Tenants who move into privately owned apartments already infested with bedbugs might have trouble finding help to deal with unsympathetic landlords.

The provincial government doesn’t typically have much to do with that type of problem because it isn’t considered a risk to the public, Tara Walsh of the Department of Health Promotion and Protection said. “We wouldn’t address it.”

“Similar to lice, it’s a public health nuisance. There’s not a public health threat, it’s not a communicable disease, so it doesn’t cause disease, it’s just an infestation.”

“It’s just an infestation.”

I strongly believe that this kind of thinking is a failure of the imagination on the part of the public health officials in Nova Scotia.

The World Health Organization seems to think bed bugs are a public health concern. So much so, that as Renee of New York vs. Bed Bugs noted, WHO put a bed bug on the cover of this recent publication entitled The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests, alongside a rat and a tick.

Not alongside a louse, or a carpenter ant, or a carpet beetle.

Though bed bugs are not yet known to spread communicable diseases, they obviously cause problems with sleep, anxiety, and intense itching. The WHO study identifies allergic and immune system reactions to bed bug bites, including (occasionally) anaphylaxis, as well as a possible connection with bronchial asthma.

And desperate people may harm themselves and their families by misusing pesticides while attempting to get rid of their problems.

In addition, when people are on a tight budget, an unexpected outlay of funds (for bed bug treatment, or to replace discarded items) may also contribute to other health problems, because funds may be re-appropriated from other areas of life, such as the purchase of healthy foods.

You can read the Chronicle Herald article here. And read this story from yesterday, which shows that even in Halifax public housing, where the landlord does cover bed bug treatment, solutions to bed bug problems may be slow to reach tenants.

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He has reported the problem repeatedly to the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority, which has three times sent pest control companies to try ridding his apartment of the blood-sucking insects, he said.

Mr. Burton, who’s disabled after having brain surgery three decades ago, couldn’t handle the chemicals. After treatment is applied he’s supposed to avoid cleaning anything for about a week so he doesn’t wash away the pesticide. Tenants are usually advised to vacate their homes for four hours during the spraying process, but he stayed overnight at his pastor’s home one time and the Salvation Army’s Booth Centre another because he couldn’t stand the smell.

His disability means that he needs adequate sleep but the bugs have awakened him several times a week in the middle of the night.

“It is infested from the top floor down,” he said of his building, Gordon B. Isnor Manor. “I don’t care who tells you what. I live here and I’m seeing the proof in the pudding.”

There are alternative treatments available (steam, dusts) and in my opinion, these should be offered to tenants with medical concerns that make pesticides a bad idea. If thermal methods are available in Halifax, they can be very effective.

In a multi-unit building, all neighboring units (above, below, all sides) must be inspected when a tenant complains of bed bug bites or sees bed bugs. (Boston’s city policy is that all adjacent units must be treated, even if no signs are found, and we think this is a good protocol.)

If a tenant has had three treatments and bed bugs persist, I would suspect the neighbors have bed bugs. It’s possible that treatment protocols, insufficient prep, or reinfestation are to blame, but neighbors would be my first guess.

Kristen Tynes of the Community Services Department told the Chronicle Herald that

… there have been 40-50 public housing apartments with bedbugs out of 715 units at five of its buildings: Alderney, Nantucket, Sunrise Manor, Gordon B. Isnor and Ahern Manor.

That’s an average of 8-10 infested apartments in each of five buildings. It would be interesting to know what their policy is on searching and treating infested units. In other words, did these 40-50 affected tenants all report their own problems, or is there a system of inspections in place, and were some infestations discovered in this way?

As Tynes notes in the article, residents bringing infested items in can spread the problem. But bed bugs spread in buildings even when tenants do not bring infested goods in. Coordinated inspections and treatment can help minimize this.

Halifax has serious bed bug issues. Two years ago (11/2006), we were told that Orkin had treated 1000-1500 residences in Halifax in that year. Imagine what the combined total of residences treated by all pest control companies was that year in Halifax.

Imagine what it was in 2008, since bed bugs are continuing to get worse.

You can read Simpson’s full article here.

And more on bed bugs in Halifax.

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• Halifax: where the bed bug “blame game” is the law
• Bed bugs in a senior apartment building in San Diego
• Nova Scotia home help nurses stop visiting client with bed bugs

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There is a certain trio of dusky-colored high-rise apartment buildings in Halifax that are, and have always been, swarming with bedbugs.

Since these infested buildings have been gentrified and rented out to the oft-mobile university student population, what we have is a spread of bedbugs to other homes and buildings throughout Halifax.

Current legislation places the responsibility of bedbug control on the person who brought them into the building. Since extermination is expensive, tenants stay mum about it until the infestation spreads like wildfire to their neighbors.

The law regarding who pays for bed bug treatment in Nova Scotia rentals is a bit murky.

The CBC tells us, in their round-up of Canadian laws pertaining to this problem,

In Nova Scotia, Halifax doesn’t have clear-cut legislation for dealing with bedbugs. Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in. The Halifax agency has found that landlords often foot the bill as it’s difficult to prove there were no bugs before a tenant moves in. Tenants are advised to write a letter to a landlord asking to deal with the problem within a reasonable timeframe. If the landlord refuses, a hearing can be conducted in front of the officer of residential tenancies.

Here’s my concern: “Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in.”

What Bugged by Bedbugs highlights is that this motivates many tenants to not seek help — as long as they resist treatment, and bed bugs spread everywhere, individual tenants can no longer be assumed to be the “source.”

Of course, tenants who may be making such a choice, consciously, or by default (because they simply cannot pay for treatment) assume they are the “source” of their building’s problem.

Many Bedbugger Forum participants also assume they are the first in their building to have bed bugs. Why? Because landlords and neighboring tenants are not under any obligation to disclose their bed bug problem.

The reasoning seems to be that if I admit to having bed bugs, I will be seen as the source. Unfortunately, tenants have good reason for worrying about this — landlords and neighbors will likely assume the first person to find bed bugs is the “source,” even though it turns out, in so many cases, others have them too and either (a) don’t know about them, (b) know about them and are unsure what to do, or (c) know about them and — for whatever reason — just don’t care.

We have to remember that a great many people fall into category (a) and have no idea they have bed bugs. So your neighbor may be bitten badly and for a long time, but have no bite marks, no itching, and not see any bed bugs, until the problem becomes quite bad and they are crawling on the walls in daylight.

The bed bug blame game — in this case, blaming the “canary” who first notices and announces the presence of bed bugs in a building — isn’t fair. And it’s often not accurate that this person is the “source” of the building’s bed bugs.

And, let’s face it, the way bed bugs are spreading, I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for unknowingly bringing bed bugs into their building — even if they did so — if they did not have the awareness they were doing so. If you got bed bugs riding on a city bus or sitting in a library, who is to blame? Collectively, everyone needs to deal with the problem.

Bugged by Bedbugs suggests Halifax residents write to their Halifax Municipal Councillors:

I say anyone who has experienced the anxiety and disgust of a bedbug infestation, and anyone who does not want to live through the former, should write to your local Halifax councillor and demand legislation that places the responsibility of bedbug control on the landlord. Such a law would force landlords to keep buildings bug-free by regular maintenance, since an infestation would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The problem with laws that force the “tenant who brought bed bugs in” to pay for treatment, is both that pinpointing such a “source” is more difficult than people think, and also that infestations quickly spread and get out of control.

On the other hand, I would not simply stop with passing the buck to landlords Here in NYC landlords are responsible in most cases, but buildings still become badly infested, tenants still fear reporting the problem will lead to blame, and negative repercussions. The inspection system (where people call 311 to report bed bugs) does not work well, since inspectors apparently will not file a violation unless tenants can show them a live bed bug scurrying around in the home, in daytime. And landlords don’t necessarily get rid of the problem even though the laws say they have to.

I think Bugged by Bedbugs has the right idea about the problem here, but I would argue for a more complex solution.

We need to remember that tenants do have some responsibility to help keep buildings bed bug-free. I am also mindful on the terrible impact bed bugs can have, financially, on landlords. Bed bugs are not good for anyone involved.

Therefore, rather than simply push for laws which place the financial obligations on landlords, we need to also push for local government assistance to help landlords get rid of bed bugs in their buildings and keep them bed bug-free. Such assistance might include guidance on the best practices for bed bug treatment and prevention, financial assistance where needed in properly eliminating bed bugs from a building, and educational programs for landlords, staff, and tenants, to prevent future outbreaks. Ideally it would probably also include city-wide programs for dealing with infested refuse, educating everyone in the city about bed bugs, and taking reports of bed bugs and keeping track of where infestations occur.

Bugged by Bedbugs also has the right idea about contacting politicians and demanding help. Wherever you live, contacting your local political representatives is a good idea. Tell them about your bed bug experience and the impact it has had on your life, and why they need to take action to help residents fight bed bugs.

Halifax residents, you can find your Councillor here, and send them an email here.

• Halifax: where the bed bug “blame game” is the law
• More on Canada’s laws re: bed bugs and tenants: province by province
• New York City: Who’s responsible for paying for bed bug treatment? Complicated, in some cases.
• More stories of bed bugs in Halifax public housing

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The Victorian Order of Nurses has put home care on hold for a client living in a Halifax public housing complex because of bedbugs in his apartment, the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority said Wednesday.

“We did confirm with VON that they have put (service to) one client in Ahern Manor on hold because of bedbugs,” said Pat Lawrence, director of the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority, which oversees the Gottingen Street highrise.

“What I can tell you is when we got the report about the bedbugs, we did send our pest control company in right away. They fumigated there last Friday and they’re going in again today. They may have already been there just to re-inspect and to continue treatment if need be.”

When asked whether the bedbugs were confined to one or two apartments, Ms. Lawrence said the pests are a problem all over North America.

“What I guess I could say is . . . if we get a report, we immediately begin treatment,” she said. “We’ve tried to do education sessions, certainly, with our tenants and our staff about prevention and in treating bedbugs. It appears to me there are two apartments (with bedbugs) on the same floor, and we’re treating both of them.”

I am disturbed by this news item. Despite Victorian Order of Nurses official Dawn MacIsaac’s protests later in the article that VON is not “refusing to provide services or refusing to go into a home or that type of thing,” that appears to be what they are doing.

Service providers who visit people in their homes are unfortunately at risk of catching bed bugs.

What VON may not recognize is that they are also at risk of contracting bed bugs in homes where they cannot see obvious signs of bed bugs. Therefore, the organization needs to train its employees on how to take steps to reduce the chances of catching bed bugs — and to avoid taking them from one client to another.

And for cases like this one, humane treatment suggests finding a way to provide services to a person with an active bed bug infestation, whether that means getting him taken to another location for his normal treatment, or sending in nurses with Tyvek suits and training on avoiding bed bugs. The client with bed bugs is likely suffering physical and emotional repercussions of living with bed bugs, and in my opinion, now needs good health care from a friendly and supportive visitor more than ever.

I hope the VON gets assistance in creating a bed bug prevention plan from an entomologist who specializes in bed bugs.

I am glad that the client in question is getting pest control treatment, but I would hope the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority was not just treating those two units, but carefully inspecting the entire building, keeping in mind that bed bug infestations can be difficult to detect.

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• Cincinnati fights bed bugs, declares some success

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According to the CBC.ca Marketplace website:

In Nova Scotia, Halifax doesn’t have clear-cut legislation for dealing with bedbugs. Responsibility for extermination falls upon the tenant if a landlord can prove a tenant brought the bugs in. The Halifax agency has found that landlords often foot the bill as it’s difficult to prove there were no bugs before a tenant moves in. Tenants are advised to write a letter to a landlord asking to deal with the problem within a reasonable timeframe. If the landlord refuses, a hearing can be conducted in front of the officer of residential tenancies.

While, as the CBC information states, it is difficult for landlords to prove a tenant brought bed bugs in, many people who discover bed bugs will assume they brought them in if they bought something in a secondhand store, were in a hotel, or accepted a used mattress.

Believe it or not, it is still possible to do these things and not get bed bugs every single time. So having done one of them recently does not in itself prove blame for bed bugs being brought in.

And it is also possible to get bed bugs from neighbors in multi-unit housing without doing anything at all. My concern is that landlords and tenants will often rush to assign blame, and as we have said many times here, it is much harder than you think to identify the party “to blame” for your infestation.

The article in the Chronicle Herald by Deborah Mensah-Bonsu demonstrates the problem with tenant laws which allow the “tenant who caused the problem” to be blamed and forced to pay for treatment, if that tenant can be identified.

First, Mensah-Bonsu describes the scope of the bed bug epidemic in Halifax:

A representative of Residential Tenancies for Nova Scotia said the government agency has been receiving calls about the bugs lately.

“It has been coming up,” said Joey, who could not give his last name.

First warning sign: the Halifax government representative who spoke to the press about bed bugs would not give his last name?

Then Joey describes the local housing laws in reference to bed bugs:

He said if the problem was caused by a tenant the landlord could hold him or her responsible for pest control but if it’s an issue with the building and the source is unknown, the landlord would be responsible for fumigation.

If the problem is not resolved, the tenant can apply to the Residential Tenancies Board for termination of the lease, he said.

So basically, if the landlord (thinks s/he) can identify the source, then the tenant must pay. But if the problem gets out of hand, and multiple units are infested, then the original source tenant is off the hook. In other words, Halifax’s law, like those in some other areas of Canada, is designed to encourage people to not report bed bugs, and allow them to spread.

As much as finding the source of the epidemic might seem like the “fair way to do things,” it’s really hard to do, and really easy to be wrong. The reason is that it is really hard to track the source of infestations. Bed bugs move around, many tenants are not allergic to them and have no idea, other tenants are terribly allergic and are likely to notice them first. You can also be bitten for a time without reacting, even if you are allergic. So knowing when and where the problem started is extremely tricky.

Some people think moving is a solution, but Mr. (Brian) Betts (of Ace Pest Control, in Dartmouth) said that is most likely the source of the problem.

“Somebody will have (the bugs) in an apartment and they’ll be frustrated, and when they’re moving they’re taking the bedbugs to a new location. You got people moving from one unit to another in metro and just dispersing the bugs more and more all the time.”

While this is true, it is also true that bed bugs will often stay put and feast happily on one tenant for a while. S/he may not even know, if they are among the great mass of people who are not allergic, and so do not react to bed bug bites. But when this tenant moves (for whatever reason), they will rush to the neighboring units, to avoid going hungry. This is another prime reason why the first tenant to notice s/he has bed bugs should not be blamed for the infestation.

TransGlobe Property Management Services, owner of the Ocean Towers apartment buildings at Brunswick and Gerrish streets, has been receiving a lot of heat from tenants over bedbugs. So much so that it released a statement saying it has been addressing the issue since buying the property in 2005.

“There is an issue with bedbugs in the entire city and nationwide,” said Paul Dillon, director of marketing and public relations for the Toronto company, which owns more than 2,000 rental units in Nova Scotia. “It’s just unfortunate that this particular property is being targeted, but it was present before we purchased the building.”

If tenants were not punished for being the first person to report bed bugs in the building, by being blamed and forced to pay (in many cases), then perhaps bed bugs would not have such a thorough hold on buildings.

Landlords and tenants are both victims of this epidemic. But the blame game– and by this I mean the attempt to single out one tenant as the definite source of bed bugs in a larger building, or workplace infestation– does not work with bed bugs. The source, really often, is not what you think. The best situation for both landlord and tenant is for bed bugs to be treated as soon as possible, thus preventing their spread.

Click here to read the article in the Chronicle Herald. Click here to see a rundown of Canada’s laws regarding bed bugs and who pays for treatment.

• Halifax tenants angry about bed bugs? Time for action.
• Halifax tenants dealing with with bed bugs and unsympathetic health department
• More stories of bed bugs in Halifax public housing
• New Haven housing officials confused: why can’t they get rid of these bed bugs?

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