to at least 2006. The University of Alberta, which had to evacuate and treat the entire 20-storey Newton Place residence in 2008. McGill was hit tornado-fashion in 2007 and 2008, with New Residence Hall, MORE House, and Solin Hall all affected. The University of Calgary admits to a steady “one or two cases per year,” according to spokesman Grady Semmens. Humber College in Toronto is following up a positive finding last month with a campus-wide sweep of residences using bedbug-detecting dogs.

Universities are very susceptible to bedbug infestations. They have large populations living in small quarters, students traveling from assorted study sessions and parties carrying books, coats and bags. “Universities are in the line of fire,” declares Don McCarthy, president of Braemar Pest Control in Bedford, N.S., and board member of the Canadian Pest Management Association. “You’ve got transient populations. You’ve got a lot of the social aspects that come with being at university—your buddies come over and sleep over; everybody’s going back and forth to parties and study sessions. There is not a major university anywhere in North America that does not know this is a major problem, whether or not they have it.”

Canada-Bedbugs.com would like to applaud the officials at Simon Fraser University for approaching the bedbug issues on their campus with honesty and initiative.

Posted in Bedbug Infestations, Bedbug Stigma, Bedbugs In BC, Bedbugs in Canada, Bedbugs In Dorms, Bedbugs in Multi-Residential Buildings, Bedbugs in Vancouver, Finding Bedbugs

Tagged Bedbug Infestations, Bedbugs In BC, Bedbugs in Dorms, Simon Fraser University

Landlords to Screen Renters for Bedbugs?

Posted on October 7, 2010 by admin| 4 Comments

Should landlords be allowed to screen renters for bedbugs?

It is common knowledge that landlords screen potential renters to reduce their risk. They will ask questions related to occupation, lifestyle and make their own judgments based on the potential renters age, appearance and other characteristics. Such questions are used to weed out renters who might be prone to late or missed rent payments or cause damage to the rental unit. In addition, some say that screening potential new tenants protects the building’s existing tenants from having undesirable neighbors that are smokers or drug users, noisy, combative, and a host of other problems.

Canada-Bedbugs.com received a call from a couple in Toronto that had been asked by their potential landlord to provide a doctor’s note from their family physician saying that the doctor had not treated the couple for bedbug infestations at anytime in the past two years (it should be noted that the landlord also asked for verification that the couple were non-smokers). Is this ethical?

At what point does the process screening tenants become intrusive? Is it fair to discriminate against a potential rental candidate simply because they have battled bedbugs in the past? It is fair to your existing tenants to allow a renter to move in if they have not been bedbug free for at least two years?

We do not know about the policies of the Government of Ontario, but the Government of British Columbia’s Residential Tenancy Branch explains that there are no regulations against requiring the prospective tenants to provide a doctor’s note confirming that they don’t have any bites or bugs on them at the current time.

Doctor’s notes will not guarantee that prospective tenants won’t bring the bugs into your building. Nor will the prospective tenants doctors always be aware of bedbug infestation that their patients might be trying to escape.

What is fair to the existing tenants of a rental building? What is fair to potential renters trying to escape a bedbug infestation?

Posted in Bedbug Prevention, Bedbug Stigma, Bedbugs and Landlords, Bedbugs in Apartments, Bedbugs in Multi-Residential Buildings, Bedbugs in Toronto

Tagged Bedbug Tenant Rights, Bedbugs and Landlords, Bedbugs at Home, Bedbugs in Toronto, Moving and Bedbugs

Bedbugs in Vancouver

Posted on September 29, 2010 by admin| 1 Comment

Here is a great article written by CBC News about the spread of Bedbugs in Vancouver:

Bedbugs in Vancouver spread by landlord inaction: tenants

West End couple’s apartment treated several times without success

To view the original article source, click here.

A Vancouver couple whose West End apartment building has been infested with bedbugs blames their Toronto-based landlord for making the problem worse.

“From the beginning, it was just handled terribly. They really took their time,” tenant Robin Spinell said. “Proper pest-control technique involves having no more than 10 to 14 days between treatment. That has probably happened maybe once or twice in the entire last year,” he added.

The Spinells are among hundreds of Vancouverites affected by an invasion of bedbugs in the prime but aging downtown neighbourhood. Until recently, the pests were more commonplace in the city’s transient, drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

“There are tenants all over the West End suffering,” Robin Spinell said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination that this kind of thing can happen in our so-called international city that is getting ready for the Olympics.”

Numerous Treatment Didn’t Work

Spinell and his wife, Susanne, live in a highrise at 990 Broughton St. The building is managed by Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, or CAP REIT, a publicly traded company and one of Canada’s largest owners of rental accommodations.

Robin Spinell said the pests first appeared in the couple’s unit a year ago. He said he thinks they came from an adjacent suite where the tenant had frequent guests.

The couple said their landlord responded at first by treating only the suites where tenants had complained. Their unit was sprayed by exterminators 10 times in the last 11 months with limited success, they said, because after each spraying, new bedbugs would come in from other untreated areas of the building.

“The minute we got a notice of another spraying, I was in tears,” Susanne Spinell said. “I was so upset, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I have to move everything again.’ ”

With each spraying, tenants have to seal up their belongings in plastic bags and move around furniture.

The Spinells maintain that the exterminator hired by the landlord did a substandard job for a cut-rate price.

“The fact that we have been sprayed 10 times is a good indication of how ridiculous this has been,” Robin Spinell said.

CAP REIT acknowledged that several apartments in the building have been affected, but spokesperson Patricia MacPherson said the company is doing the best it can with a difficult situation.

“Some tenants did not notify us [about their bedbugs] right away — but as soon as we did hear about issues in any of the suites, we did respond and arrange for treatment immediately,” MacPherson said.

Some tenants — unlike the Spinells — refused to allow exterminators in to their units, she said, while others didn’t have their suites properly prepared.

Landlord blames “uncooperative” tenants.

“The reason treatments aren’t successful is generally unco-operative tenants,” MacPherson said. “A lot of tenants were not co-operative at times, and we’ve had to spray their suites many, many, many times, and they are still being unco-operative in terms of prepping.”

The Spinells have had numerous sleepless nights since the infestation began and have become obsessed over bedbugs, they said.

“Ten months of continuous stress,” Robin Spinell said. “They’re running around in your bed, in your frame, and you can see them, you can feel them. They are filling up with your blood.”

The pests are now endemic in Vancouver’s West End, according to a website called the Bedbug Registry. Users have registered 148 recent complaints about bedbugs in dozens of buildings in the small, high-density, high-rent area — considered some of Vancouver’s prime real estate with stunning views.

“You wake up at night, and even though there might be not a bug, you just feel the sensation of something is crawling on you,” Susanne Spinell said.

Domenic Losito, regional director of health protection for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, said the bedbugs are being allowed to flourish by landlords who cut corners and tenants who refuse to co-operate with treatments. In these cases, he said, tenants’ rights — to refuse landlords entry, for example — are working against their best interests.

“The bedbug problem cries out for more frequent inspections by the landlord and more co-operation by the tenants for prepping, allowing someone in to do the treatment. And it seems to be going the opposite direction,” Losito said.

Olympics will bring more bugs: health authority

Losito predicts that unchecked, the problem will only get worse in 2010 because of the number of visitors during the Olympics — visitors who could bring more bugs or spread the ones that are already there. Health authorities can’t take enforcement action because the critters don’t spread disease, so they’re not considered a public health hazard, he said.

“We’ve got a problem here without a ready solution in legislation,” Losito said.

The stigma of acknowledging that one’s home has become infested means not enough people are talking about how prevalent the bugs have become, particularly in more established neighborhoods, he added.

“Most people wouldn’t want to scream it out at the office that ‘I’ve got a bedbug problem!’ ” Losito said.

“People are scared to tell that they are having bedbugs, and then they just move and carry the problem with them,” Susanne Spinell said.

“It’s just increasingly getting worse,” her husband said. “Really, the politicians, they have to do something about it or it will explode next year when the Olympics come.”

To read more, visit CBC’s website at: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/03/30/bc-bedbugs.html#ixzz10yYRQMXr

Posted in Bedbugs and Landlords, Bedbugs in Apartments, Bedbugs In BC, Bedbugs in Canada, Bedbugs in Vancouver, Canada Bedbugs, Cost of Bedbugs, Exterminate Bedbugs, Vancouver Olympics 2010 and Bedbugs

Tagged Bedbug Treatment, Bedbugs and Landlords, Bedbugs in Vancouver, Vancouver bedbugs

Bedbugs in Calgary

Posted on September 26, 2010 by admin| 1 Comment

Bedbugs are a growing problem for the residents of the city of Calgary.

Lynne Navratil of Alberta Health Services says that a provincial bedbug committee has been set up to address the topic of bedbugs. She comments, “We are eagerly anticipating the results of their survey and the first step is to try to get an assessment of if the problem is growing and how severe the problem is.”

Calgary area exterminators say that there are more and more bedbugs cases each month. One company reports that they received only 2-3 calls for bedbug infestations a few years ago, and how they average 150 per month – and the number is growing. For bedbug infestation sufferers who chose to go the chemical route, multiple bedbug pesticide spray applications are usually required.

The city of Edmonton is distributing surveys to landlords to discover the extent of the bedbug problem. The city of Calgary is not planning on any similar surveys. Alberta Health Services (AHS) reports this year is currently on par with last year for bed bug infestations, though Calgarians are growing increasingly aware of the pests.

In Calgary, bedbugs are classified as vermin. This year there were 101 vermin complaints between January 1 and June 30. Additionally, there were 192 vermin infractions reported between Jan. 1 and June 11.

Bedbugs are 5-7 millimetres – about the size of an apple seed – and are reddish brown. Bedbugs can live up to 18 months without a feeding, and a well fed female bedbug can lay up to 500 eggs. Bedbugs do not discriminate and are being spotted in increasingly unexpected places such as banks, movie theatres, and libraries.

Property management companies will frequently not reveal if a building is infested with bedbugs, but the majority insist they are taking the appropriate precautions by disinfecting parts of affected building. According to Alberta law, landlords are obligated to clean up and control the spread of insects.

Tenants can check if a property has ever had a bedbug infestation by visiting the Bedbug Registry, a free public database that and report the building they are living in on Bedbug Registry. Infestations in strata owned buildings rarely appear on Bedbug Registry because homeowners are afraid that reporting their bedbug infestation will lower property values.

Posted in Bedbug Statistics, Bedbug Stigma, Bedbugs and Landlords, Bedbugs in Alberta, Bedbugs in Apartments, Bedbugs in Canada, Bedbugs in Multi-Residential Buildings

Tagged Bedbug Statistics, Bedbugs in Alberta, Bedbugs in Calgary, Bedbugs in Edmonton

Ontario’s Bedbug Woes

Posted on September 18, 2010 by admin| 4 Comments

The resurgence of bedbugs in Canada has an Ontario politician Michael Colle calling for a national health strategy to track the pests. He is organizing a bedbug summit on September 29, 2010 at the Ontario Legislature. Colle is calling on the Canadian Government to develop a national health strategy to document and combat the spread of bedbugs.

Colle states, “”Hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They’ve got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing.”

Currently, Health Canada does not track bedbug infestations. This is primarily because bedbug are not known to be transmitters of infectious disease.

Colle says, “It’s almost debilitating. People tell me they can’t sleep, it’s very expensive and they don’t know what to do, what works.”

Bedbugs are still a taboo topic in the mainstream and carry with them a negative stigma that can negatively impact a person or business. This leads to bedbug infestations being dramatically under reported.

“You can see what happens when there was this bedbug scare at the Toronto film festival,” said Colle. Colle is referring to a posting on Twitter about the presence of bedbugs at a theatre involved with the Toronto Film Festival. Fortunately the bedbug posting turned out to be false.

Colle argues that it is tough to battle the growing number of bedbug infestations when no official entity is tracking their attack on the beds of sleeping Canadians.

“This is the problem. There’s no data or hard scientific facts about the proliferation, the concentration,” says Colle, “hopefully the summit will get attention and resources paid for provincially, but also asking the federal government. They’ve got to be involved in getting a national health strategy to deal with this thing.”

Among Canadian cities, several organizations (Canada-Bedbugs.com included) believes that Toronto is hardest hit by the bedbug crisis. Toronto Public Health responded to more than 1,500 bedbug complaints or requests for service. As of mid-September 2010, there have been over 1,200 complaints. The number of bedbug complaints are only expected to rise in the coming years.

In contrast, Ottawa’s health unit has only reported 75 to 80 bedbug infestation complaints so far this year, although the total for 2009 was only 60 in 2009. Other Canadian cities such as Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Regina and other cities have also seen a big increase in bedbug complaints, although hard statistics regarding the exact number of bedbug infestations are not available.

“What seems to be transpiring from the field is that there’s more and more infestations,” said Dr. Stephane Perron with Montreal Public Health.

Dr. Perron cites that 20 buildings of the 700 managed by Montreal’s municipal housing corporation were infested with bedbugs in 2007. In 2008 the number of infestations jumped to 120 buildings. The figure for 2009 was not disclosed.

Bedbug infestations in private homes are dramatically under-reported because there’s still a negative stigma attached to having them despite the fact that bedbugs can found in high end hotels and residences.

Canada-Bedbugs.com thinks that Colle should be commended for bringing attention to the issue of bedbugs on a national level. Knowledge is power and having a national strategy to document and treat bedbug infestations will help combat the spread of bedbugs and devise more effective treatments.

Posted in Bedbugs in Alberta, Bedbugs in Apartments, Bedbugs In BC, Bedbugs in Canada, Bedbugs in Multi-Residential Buildings, Bedbugs in Toronto, Bedbugs in Vancouver

Tagged Bedbugs in Alberta, Bedbugs in Ontario, Bedbugs in Ottawa, Bedbugs in Vancouver