Toronto Public Health

Toronto Public Health scrambles for funding to continue bed bug fight

May 29, 2012

Q: You know what bed bugs hate?   A: When people fund smart programs that stop them in their tracks.    Consider the highly-successful Toronto Public Health Bed Bug Team, which was funded from May 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. It was an impressive program which carried out much needed and wide-ranging “control activities,” ranging […]

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Bed bug bites drive Toronto resident to sleep on balcony

October 6, 2010

The Toronto Sun reports that an East York woman named Lori Howard is sleeping on her balcony to avoid bed bug bites: … since bedbugs began biting inside her new flat, she has been sleeping — and changing clothes — on her 10th floor balcony. ‘I never had it before,’ Howard said Saturday, a day […]

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Educating the public about bed bugs: Toronto to host bed bug forum for residents April 2nd

March 29, 2008

InsideToronto.com reports that there will be a bed bug forum to educate residents about bed bugs and how to deal with an infestation, on Wednesday. Concern about the recent city-wide rise in bed bug infestations has led to the creation of a bed bug forum, coming to Etobicoke this Wednesday, April 2 at LAMP CHC.”You have […]

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Toronto’s Bug and Scrub: shelter guests being trained as pest control techs

March 12, 2008

The article from Joe Fiorito yesterday (and my post on that article) mentioned an initiative being tried out at Seaton House, a City of Toronto-run shelter for men that has been operating since 1959. Men who live in the shelter are being given paid training as “pesticide technicians.” They’re being paid a good wage ($12-15/hour) […]

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Toronto Public Health now has a Bed Bug Action Committee. Action, people.

March 12, 2008

Joe Fiorito has another bed bug story in the Toronto Star today. He starts by describing pictures a public health official shows him from infestations he has encountered: Reg Ayre tapped his computer keyboard and up popped a photo of a polka dot pillow on a lonesome bed; not polka dots. “Those specks are blood,” […]

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Toronto Board of Health gearing up to fight bed bugs

March 10, 2008

A bit of background: Toronto has had a serious bed bug problem for some time, just like New York, London, San Francisco, Vancouver–I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The Toronto Star also has a journalist called Joe Fiorito who wrote extensively and repeatedly about how serious a problem bed bugs […]

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Reg Ayre of Toronto Public Health: bed bugs a “health concern,” not a “health hazard”

January 15, 2008

In some cities, the housing department inspects for bed bugs. In others, it’s public health. Toronto Public Health apparently has jurisdiction over inspections for bed bugs in the city. Joe Fiorito of Toronto’s The Star spoke with Reg Ayre of Toronto Public Health about why that body can’t legally class bed bugs as a health […]

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How bad are bed bugs in Toronto? Nobody knows for sure.

December 22, 2007

We haven’t had any real data about how many people in Toronto are suffering from bed bugs since the 2003 survey of Toronto PCOs. But this article in Friday’s Toronto Sun has some interesting statistics. On the one hand, According to Reg Ayre, the city’s Healthy Environments manager, Toronto Public Health received 194 calls for […]

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bed bug news for 2007-11-15

November 14, 2007

National Post: Bed bugs invade Toronto East Toronto city councillor Paula Fletcher asked the Toronto public health unit on Monday to study what it could do to eradicate the problem of bed bugs. Right now the public health unit does not track infestations, but simply offers phone advice to suff (tags: Toronto tippingpoint nationalpost canada […]

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