The new report on Bed Bugs in Toronto which we mentioned on Monday can now be obtained from Woodgreen Community Services (click to download the PDF), who sponsored the study along with Habitat Services and Public Interest, with funding from the City of Toronto and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Thanks to Renee Corea for alerting us to the availability of the report in this post!Similar Posts:

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“Bed bugs are back, and we’re not ready.”

Those are the words Sean Meagher told a crowd of 100 people who gathered in Toronto today to discuss a new report on the city’s bed bug problem.

CBC has a video about this event here (though I was glad to see it, it also contained some dodgy suggestions for people with bed bugs, for example “if all else fails, call an exterminator”).

In Toronto, the CBC notes, reports of bed bug infestations are up 1000% in the last year.

Meagher (President of Public Interest)  is one of the authors of the new report funded in part by the city and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.   This second CBC story tells us the report

. . . found that over an eight-month period in 2008, Toronto Public Health received 1,500 reports of bed bug infestations.For all of 2003, in comparison, the city’s public health department received 46 such complaints.

The report says a rise in infestations isn’t unique to Toronto — Ontario towns like Ottawa, Owen Sound and London have also been hit. Meanwhile, New York City and even some cities in Australia have reported similar spikes in the past five years.

More than 100 people —including social workers, MPs and landlords — crammed into a conference room at City Hall on Monday to discuss the report’s findings with its authors.

No one who has been watching our inadequate and uncoordinated collective response to the bed bug problem is at all surprised that they continue to spread and become a more and more serious problem.

This report from CityNews includes additional comments from Sean Meagher, and an interview with a woman who talks about her bed bug bites, and about how she has been banned by her employer from her place of work until she gets rid of her bed bug infestation.

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Dog Nose

Originally uploaded by jason044

The dog’s nose is a potentially powerful tool in the fight against bed bugs. It’s a war where the enemy is notoriously stealthy. We need all the help we can get.

Bed bug canines are always popular in the news media. Like some other bed bug-related services (such as structural fumigation and thermal treatment), every region does not have easy access to canine bed bug detection teams, so the news stories both do companies the favor of spreading the word about their existence, but also help bed bug sufferers, who might not know this option is out there. Luckily for us, they are popping up in more and more geographic areas.

One recent bed bug sniffing dog business was started in the Cincinnati area by LeAnne Montgomery and her husband John. LeAnne is better known to longtime participants on our Bedbugger Forums as “bugbait” — she was an active Bedbugger who came to the site to get support in dealing with her own bed bugs, long before the couple went into the bed bug dog business and started Canine Bed Bug Finder.

LeAnne and John did not have access to a bed bug k9 service when their home was infested. You can read a recent story here about the Montgomerys’ new bed bug sniffing dog Hershey, who was trained at Florida Canine Academy. Congratulations to LeAnne and John — I hope Hershey finds a lot of bed bugs!

There was also a recent story in the news about a new bed bug sniffing dog in Las Vegas.

Finally, Ontario’s Michael Goldman (of Purity Pest Control) and his bed bug sniffing dog Kody (who is said to have been the world’s first bed bug sniffing dog) were featured in a Discovery Channel story last week.

The segment on Kody starts about six minutes in (you can move the cursor past the iceberg story after the initial brief commercial). Click here to see the story.

It’s important to note that all bed bug sniffing dogs and handlers are not equally skilled. Dogs and handlers must constantly train in order to maintain the dog’s skills.

If you need help determining whether you have bed bugs, do your research, ask for k9 recommendations on the forums, or references from the handlers.

Are there any other specific questions readers should ask a bed bug dog handler, before hiring him/her? Please share your answers in the comments below.

Thanks to the anonymous tipster in the forums who pointed me to the segment on Kody!Similar Posts:

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Joe Fiorito has an excellent new article today, and it represents a departure from many of his past bed bug stories, which focused on individual stories of life with bed bugs, often focusing on low-income and elderly tenants.

This time, Fiorito reports on a presentation by Dr. Michael Potter, long one of our favorite entomologists, who spoke at a Canadian pest control conference recently.

He describes the wonders of thermal treatment (which we agree is very appealing, but will not work and should not be tried as a do-it-yourself remedy). He also notes that bed bugs developed resistance to DDT (which we already knew).

Fiorito also notes that Potter questions why health departments are so reluctant to declare bed bugs a public health pest:

Potter noted that cities were quite willing in the past to declare bedbugs a public health menace. He seemed puzzled by our reluctance to do so today. He said, “This is the most serious pest of our generation.”

He’s right.

It’s important to remember that while having your city actively engaged in fighting bed bugs (as Toronto is, and most cities aren’t) is hugely important, it is not a cure-all. It’s just a start.

Bed bugs remain, and they stink.

Please do read Bed Bug News Only Gets Worse in the Toronto Star, today.Similar Posts:

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Here’s an excellent discussion between Renee of New York vs. Bed Bugs and Sam Bryks, a pest management expert from Toronto (and one of the advisors of the Toronto Bed Bug Project.

There’s so much that is wonderful here, including a thorough exploration of what Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is, and isn’t.

I particularly enjoyed this tidbit, from which I learned more about the origins of Toronto’s Bug n’ Scrub, a program we’ve long been fans of here at Bedbugger. Sam Bryks says,

An example of a really wonderful program in Toronto is that of Seaton House, the largest shelter. I was asked to visit some years ago and I gave my overview then as well as I could. The shelters were experiencing major problems. One of the staff who has a social work background, Richard Grotsch, decided to use the men in the shelter to attack the problem as part of their looking after themselves and he developed a process of non-chemical treatment and prevention that knocked the problem down amazingly and then, he worked like the devil to get support for those guys providing services to others. They are called the Bug n’ Scrub team and they do fantastic work in helping clean up units in preparation for bed bug treatment. They are very busy.

You gotta love a program that helps people gain very useful skills, gives them work, and gets rid of bed bugs at the same time!

What could be better?

And how interesting and inspiring that it started with residents being asked to learn how to get rid of bed bugs in order to deal with their residence’s infestation.

I can only hope the program spreads.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the interview goes, so I know you’ll want to read the entire conversation, here. Similar Posts:

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I just wanted to remind everyone how important it is to call, or write, your elected officials (city, state, and other representatives) and let them know what a tremendous hardship bed bugs can be.

I did this today, and not for the first time.  But I always feel like I am getting a load off my chest.

Those of you in New York City, please sign on with me and the other members of New York vs. Bed Bugs.  Since there’s currently a bed bug bill (Intro. 873) under consideration, it’s especially important right now.  Renee shows you how to get involved and contact your reps here. And then come back to New York vs. Bed Bugs and leave a comment on this post, letting the group know you did it.  (This is important, so New York vs. Bed Bugs can keep track of the effects it is having.)

If you’re not in New York, google the name of your city council or county elected officials.  All the local websites I’ve seen tell you who your representatives are, and how to call, write, or email them.

Do some research here and on New York vs. Bed Bugs about what’s being done by other cities like Cincinnati and Toronto, who have bed bug task forces.  And tell your elected officials what a mess bed bugs made of your health, skin, schedule, sleep patterns, living room floor (covered in plastic bags), etc.  Tell them how much money you spent on your bed bug problems.  Tell them how long you had the problem, why it was hard to get rid of, how hard it was to detect in the first place.  Tell it like it is: politicians need to hear your stories.

This does not have to be a long conversation/letter/email.  But do it, all the same.

It believe that if we all do this, it can make such a difference.Similar Posts:

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This Reuters piece was about how passengers on Nigerian motorcycle taxis were putting calabashes and portions of tires on their heads to avoid using the taxi’s passenger helmets, under a new law that requires motorcycle riders to wear helmets.

Newspapers quoted passengers as saying they feared the helmets could be laced with magic spells so as to knock the wearer unconscious and make them easier to rob, while others feared they would pick up an infection.

But the interesting point was this:

One columnist said transportation can already carry a health risk, and recounted how he had picked up a bedbug while sitting on a bus.

“The story is that people who have scabies, craw-craw, ringworm, dandruff and all other such diseases would easily infect others with them through the helmets,” Steve Nwosu wrote in the Daily Sun.

I’m not sure I’d want to share helmets with New York City motorcycle taxi riders either.

But Reuters readers should be aware you can get bed bugs from planes, subways, buses, and trams in Manhattan, Toronto, Prague, and the City of London, just as you can in Capetown or Lagos.

Enjoy!
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J. Fred Kuntz has been The Star’s Editor-in-Chief for 26 months and he writes in this article that he is retiring this week.

How is this bed bug news?

Easy: The Star has had the most persistent coverage of bed bugs in any single media publication (outside of a bed bug blog, or pest control industry journal), period. As Kuntz says,

We wrote powerful stories about poverty – and helped to spur increases in the minimum wage, close loopholes in the Employment Standards Act, improve dental care for the poor and stir action against bedbugs in public housing.

The bulk of The Star’s bed bug articles were written by Joe Fiorito.

I do not doubt for a minute that this coverage has helped make things happen in Toronto.

I hope the incoming Editor-in-Chief continues along these lines.

Because if you don’t talk about your city’s bed bug problem, no one is going to do anything about it.Similar Posts:

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Joe Fiorito has a great story today in The Star about a landlord (David Brown) and his super (Eric Marshall) and their battle with bed bugs, which started when Eric inspected a unit where the “walls were black and moving” with bed bugs (shudder):

David said, “We found bedbugs in two units; this one, and the one below. We renovated. We put insecticide powder down; diatomaceous earth, with a weak insecticide. Then we put in new floors; laminate, tight-fitting.” They also put new quarter-round on all the baseboards, and they sealed all the cracks; they rebuilt walls and sealed and sprayed the drywall; they put powder in all the electrical outlets; they caulked everywhere they could.

David, who has five buildings and is negotiating to buy three more, said, “I think I’ve spent $15,000 to $20,000 on bedbugs over the past five years.”

I was curious. He said, “I have a social responsibility. I don’t want a reputation as a slum landlord. I regard my tenants as my customers; some have become my friends.” I was disarmed.

David and Eric (who was a social worker before he became a super!) demonstrate that it is possible to fight bed bugs with DE + insecticide, and apparently without traditional spraying. However, it’s worth noting they did a lot more than dust a bit of powder around the room.

Getting rid of bed bugs is almost never easy.  And I would not want to encourage people to try and fight an infestation with just dust, in the absence of other extreme measures.

However, the most important messages we can glean from David Brown’s building are:

• treating bed bugs the wrong way can cost landlords more than dealing with the problem properly,
• treating bed bugs properly starts with educating yourself about bed bugs,
• tenants need to know they can report bed bugs (indeed, need to know bed bugs exist) so that treatment can occur before things get out of hand.

We know from other stories that if tenants fear they will be blamed, or fear they will have to pay for treatment, they may be reluctant to come forward.

In the end, this costs everyone — landlords, tenants, neighboring tenants — much more money and pain.

David Brown and Eric Marshall to have found ways to avoid this scenario; that Brown dealing well enough with bed bugs in his rooming houses to be able to  grow his business during the current bed bug epidemic is itself a lesson to other landlords.

Do read the rest of Joe Fiorito’s excellent story here.Similar Posts:

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Attached to the post from last week, here.Similar Posts:

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