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Bedbug rep has tenants feeling like prisoners

While steps have been taken to deal with the problem since then, current resident Jacqueline Shaver says tenants in the building have been red flagged when they apply to move to another housing development.
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Two residents of a public housing apartment complex downtown say the building's reputation for having bedbugs is sabotaging their attempts to move. Photo supplied

While steps have been taken to deal with the problem since then, current resident Jacqueline Shaver says tenants in the building have been red flagged when they apply to move to another housing development.

“When you apply, they say, 'Where do you live?'” Shaver said. “You just have to say your address, and you're blackballed. We've got to straighten the name out. That's all it is.”

While there are bedbugs in other homes and apartments in the city, Shaver said the Elgin Street building was the one featured in media coverage, and is now associated with the nocturnal pests.

“Since it was in the paper, with big headlines, 'Christ the King has bedbugs,' oh my God,” she said. “When I went in to see my lawyer, he asked me where I lived, I said Christ the King. And the first thing he said was, 'How are the bedbugs?' And this is my lawyer!”

Another resident, Debbie Martell, said she has had the exact same experiences when she has applied to move.

“Everyone says, 'Did you hear about Christ the King?'” Martel said. “We're prisoners with no bars. You get stuck in there then you can't get out.

“I'm getting tired of looking for a new place to live, because every time they ask me where I live now, they find a reason to say no.”

“All I want is the name, somehow cleared,” Shaver said. “We just want to be able to move if we want to. We're tired of being blackballed.”

To move to another public housing building, residents have to choose a preferred destination, then your name goes on a waiting list for an apartment to open up somewhere. While they are never told the reason they have to wait is fear of bedbugs, both women are convinced it's the reason.

“I went in a couple of weeks ago, and they told me I have another year and a half to wait,” Shaver said. “I shouldn't have to lie to move, when they ask me where I've rented before.”

Jon Groulx, environmental support officer, Sudbury and District Health Unit, said there has been a surge in bedbug reports in recent years, although this year things have improved. While he said privacy concerns prevented him from commenting on where the calls come from, Groulx said in 2013, the health unit received 79 calls about bedbug infestations, of which 47 were confirmed.

That dipped in 2014 to 64 calls, of which 29 were confirmed. So far this year, Groulx said there have been 38 complaints and 14 confirmed cases.*

"It fluctuates,” he said. “Every year, numbers change. Last year, we got a lot of calls, but this year it's a little bit less, next year perhaps it could be more."

Infestations have become more of a problem in recent years, in part, because so many people travel and stay in hotels and motels in other countries.

“So people can easily pick them up when they're travelling ... and bring them back to their homes."

He said they regularly receive bedbug reports from apartment building tenants, landlords and homeowners.

"When we do get those complaints ... a public health inspector sets an appointment with the occupier of the dwelling to do an investigation,” Groulx said. “If there's any evidence of an infestation, then we work closely with the landlord and bylaw enforcement in the City of Greater Sudbury, as well as licensed pest control, to remove any infestation."

Bylaw enforcement officers are involved because under the city's property standards bylaw, all landlords must keep dwellings free from vermin and insect infestations.

"Obviously, landlords have a vested interest in getting any kind of bedbug infestation under control, to protect other tenants in the building, so it doesn't spread and become more of a problem," Groulx said. “But if a landlord isn't working with the Sudbury and District Health Unit to resolve an issue, we would work closely with bylaw to ensure that occurs.

"For the most part, landlords, because of their own vested interest, want to make sure that infestations are removed in a timely manner."

While dealing with infestations is challenging, Groulx said licensed pest control companies have the skills and know how to get rid of bedbugs.
Normally, multiple sprays are needed to kill the live bugs, and with any new ones that may have hatched from the larvae.

"A lot of the success rate depends on the occupier of the dwelling and how willing they are to assist licensed pest control," he said.

"There's preparation steps involved in treating a unit — moving furniture and appliances away from baseboards, handling laundered items, that sort of thing. If they're working closely with licensed pest control, it makes the job easier and has a higher success rate."

But dealing with infestations in apartment building presents a particular challenge, he said, but not because the bedbugs flee an apartment after it is sprayed.

"It's not that the bedbugs are that fast, that they're moving from apartment to apartment to apartment at lightspeed. What happens is people in apartment buildings are friends, they visit each other and in a lot of cases, bedbugs can move in people's clothing and laundered items and things like that. That's how it can spread easily."

The hard to see bedbugs attach themselves to clothing and furniture. In a building where furnishings are moved from apartment to apartment, it only takes a few insects to make the trip for another problem to occur.

 

Eradicating bedbugs

  • Consult with your landlord, building manager, health unit or a pest control professional to confirm that you have bed bugs. 
  • Ensure a licensed pest-control company treats your home. 
  • Use a nozzle attachment on your vacuum to remove all signs of bedbugs. 
  • Vacuum all crevices on your mattress, bed frame, baseboards and any objects close to the bed. 
  • Wash all your clothing, bed sheets, blankets, mattress pads, pillows and their cases in the hottest water possible and place them in a hot dryer for 30 minutes.  
  • Consider covering your pillows and mattress with a plastic cover. 
  • Remove all unnecessary clutter.  
  • Seal cracks and crevices between baseboards, on wood bed frames, floors and walls with caulking.  
  • Repair or remove peeling wallpaper, tighten loose light switch covers, and seal any openings where pipes, wires or other utilities come into your home 
  • Dispose of infested items that cannot be cleaned and get rid of clutter.  
  • Seal all items tightly in a plastic garbage bag and discard in a clearly labelled outside container. 

Preventing bedbugs

  • Regularly inspect your home for bedbugs, and keep your home clean. 
  • Seal cracks and crevices with caulking, even if you don't have bedbugs. 
  • Be careful when buying used furniture, ensuring you inspect it for bedbugs. 
  • Never bring discarded bed frames, mattresses, box springs, upholstered furniture or electronics into your home 
  • When travelling, inspect hotel and motel rooms and furniture for blood spots, droppings or live insects. 
  • Inspect luggage when you return home, preferably before you bring your luggage into the house, and wash clothing in the hottest water possible followed by 30 minutes in a hot dryer immediately after returning from a trip. 


(Source: bedbuginfo.ca)  


 

*An earlier version of this story had transposed these two numbers. 


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Darren MacDonald

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