Articles

Don't let the bed bugs bite

Posted By TIFFANY MAYER , THE STANDARD STAFF, St. Catherine's, ON

Posted 12 days ago

Inside one unit, some jumped around on the couch. Others came rushing toward Berdowski with every step he took.

And that barely describes the bed bug infestation Berdowski, owner of Environmental Pest Control in St. Catharines, calls one of the worst he's seen in Niagara.

There was the effect on the apartment's resident, oblivious to the infestation. She had been itchy and was diagnosed with a rash by a doctor, but really, she was "being sucked dry of blood. She was becoming anemic."

When she sat on her couch, the tiny parasites covered her.

The vibrations from Berdowski's footsteps beckoned hordes toward him.

"It's not that often we get into that scenario," Berdowski said.

But it is pretty common for him to deal with bed bug calls here in Niagara.

Over the past three months, at least a quarter of his business has been inspecting and ridding homes and hotels of the brownish, creepy, crawly bloodsucking bugs.

He doesn't expect the work to slow, given bed bugs have made a comeback with a vengeance over the past five years after laying low for decades.

"They're going up and up. All the research ... indicates the population is growing worldwide everywhere," Berdowski said.

With world travel being commonplace, the pesky parasites are hitching a ride around the globe on luggage left on beds and floors in infested hotels.

Given their life in virtual obscurity for much of the past century, people don't know much about them, Berdowski said.

When they appear, it can cost thousands of dollars to be rid of bed bugs. Baseboards

and window casing may need to be removed, carpet torn up and furniture tossed.

The resurgence of bed bugs has been blamed on the banning of chemicals, such as DDT, which once kept populations in check.

But Sean Meagher, co-author of a recent bed bug report for the Ontario Ministry of Health, said the bed bug epidemic is more about our vigilance in dealing with them having waned.

Over the past 70 years, the only period in human history he said that bed bugs were uncommon, there were strategies that kept bed bugs from spreading.

It wasn't just spraying. It was inspections, education and followup visits to make sure bed bugs were banished.

"That's what really worked," Meagher said. "We got used to the fact that bed bugs weren't around very much. We forgot to some extent what had worked in the past and what we're finding around the world, when we go back to that ... there's a really identifiable bed bug reduction."

Dave Young, manager of environmental health with Niagara Region's public health department, said bed bug incidents in Niagara appear to be down now. With the cooler weather and less travel, the situation seems to be quieting until spring, when the season starts again.

But then, it's also anybody's guess how bad the problem is. Like food poisoning, bed bug infestations often go unreported, he said.

Of those that are reported, cases in multiple-unit dwellings are most common.

However, bed bugs know no social class, Berdowski said. He's treated cases in low-income apartments and $500,000 homes.

Whatever the case, those coping with bed bug infestations often feel stigmatized, contributing to cases going unreported and untreated, Meagher said.

To relegate bed bugs back to being virtually unheard of, Meagher said a provincewide protocol needs to be implemented.

To start, the province needs to educate people about bed bugs and how to deal with them, he said.

Public health units need to be mandated to apply the same protocols consistently, and the province needs to intervene in cases where people can't deal with the infestations themselves to prevent "super-infestations."

"If we can do that, then we can be leaders in the world," Meagher said.