The Edmonton Sun reports that

Swarms of bloodthirsty bedbugs are taking over entire apartment buildings across the city, and public health officials warn that it’s only getting worse.

And how do bed bugs come to take over “entire apartment buildings”?

Step one: when tenants complain of bed bugs, treat once and never follow up.

[Tenant April Lariviere] first noticed the bugs in her furniture last spring. It’s gotten so bad in her northside apartment that she’s had to throw out their mattresses, couches and chairs. They now sleep on air mattresses on the living room floor.

“We’re living in Tupperware containers,” she said. “Everything has to be sealed up to keep the bedbugs off.”

She said the building was fumigated in the spring, but the bugs came right back.

“Nothing’s happened since them,” she said. “There was no follow-up.”

[Emphasis mine.]

Bed bugs are not new to Edmonton; the city has been struggling for years.

What are the laws regarding bed bugs in Edmonton?  According to the CBC,

Alberta’s public health act and housing regulations require a landlord to provide a tenant with a healthy and habitable environment. A tenant with bedbugs is advised to report the dwelling to the regional health authority. Health inspectors will then assess the problem and in most cases order the landlord to take care of it.

In the Sun article, Ken Dong, a senior environmental health official with Alberta Health, notes matters are complicated in the building Lariviere lives in, because many tenants are renting their suites from individual condo owners who live out of town.  But Alberta Health is now on the case:

After several complaints from tenants, Dong said, a health inspector recently went through the place again and informally told the management company to work with the condominium board and tenants to get rid of the pests.

Dong acknowledged that it’s complicated because most of the suites’ owners live out of town and rent them out.

He said inspectors will continue to monitor the building, and if they’re not satisfied with how the infestation is being handled, they can slap the condo board with a formal order. Failure to comply with the order could result in fines. They can also order suites vacated.

It would be a shame if the tenants lost their homes after having suffered from bed bugs for so long.  Let’s hope it does not come to that.

Living in the Edmonton area? 

Capital Health has a Bed Bug Prevention PDF and a Bedbugs Fact Sheet; you can download both here.Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs bite in Edmonton sleep disorder clinic
• Bed bugs in Madison, Wisconsin: warnings on moving day
• Bed bugs in the media: David Cain on British radio, Dr. Susan Jones in the Plain Dealer
• Round, round, get around, bed bugs get around all the time
• Depot Square in St. Johnsbury, VT: 39 of 47 units infested

It’s a pretty unlucky scenario when patients who checked into the Edmonton General Hospital sleep disorder clinic in order to find the cause of their sleep disturbances are woken in the middle of the night and sent home due to bed bugs.  This article from the Edmonton Journal describes just such a situation.

Sleep disorder clinic patient Dawn Blue was sent home in the middle of the night after another clinic patient saw bed bugs climbing up the wall of the next room.

The clinic had been closed after bed bugs were first discovered on December 17th:

When staff members first noticed bedbugs Dec. 17, they immediately closed the clinic, contacting both a public health inspector and a pest extermination company.

The mattresses and furniture were sprayed and the rooms were fumigated.

The clinic remained closed for its annual Christmas hiatus, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5, during which time it was sprayed again.

The public health inspector and the exterminator returned before it reopened, and, following a thorough examination, gave the clinic a clean bill of health.

It resumed normal operations, until Monday, that is, when Blue was sent home and the clinic closed once more to allow for more fumigation.

The article states that Dawn Blue discovered the itchy effects of bed bug bites on various parts of her body the next morning.

The time-line is this: bed bugs were spotted 12/17, there were two spray treatments in less than three weeks, and the public health inspector and exterminator then declared the facility bed bug-free on 1/5.  The next bed bugs were found two weeks later on 1/19.

It is not surprising that the clinic would become infested with bed bugs in the first place, since guests were allowed to bring their own pyjamas, pillows, and other items (on order to simulate a comfortable, home-like environment).

What is surprising, however, is that according to the article, the Alberta Health Services spokesperson Rob Stevenson appears to believe that the reappearance of bed bugs in January was “a terrible coincidence.”

He says,

“In the most unfortunate of coincidences and, despite the fact that every day all of the material in the clinic goes through a specific laundering process, between Jan. 5 and Jan. 19, one of the participants brought bedbugs in with their belongings,” Stevenson said.

He appears to be claiming that this is a new infestation, not the re-surfacing of an existing problem that was not 100% eliminated as they had thought.  I am really not sure how someone can make this claim with any certainty, given the circumstances.

In my mind, the appearance of bed bugs one month after their first discovery, and after two spray treatments, does not necessarily mean the facility was “coincidentally” infested a second time by a new patient, as Stevenson seems to think, even if inspectors were able to find no signs of bed bugs in a visual inspection.

Many cases of bed bugs take more than two treatments.  There is no way of being sure the facility did not harbor some bed bugs after being pronounced “clear.”  We’re told even very experienced professionals cannot be 100% sure a space is bed bug-free. Human visual inspections are imperfect, and even well-trained bed bug sniffing dogs — which have a much better success record — are not 100% effective in detecting bed bugs.

Although a new patient can certainly bring in bed bugs at any time (and many Edmonton residents are, sadly, well-acquainted with Mr. Cimex Lectularius), it seems like the odds are also good that some bed bugs and/or eggs remained after the second treatment and simply were not spotted by the inspectors.

Anyway, the good news is that patients will no longer be able to bring items from home into their beds.

Other hospitals take note: we’ve heard complaints from people who believed they brought bed bugs home from maternity wards and sleep disorder clinics.

Steps need to be taken to reduce the spread of bed bugs, and as much as people need to be comforted while in the hospital, it is of the utmost importance that they do not suffer from bed bug bites there; it’s even more important they don’t bring bed bugs home.

You can read the full article here.Similar Posts:

• Bed bugs bite Edmonton
• Ohio County, WV Health Dept. official: bed bugs “public health nuisance” and “psychological disaster”
• Woman says she suffered bed bug bites at Bally’s in Atlantic City
• Bed Bugs and Public Health
• More on bed bugs in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: again with the HAZMAT showers?!?

Some readers and pest control operators claim to smell “the bed bug smell.” Many others don’t.  (Don’t be surprised if you don’t.)  I’ve heard it called “sweet” or “musty” or compared to “ripe raspberries.”

Entomologist Dr. Lou Sorkin of the American Museum of Natural History has told me he thinks bed bugs smell like coriander.

Coriander (aka Cilantro) [87]

Originally uploaded by Ken Kuhl

And he has had a lot of time to ponder this: in addition to going on bed bug calls, he has a colony of bed bugs living in a jar in his office.  A famous bed bug colony, I might add, one which features alongside Lou in the local and national news media.

Of the bed bug smell, Lou said,

I have always said that it reminds me of coriander and cilantro.  I never really thought of it as sickly sweet or really bad.

And he pointed me to this interesting document from Alberta’s Agriculture and Rural Development (which can be downloaded as an even more attractive PDF here) outlines some facts about Coriander, for those in the agriculture industry.

And the very first paragraph begins,

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is an annual herb that belongs to the carrot family (Umbelliferae). The unripe fruits have a smell that has been compared to that of bedbugs.

What’s fascinating about this is it’s dated April 1998.

One wonders how many folks in Canada’s agriculture industry in 1998 associated this smell with bed bugs.

Or how many Canadians were more familiar with bed bugs in 1998 than with what the Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development folks call “the most commonly used flavoring in the world,” coriander, a.k.a cilantro, being an herb commonly found in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Latin American dishes.

I knew from previous exchanges with Lou that one answer to “What do bed bugs smell like?” was coriander.

But I did not know that as long as ten and a half years ago, people were asking “What does coriander smell like?”  and getting the answer: “bed bugs.”

Just a reminder: do not rule out bed bugs because you do not smell coriander, or any other odor. It’s not something everyone experiences. Similar Posts:

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The Daily Record reports that a landlord is trying to evict George Veghte, a disabled man from Rutgers Village, a complex in Parsippany, NJ. He asked for help with his bed bugs. They told him to prep, but he could not follow all steps on his own.

His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Rutgers Village, in an Oct. 2 court filing, placed the bedbug blame squarely on Veghte.

The apartment complex alleged that Veghte, on or before Sept. 17, “either intentionally or through gross negligence, created an infestation condition within his apartment” that he initially failed to report. The landlord also alleged that Veghte refused to cooperate with extermination efforts.

How could Veghte have “intentionally” caused a bed bug infestation within his apartment? Does this mean he sought out bed bugs, brought them in, and infested his home?!?

How could he have “created” the infestation through “gross negligence”? While it is true that someone might have bed bugs for a time and not report them, thus allowing the problem to escalate, we know that different people react to bites in different ways, and bed bugs can be hard to find. Unless they are crawling over the walls all day, it seems like it would be nearly impossible to prove how long someone had them and known about it.

Failing to report the infestation promptly is another matter, and we really do not know what went on there.

Parsippany housing coordinator Rena Plaxe said she was contacted by Veghte several times but did not intervene in the dispute. Plaxe said it appeared that the landlord had acted reasonably.

“From what I understand, he found a bedbug. He put it in a Ziploc bag. He took it to the management office. They set up an extermination process for his apartment, but he’s been unable or unwilling to properly prepare the apartment. Therein lies the problem,” said Plaxe, adding that the landlord was able to do only “a cursory treatment” as a result.

It does sound as if “unable” to prepare is more likely than “unwilling” to prepare. Read on:

Veghte, a former truck driver who said he had not worked since 2002 due to three herniated disks and osteoarthritis in his neck and back, said he was unable to remove items from cabinets and closets as requested by the landlord to aid in extermination.

“I’m disabled. I asked them for help,” Veghte said.

What should disabled people do, if they ask landlords for help with prep and do not get it? Who can they, or the landlord, call?

And why would a landlord evict a disabled person who could not do their prep? Veghte claims there’s more to the story.

Rob Jennings reports for the Daily Record that Veghte feels he is being evicted because he told neighbors about the bed bugs via a flyer he distributed on August 25th. He received the eviction order on Sept. 27, and the building sent tenants a letter about bed bugs on October 10th. Regardless of anything else that happened, the building clearly did not warn Veghte’s fellow tenants about the possibility they were infested until six and a half weeks after Veghte distributed the flyers. They had to have known of this possibility since at least late September, at least two weeks before October 11, since the man was evicted then.

Assuming Veghte did distribute the flyers without notifying the landlord of his infestation directly, which was not a good idea, several weeks at most could be proven to have passed between his knowing about the infestation and his notifying the office as per Plaxe’s description.

His lease was terminated Sept. 27, about a month after he said he posted fliers alleging that bedbugs had invaded 11 apartments, including his own. A hearing on the eviction notice will take place Oct. 26 at Superior Court in Morristown.

Veghte’s being represented by Legal Aid.

This is not the first time someone has been evicted for not doing the prep required for treatment. Last December, multiple families (including one with a disabled son) were evicted from an Edmonton, Alberta building for not properly preparing for bed bug treatment. Read more about that here. In that case and this one, the evicted individuals claimed to be unable to complete all the steps of required preparation. These can vary depending on the PCO. In the Edmonton building, the tenants complained of not being able to move furniture and other items, and not having anywhere to move them to. As the article implies, they may not have fully understood the reasons for prep, or how to go about it.

In the current New Jersey case, Veghte is disabled. Although I understand that landlords do not feel they can do tenants’ prep, it simply is not acceptable that disabled persons, or for that matter, elderly people, busy single parents, or anyone else who has difficulty doing required preparations, should be evicted. Preparations can be time-consuming and demanding on one’s energy and physical abilities. If people need help, then there must be government agencies who will provide assistance in cases where people simply cannot do the physical labor, or do it quickly enough.

Make no mistake: tenants must report bed bugs promptly if they are aware of them (and whether Veghte did or not is uncertain), and prep needs to be completed properly before treatment. Not doing so puts neighbors as well as the property in jeopardy, and I am not supporting anyone who fails to do those things. However, people who need help with prep must get this help. We cannot expect disabled or elderly people, or those with other legitimate limitations, to simply find help somehow. As a society that does not evict people for being physically challenged, we simply have to provide help.

If this man is really being evicted for not doing prep, his eviction amounts to discrimination, and it’s just plain wrong.

Let this story be a warning to tenants: notify your landlord promptly, and in writing, the minute you suspect a bed bug infestation. People whose first instinct is to simply self-treat could conceivably be accused of not reporting an infestation. In NYC, landlords are often happy to try and evict you, since they can raise the rent for the next guy. Don’t give them any excuse for doing so.

And a warning to landlords: make sure your tenants understand how and why they need to prepare. Many good PCOs will give a talk at the building for tenants about the hows, the whys, and the wherefores. Education is key here. However, you have a responsibility too–to let tenants know of neighbors’ infestations. If you don’t, you may be sued, like this Chicago landlord. All’s fair in love and torts.

And a warning to the rest of the world: we must find ways to help people who cannot prepare for treatment.

Or there are soon going to be a lot more disabled people, elderly people, and parents of young children on the streets. What a shame.Similar Posts:

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Our FAQ on who pays for tenants’ bed bug treatment just got a little more complete. Since this is a really helpful resource, I am blogging it too.

Courtesy of the CBC’s links from its fine story on bed bugs (which remains the best television clip on bed bugs to date, hands down, in my humble opinion), a rundown on who pays for tenants’ bed bug treatment according to Province. It is really complicated. I am not even going to try and paraphrase it.

However, the easy thing to say is that the law is pretty much on the tenant’s side in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Nevertheless, folks in those areas should read the information on your location; it is definitely not always cut and dried, and you have responsibilities as well as rights. Seek legal advice or advice from a tenant’s organization in your area if you need help understanding the laws the CBC page links to.

In most other areas, the responsibility for paying for bed bug treatment varies a great deal Province by Province and according to the situation.

Yes, you guessed it: they want to play the blame game.

In some places it depends on whether the tenant can prove they did not bring bed bugs into the apartment, in others it depends on whether the landlord can prove tenants did bring them in. In still others, arbitration is provided where tenants and landlords cannot come to an agreement.
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I thought it was bad that companies were carting away used mattresses alongside new ones in their delivery trucks. But some mattress sellers go even further in their attempts to spread bed bugs.

A Canadian mattress store called Sleep Country has a program of “charity” for those in need. When a person buys a new mattress and returns their old one, the used mattress is given away to a person in need. The Edmonton Sun recently ran a story detailing one woman’s story: as the recipient of this charity, she had to have her home treated repeatedly for bed bugs.

Prospective mattress recipients are supposed to inspect the mattress and determine its safety. This woman’s mattress actually had black streaks on it and she did not know about bed bugs. However, it should be stated that even without obvious signs, a mattress with small tears or gaps can harbor bed bugs.

For its part, Sleep Country says it has had few complaints about the donation program, which provided 40,000 people with beds last year.

Dean Ritchey, the company’s vice president of operations for Western Canada, said it’s up to the person taking the bed to inspect it.

“We let the consumer determine if it’s a product they’re comfortable with,” he said.

Sleep Country is being seriously negligent if they expect people to know the signs of bed bugs. This is a really bad idea, and the practice of giving out used mattresses should be stopped at once. The bed bug epidemic is serious, and Edmonton has had many outbreaks. People on low-incomes do not benefit from a bout with bed bugs.Similar Posts:

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You can click here to see a map of the last 90 or so visitors to the site. It will look different from what I describe below, because I am writing about what I saw there about 4-5 hours ago. Now it’s almost midnight in New York, and the Aussies are starting to surf in.

For those of you who don’t know, webpages can tell where you’re coming from (though not very specifically). They know the location of your ISP. For most people, this comes up as somewhere near where they live, though it’s not always precise and sometimes it’s just the country. It also tells the webmaster what internet browser you use (Go Firefox!) and whether you like Macs or Windows machines. No, I do not know your name, or where you live, don’t worry!

This may all seem very “meta,” so far, but we know that our readership consists of four kinds of people:

a) People who have, or think they have, or recently had, bed bugs.
b) People whose work makes them concerned about bed bugs (pest control professionals, entomologists, politicians, landlords, hotel managers, social service agencies, government officials, are just some sectors that I have heard from).
c) People who have heard about bed bugs and are concerned, and want to know more.

I think that group (a) is in the majority, and although most people don’t comment, most commenters fit in group a. In any case, the Bedbugger.com readership is a map of bed bug concern, and you’d be pretty safe betting its a map of where bed bugs are popping up–with the caveat, of course, that our site pops up more in US search engines than those abroad, and also that our readers are overwhelmingly English-speakers, though we have dreams of breaking down those linguistic barriers!

This is where the last 89 readers were reading the blog (circa 6:30 this evening):

1. San Diego, California, United States
2. Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
3. Walden, New York, United States
4. Long Island City, New York, United States
5. New York, New York, United States
6. Plattekill, New York, United States
7. Hull, Quebec, Canada
8. Durant, Iowa, United States
9. Miamiville, Ohio, United States
10. Gibraltar
11. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
12. Boston, Massachusetts, United States
13. Humble, Texas, United States
14. Germantown, Maryland, United States
15. Rowland Heights, California, United States
16. New York, New York, United States
17. New York, New York, United States
18. Hadley, Kentucky, United States
19. Buffalo, New York, United States
20. Hveragerði, Arnessysla, Iceland
21. Pine Falls, Manitoba, Canada
22. Livonia, Michigan, United States
23. Bayside, New York, United States
24. Woodhaven, New York, United States
25. Denver, Colorado, United States
26. New York, New York, United States
27. United States
28. Waterloo, Quebec, Canada
29. Los Angeles, California, United States
30. Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
31. Santa Maria, California, United States
32. Beamsville, Ontario, Canada
33. Kansas City, Missouri, United States
34. Corona, New York, United States
35. Barker, Texas, United States
36. Readville, Massachusetts, United States
37. Palo Alto, California, United States
38. Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
39. Mill Valley, California, United States
40. Ridgewood, New York, United States
41. Mehama, Oregon, United States
42. San Francisco, California, United States
43. Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, United States
44. Swedesburg, Iowa, United States
45. Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
46. West New York, New Jersey, United States
47. Lancaster, Blackpool, United Kingdom
48. New York, New York, United States
49. Miami, Florida, United States
50. Anaheim, California, United States
51. Harrow, Harrow, United Kingdom
52. Wilsonville, Oregon, United States
53. Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
54. Forest Hill, Ontario, Canada
55. Wayne, New Jersey, United States
56. Kecskemét, Bacs-Kiskun, Hungary
57. Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
58. Short Hills, New Jersey, United States
59. Seattle, Washington, United States
60. Jackson, Mississippi, United States
61. Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
62. Secaucus, New Jersey, United States
63. Long Island City, New York, United States
64. United States
65. Tranbjerg, Arhus, Denmark
66. Naples, Florida, United States
67. San Francisco, California, United States
68. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
69. Gainesville, Florida, United States
70. Edmond, Oklahoma, United States
71. Hempstead, New York, United States
72. Everett, Massachusetts, United States
73. United States
74. United States
75. São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
76. Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
77. Bismarck, North Dakota, United States
78. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
79. Downers Grove, Illinois, United States
80. United States
81. Bend, Oregon, United States
82. Henderson, Nevada, United States
83. Montréal, Quebec, Canada
84. Sunnyvale, California, United States
85. Arlington, Texas, United States
86. United States
87. New York, New York, United States
88. Fairfax, Virginia, United States
89. Rochester, New York, United States

You might expect that most of these people came from the bed bug hot spots. We get lots of readers from Chicago, Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto. So it’s surprising that 89 people came from such a wide variety of places:

68 from at least 33 states (only 12 of these from NYC, San Francisco or Boston);
11 from 5 provinces in Canada;
4 from 4 cities in the UK (none of them London);
1 person each from: Hungary, Ireland, Denmark, Brazil, Iceland, and Gilbraltar.

In New York state, 10 of the 17 visitors were from NYC. And of the 10 in NYC, 60% were in Queens, where, unlike Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan, each neighborhood has its own name used for the purposes of the postal service: Ridgewood, Corona, Long Island City, Woodhaven, Bayside, New York, are all in Queens, and part of NYC. Remember the Queens Gazette speculating that Queens was the “ground zero for NYC’s bed bugs? Well, I am still not sure it’s true, but it seems plausible: we certainly have a lot of Bedbuggers in Queens.

I peeked at the traffic report for the site because I have a geeky side and I find it interesting to know where you’re coming from. However, looking at it can tell us something about the bed bug problem. This is not a scientific study, but just a snapshot of our site’s traffic does tell you who’s worried about bed bugs (and, we can assume, many are worried because they have bed bugs).

Most of those cities were not capitals or the biggest cities in their regions or countries. A small percentage are from those places you think are hot spots. It should serve as a warning sign that bed bugs, like Bedbuggers, are everywhere, and way more spread out than you thought.Similar Posts:

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More infested apartments in Edmonton.

The Edmonton story is notable because it details how Robert Kirkland moved from one apartment infested with bed bugs, to another. When I first started reading, I wondered if he could have moved the bugs inadvertently with him. But the article states that Capital Health noted the building Kirkland moved into had an outstanding bed bug violation on record, that hadn’t been dealt with.

If Caryn is the first person to have gotten bed bugs again after 2.5 years bug free, Kirkland is the first I’ve heard of who appears to have moved from one infested home to another. Kirkland’s original residence was apparently next door to one featured in a news story last year.

Also in the news today, another non-descript dorm bed bug story. This time from Boston University.Similar Posts:

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Previously, I blogged about the case in Edmonton, where tenants were evicted for not complying with the preparations for extermination in their apartments (which involved bagging clothes and moving or removing furniture.

Now, the Edmonton Journal is reporting that some tenants who claim to have complied with the preparations for bed bug treatment in their building were nevertheless evicted.

Capital Health says it was unable to successfully fumigate a number of suites at Virginia Arms, 10615 107th St., three times because some residents refused to clear everything out — including clothing and furniture — as required.

The company that owns the building is saying enough is enough, but some of the residents who claim they were complying say they, too, are being forced out.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” said a resident who asked not to be named. “We let them in and they sprayed, but now they say get out. It doesn’t make sense.”

If this is true, it sounds like some of the residents were compliant and the landlord just wanted an excuse to evict them.

And at least one resident did not fully comply because his health condition meant he could not move his own furniture:

Evicted resident James Whieldon said he tried his best to prepare his suite for the exterminators, but because of a heart condition he cannot lift heavy objects.

“Since I live alone, I couldn’t move the furniture. But they didn’t come and help me or suggest where I should store my stuff while they were spraying,” he said. “They just said, ‘You didn’t do it … get out.’ “

I still think its good the building is taking the pest control operation seriously, since some places would not treat all units nor ask tenants to prepare.  But there has to be a system in place for helping people complete such preparations in cases where they can’t move their stuff. The article said:

Preparing for the fumigation process, which usually takes between four and eight hours, meant pulling every piece of furniture away from the walls and washing and double-bagging household items, like clothes and towels, so the bugs have nowhere to hide.

Some of the tenants (like Wheildon quoted above) implied they were being asked to move furniture out of the apartments, not just away from the walls.

It’s interesting that they’re talking about “fumigation”; I’d like to know what exact process they’re using in this building.

Also, on a more humorous note, pay attention to the slightly odd suggestion the Edmonton Journal gives its readers as far as how to remove bed bugs from one’s property:

What to do if your home is infested:

- Call a professional exterminator immediately. The longer you wait, the worse it gets.

That’s good, but read on:

- Household items need to be wrapped in plastic and placed in a hot, sunny location for at least a few days at 120 degrees F. Colder temperatures — below freezing — also can work, but the chilling period must be maintained for at least two weeks. However, attempts to rid an entire home or apartment of bedbugs by raising or lowering the thermostat will be unsuccessful.

It was -11 degrees C (12 degrees F) in Edmonton today. Perhaps the Edmonton Journal should offer some more practical advice to Edmonton residents than that they should leave their items outside in 120 degree F heat– I mean, given there is no outdoor 120 degree F heat in the vicinity, nor will there be for some time to come.Similar Posts:

• Bedbug evictions: Edmonton tenants evicted because they did not prepare for spraying

We know it is important for people in bedbug-infested units to follow certain procedures in order to prepare for pest control to spray and treat their apartments. We also know how time consuming, difficult, and costly preparations can be.

But now the Edmonton Sun reports that residents of several units of a bedbug-infested building in Edmonton, Alberta have been evicted because they did not prepare their apartments to be treated, including washing and drying clothes on hot, then bagging them, as well as removing cleaned furniture from the apartment:

Capital Health says they were unable to successfully fumigate the suites at Virginia Arms, 10615 107 St., three times because some residents didn’t clear everything out – including clothes and furniture – as required.

Now, the building’s landlord says enough is enough.

Judy Friesen, office manager at Mainstreet Equity, said tenants were given written advanced warning about the need to clear their suites out for cleaning and that the notice said they would be evicted if they failed to comply.

“None of them prepared the suites as they were asked to, therefore the only way to deal with it was to follow through with what we threatened,” she said, adding Capital Health had nothing to do with the eviction order.

Getting ready for fumigation meant removing pre-cleaned furniture from the suite and double-bagging clothes which also had to be washed so the bugs would have nowhere to hide.

Friesen declined to comment on how many tenants are affected or if they will be allowed to move back into the building after the bed bugs are successfully eradicated.

“Fumigation” is one of those words people often misuse in regards to bedbugs. I’d be interested to know if Capital Health was going to tent and fumigate using Vikane gas or some other substance, which works for bed bugs, or if they were going to “fumigate” with bombs, which doesn’t.

I am also not sure how thoroughly they really expected tenants to “pre-clean” their furniture, since getting bedbugs out of infested stuffed furniture, or the cracks in wooden furniture, can be nearly impossible, especially for people who don’t know what they’re dealing with. “It looks clean” doesn’t apply here.

Evicted resident Yom Noch said she is beside herself with worry over where she and her family will go.

The Cambodian immigrant lives in the suite with her husband and 22-year-old son, who is disabled.

“We have no place to go,” she said in broken English, fighting back tears. “Can someone please help me? I’ve looked around and around, but there’s no place (available).”

Capital Health was there last on Nov. 23 and residents received their eviction notices on Monday telling them to be out by noon on Dec. 12.

Capital Health last visited on the 23rd and they were evicted on the 30th. I’d like to know how much time they had to do all this, and how much education tenants were given about the problem. It sounds like they’ve had a few weeks total, which is not bad, and to be fair, Capital Health did come in three times.

You don’t want to delay treatment, but people need time to deal with their stuff and somewhere to put it. Lots of people work full-time and some even work a second job. One of the evicted couples has a disabled adult son. There needs to be some sort of social services provided to help people prepare for treatment–folks who are disabled, elderly, out of shape, or burning the candle at both ends can’t always handle this, and quickly.

It also sounds like a big part of the problem was the tenants who did not comply did not get it: the process, its importance, or where they were supposed to take their stuff.

Another evicted resident who didn’t want to be named says the tenants feel they are being treated unfairly.

“We didn’t move the furniture properly for them to spray but they didn’t come and help us as to where we were going to put our furniture and clothes and everything,” she said. “They just said ‘You didn’t do it… Out!’”

She also said she can’t believe Mainstreet would evict people just before Christmas.

“Imagine all these people out on the street at this time of year,” she said. “I guess they just think we’re all a bunch of lowlifes and don’t deserve any better.”

Environmental Health officer Maria Precup said bed bugs are a “major” problem in Edmonton and that getting rid of them in multi-unit dwellings requires a team effort from all tenants.

“The tenant must comply,” she said. “If you don’t have everything prepared, there’s no point in us going in.”

One question: this sounds like private housing; is Capital Health = the city health department? Is pest control in Edmonton provided by the city government, or overseen by them? Here in NYC, the city only takes care of pests in city-owned housing. Perhaps if things were centralized, quality would not vary so much. (But then again, maybe it would be lousy.)

The bottom line is that I am impressed with Capital Health on one level: they get the need to treat entire buildings, and they get the need for proper treatment.

However, I am not sure about their methodology. Where were tenants supposed to take that stuff? Was it somewhere the furniture would not infest additional homes? (If you’re treating an entire building, then the act of carting the stuff out is not as horrifying as it is if only some units are being treated, but if they were removing furniture that may contain bed bugs from the building, that is highly risky as far as spreading them further.

And I understand the landlord’s the one responsible for the eviction, not Capital Health. So did the landlord clearly educate the tenants both about bed bugs and about the procedures? Did they offer to answer any questions? Did they provide enough time and make it clear where people were supposed to put this stuff?

Or did they create a really difficult and confusing situation for tenants, some of whom could not afford to find a place for their stuff, or organize its removal?

Public education is a major need everywhere in North America, since most people even in infested cities know little or nothing about bed bugs until they become infested. And even then, so much bad information is circulating, it’s hard to know what to think. We need education campaigns. We need social services to support people in this situation and help them. Obviously, housing codes have to protect both protect compliant tenants from non-compliant ones, as well as from negligent landlords. It’s impossible to know what really happened here, based on this article, and I do not doubt that both sides may be at fault.

The last thing these folks needed before the holidays was to be chucked out on the street. And if you’re too cold-hearted to worry about that, let’s not forget, bedbugs make us interdependent on one another. Now you’ve got some families on the street. The last thing Edmonton needs is several families with bedbugs moving in with friends or relatives, selling their furniture to second-hand dealers, or staking out space in a homeless shelter that just may be between bedbug infestations. The problem will move with them and with their stuff.Similar Posts:

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