Bed bugs so bad in Toronto they'll soon spread on transit, in theatres.

[kettal]

I heard (not sure if it's 100% true) that one reason for the re-emergence of bedbugs over the past decade or so is the banning and reduced used of pesticides like DEET. Going green has some disadvantages, it seems, but I guess I'd rather have bedbugs than cancer.

Bed bugs were eradicated from North America in the 1950s with DDT. No legal chemicals are as effective today. But I'd rather a few bites than more birth defects.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I'm surprised this has taken so long to hit the media, there's only been the odd story tucked here and there in newspapers and on TV.

Bedbugs have been exploding for more than two years now in all larger cities in North America. I've had friends in condos & apartments get them, a relative got them in their home and most every apartment building is dealing with them, including mine - but many won't talk about it.

Once these get into a hotel, cruise ship, condo, townhouse complex or apartment they can spread rapidly by moving along electrical conduit, plumbing closets & water lines, up HVAC units etc. They find their food source as they are drawn by your breath, that's how they track you down and how they move. All they need to enter your home is so much as a crack as thin as a piece of paper and they're in. I know a lot about these things, I'm on the Tenant's Association in my building and took a seminar with Toronto Public Health about a year & a half ago. We meet with the landlord every two months and as of September this building is clear - as far as they know. Luckily our landlord has been incredible with both response time and helping residents move, bag and trash their treasures to prepare for the first of two spray treatments. They also immediately notify all surrounding suites and offer treatment as a preventative measure along with sealing (caulking) all access points including electrical/cable/telephone switches, along baseboards, around ceiling light fixtures etc. I did my place myself, it took me six weeks and around 30 tubes of caulking (2 bedroom apartment) as I moved foot by foot and sealed every single crack and crevice in every room to help prevent them from coming in as the two floors below me had several infested suites, but at the other end of the hall.

These things are hell, the amount of work involved to get rid of them successfully is massive not to mention the emotional and financial toll that they take. You can move, but you'd end up taking them with you. During the day they mostly hide near or in your bed but as the infestation grows (and it happens rapidly) they can be found in your books, dressers, paintings, electronic devices, curtains - everywhere.

Educate yourselves about these things, soon you'll be dealing with them or at least you'll know someone who is or has.

http://www.toronto.ca/health/bedbugs/

http://thebedbugresource.com/phpBB2/

 

[Admiral Beez]

I heard (not sure if it's 100% true) that one reason for the re-emergence of bedbugs over the past decade or so is the banning and reduced used of pesticides like DEET. Going green has some disadvantages, it seems, but I guess I'd rather have bedbugs than cancer.

Unfortunately that's not the only choice we've made. By banning DDT we have condemned millions to death from malaria carried by mosquitos. Rachel Carson may have saved her bald eagles, and prevented some cancers, but there's definitely a negative human side to the ban as well. Between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa die each year from mosquito-borne malaria. That's much higher mortality in African than even AIDS/HIV, but we rarely hear about it.

 

[MisterF]

Unfortunately that's not the only choice we've made. By banning DDT we have condemned millions to death from malaria carried by mosquitos. Rachel Carson may have saved her bald eagles, and prevented some cancers, but there's definitely a negative human side to the ban as well. Between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa die each year from mosquito-borne malaria. That's much higher mortality in African than even AIDS/HIV, but we rarely hear about it.

We rarely hear about it because DDT has never been banned for fighting malaria. Get your facts straight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#DDT_use_against_malaria

 

[doady]

Even here in Toronto we are still getting exposed to DDT because it is still being used to Africa and other places. It is an extremely persistant chemical and doesn't just stay in one place.

I have been getting a lot of bites lately, I am beginning to wonder of it is due to bed bugs...

 

[Automation Gallery]

Yeah, being raised in cockroach/termite infested Kensington Market i remember dad always having a good supply of this shit in the pantry cabinet.

 

[gristle]

We rarely hear about it because DDT has never been banned for fighting malaria. Get your facts straight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#DDT_use_against_malaria

It was banned for agricultural use. Only a small quantity was - and is - used for fighting malaria since then. It's easy to understand why people might confuse the circumstances. DDT use today is only a tiny fraction of what it was in the past, and there are still many questions over whether it is as dangerous as so often advertised. It's likely that the huge quantities used in the past was making the difference when it came to risk factors.

Only a small quantity of DDT would be required to fight off bedbug infestations.

 

[Admiral Beez]

We rarely hear about it because DDT has never been banned for fighting malaria. Get your facts straight.

Never is a big word, you sure it's never been banned for fighting malaria?

Your own wiki link states that "This, coupled with the awareness that DDT may be harmful both to humans and the environment led many governments to restrict or curtail the use of DDT in vector control." and that "Once the mainstay of anti-malaria campaigns, as of 2006 only 13 countries were still using DDT, including India and some southern African states"

Sounds like some banning going on there. So never is a big word.

 

[kettal]

Luckily our landlord has been incredible with both response time and helping residents move, bag and trash their treasures to prepare for the first of two spray treatments.

What did you spray??

 

[MisterF]

Never is a big word, you sure it's never been banned for fighting malaria?

Your own wiki link states that "This, coupled with the awareness that DDT may be harmful both to humans and the environment led many governments to restrict or curtail the use of DDT in vector control." and that "Once the mainstay of anti-malaria campaigns, as of 2006 only 13 countries were still using DDT, including India and some southern African states"

..."though that number is expected to rise" - you forgot that part.

Yes, DDT use was restricted or curtailed in many cases where mosquitoes were growing resistent to it because of its unrestricted use. DDT use for malaria is constantly being adjusted as conditions warrant. The idea that banning DDT to save bald eagles as you put it has resulted in millions dying from malaria is a complete falsehood.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

What did you spray??

I've never had them.

What our landlord does is they promptly arrange for Pest Control services to conduct Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to treat the suite(s) professionally and advises the resident what has to be done prior to the treatment, that is the only way to get rid of bedbugs. Spraying is only part of the job, the rest is up to the resident to hot wash/hot dry or dry clean every piece of fabric, move all furnishings away from the walls, remove all clutter where bed bugs can hide (a huge job), vacuum along walls daily (to collect dead/dying bugs & eggs) and then 10-12 days later the cycle begins again to get the last of the newly hatched yet unseen baby bedbugs.

Consumer purchased pesticides, sprays, oils, Diatomaceous earth etc. will not get rid of bedbugs, it may control them for a short period but the problem will only intensify and if you live in a multi-unit building they will continue to spread elsewhere. This is why reporting a bed bug problem to management as soon as they are discovered in the early stages is key to successfully dealing with this problem. If your landlord gives you any problems or doesn't respond in a timely manner contact Toronto Public Health.

If you hear there are bedbugs near your suite pull your bed away from the wall by about 4-5", buy two-sided tape from a hardware store and wrap it around the legs of your bed. Bed bugs cannot jump or fly, they can only crawl. If they try to crawl over the tape they will get stuck, and you will know that you have bed bugs in the early stage. If there is a ceiling light above your bed they could potentially drop from there as that could be a point of access. You could also consider doing what I did, sealing all cracks and access points with caulking, especially in the bedrooms and nearby rooms.

 

[khris]

What is this caulking you used? I have a firebrat infestation, and it seems to be getting worse all the time. I can't get the house sprayed because my father has emphysema, and needs to be on his oxygen.
I want to caulk all of the cracks in the apartment. I have seen them scurrying from under the baseboards along the walls. They don't bite, but they're just as gross to me. Plus it will help protect from the bedbugs.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

What is this caulking you used? I have a firebrat infestation, and it seems to be getting worse all the time. I can't get the house sprayed because my father has emphysema, and needs to be on his oxygen.
I want to caulk all of the cracks in the apartment. I have seen them scurrying from under the baseboards along the walls. They don't bite, but they're just as gross to me. Plus it will help protect from the bedbugs.

I mostly used low odor, flexible silicone - clear and white depending on where I applied it. In the kitchen and bathroom I used mold resistant tub & tile sealant for around the tub, nozzles, handles, pipes behind the toilet, under the vanity where pipes are - same idea for the kitchen. I even sealed the breaker panel with caulking and then put carpet tape over the cracks on the front cover of the breaker panel which can be easily ripped off should I need access to it.

The reason it took me so long was because furniture had to be moved in order to get to many areas along baseboards, closets and cupboards emptied etc. When I sealed around cable/phone/electrical outlets/light switches/ceiling fixtures I laid down masking tape around each outlet then applied the caulking so that it would look neat and unnoticeable as opposed to just squeezing lumps of it around each of the above. When dry I removed the masking tape. Lots of caulking, and lots of masking tape but if it keeps out those dreaded bed bugs it was all time and money well spent. I also used white carpet tape that I ripped into smaller pieces in areas (mainly outlets) that I couldn't caulk + I bought a bunch of plastic electrical outlet covers that plug into unused outlets then covered them with white carpet tape (the colour of my light switch/electrical switch plates)! Obsessive, yes, but I know how these bugs have turned people's lives upside down plus the financial losses and emotional hardship incurred so again, I thought it was all worth time, effort and money spent for peace of mind.

 

[Therion]

I saw an episode of "Verminators" on the Discovery Channel that dealt with a massive bedbug infestation. They are truly disgusting. They tend to hide in spots you'd never look for them, like behind loose electric socket panels.

Oh, and the Homewood they talk about the article is I think the one between Jarvis and Sherbourne, south of Wellesley. It's right in the middle of the hotspot they mention. I lived at Sherbourne and Wellesley for about 6 months many years ago, and while I didn't see any bedbugs, there were plenty of cockroaches.

 

[Dilla]

I had bedbugs when I was living in Montreal. I got rid of 'em, first try. Everything washed, vacuumed, bed frame (wood), tossed out. I used 4 cans of bug spray (after doing some research, I found a chemical which kills them, and a type of bug spray which contained twice the average amount of this substance). I sprayed two full cans the first day, waited another few days for them to come out of hiding, then did one can. Waited again, then did it again. Never saw another bedbug, and I lived there for another 4 months or so. My place was pretty small, though.

Oh, and I didn't stay home on the spray nights. It was quite toxic.

EDIT: Before I'd leave, I threw my clothes in the dryer on the nights I didn't stay home. I didn't want to import the little bastards to my friends place.