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TORONTO -- Even with sightings down 20 per cent over last year, Canadas largest pest control company says that Toronto has topped the list of top bed bug cities in the country two years running.

In a news release, Orkin Canada says that while Toronto holds the top spot, five other areas in Ontario also made the top 10.

Sudbury ranked second, Oshawa third, Scarborough seventh, Whitby placed eighth and Ottawa came in 10th.

Vancouver, Winnipeg, St. Johns and Edmonton also made the list.

The findings are based on the number of commercial and residential bed bug treatments carried out by Orkin from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020.

(Source:Orkin LLC)

And while it may be unsettling to see your citys name on the list, the company says that bed bug sightings are actually down year over year, which they credit to the public health measures in place to fight COVID-19.

Travel bans, stay-at-home orders, and a general shift to working remotely have resulted in less opportunities for these hitchhikers to move around, for the first time since Orkin Canada released its annual survey five years ago, the news release reads.

However, the company says that when the economy reopens, bed bugs will also be back in business.

Due to their ability to double in population about every 16 days, it should not be difficult for bed bugs to regain their grip on the Canadian market.

In the meantime, Canadians concerned about a possible infection are encouraged to carefully examine bags and clothing, inspect all second-hand or returning office furniture, and dry potentially infested bed linens or clothing on the highest heat setting.

Here is the original post:
Toronto tops list of worst cities for bed bugs in 2020 - CTV Toronto

Minuscule and bloodsucking, bed bugs are a growing public health problem in Canada, especially here in Toronto.

Canadas largest city was just ranked as the worst city in the country for bed bugs, according to an annual list by pest control company Orkin that was released Tuesday. Orkin ranked the top 25 bed bug-infested cities in the country, with Toronto coming in at number one.

READ: The Year Ahead Top Ten Ideas For A Better Toronto

Similar to the past three years, larger cities and travel centres claimed the top spots. This past year saw significant bed bug sightings across the country, from infestations in federal buildings to private homes, wrote Orkin in this years report.

In less than two decades, Cimex lectularius, better known as bed bugs, have gone from a rarely experienced irritant to a major problem thriving in clean and dirty homes alike.

The findings byOrkin Canadaare based on the number of commercial and residential bed bug treatments carried out by the company between the period ofJanuary 1 through December 31, 2019.

This years top ten bed bug cities are:

Orkin says these pesky bugs can be identified by noticing tiny dark coloured stains, cast skins or live bugs most commonly on mattress tags and seams, under-seat cushions, behind headboards, creases of drawers, buckling wallpaper, and carpets.

READ: Toronto Ranked One Of The 25 Best Cities In The World

But, if you do find that these pesky bugs are calling your residence home, Orkin says you can prevent them from infecting your home by examining bags and clothing, drying potentially infested bed linens or clothing on the highest heat setting, and inspecting all second-hand furniture before bringing it into your home.

So Toronto, dont let the bed bugs bite.

Read more from the original source:
Toronto is the worst city in all of Canada for bed bugs

In a seniors housing building in east-end Toronto, 69-year-old Maureen Clohessy has taped over her power outlets, hoping to keep bedbugs out of the bachelor unit shes called home for three years.

Each day, she watches for the scuttling critters, her eyes scanning from her plugs to her ceiling in an apartment on the seventh floor. The building at 828 Kingston Road is known as Glen Stewart Acres, and its one of several senior-specific buildings operated by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

Like other community housing buildings in Toronto, Glen Stewart Acres has battled pests from bedbugs to rodents and cockroaches. The housing operator saw a leap of 17.4 per cent in demands for pest treatments across all their buildings last year. Clohessys building was supposed to be treated top-to-bottom this spring. But then the pandemic hit and the process was put indefinitely on hold.

Currently, I have no nests, Clohessy said, with some relief. But she described a neighbour down the hall walking around with bedbugs clinging to their clothes. Knowing the pests had reached a level where a full building treatment was warranted, but didnt happen, has left tenants feeling helpless, she said.

Its nerve wracking, she added. Youre looking every day. Its like youre on a mission.

Community housing said it has received fewer requests for pest control this year than last, which spokesperson Bruce Malloch said is believed to be connected to tenants fearing potential exposure to COVID-19 though he also reported an uptick in requests after the province moved into Stage 3.

Some tenants who previously made requests to deal with pests had asked for treatment to be moved to another date for safety reasons, Malloch added.

A report submitted for a July meeting of TCHCs board showed demand for 2,199 pest treatments in April of this year, at the start of the pandemic, versus the 5,141 requests in April last year.

Clohessy acknowledged that during COVID-19 there were residents who were reluctant to ask for someone to come into their units. But she believes that only allows the bedbug problem to get worse, and that its a reason to enforce a whole-building pest treatment.

That way, everyone gets it done whether you like it or not, she said.

TCHC said it has still provided treatments upon request for specific units during the pandemic, and that there were 261 work orders for pest management across Glen Stewart Acres 147 units from February to mid-October with those work orders including a range of unit visits from inspections to the actual treatment application sessions.

No tenant who requested pest control for their apartment was refused treatment, Malloch said.

But he pointed to public health concerns, and the risks to seniors especially if they caught COVID-19, as reasons for pausing all full building treatments when the pandemic struck including the one planned at Kingston Road. Responding to pest issues at the unit level, TCHC believes, avoids having mass movement among staff, pest management vendors and tenants who would need to vacant their units for several hours at a time.

Clohessy rejects the housing providers logic. We all know that safety precautions need to be taken. As seniors, were more aware of that than anyone. Were the ones at the highest risk, she said.

She questioned why it would be less safe for contractors to treat the entire building than individual units, if those contractors were masked and took proper precautions.

In a one-bedroom unit on the second floor of Glen Stewart Acres, 68-year-old Steven Briggs has taken matters into his own hands, buying a steam machine and scattering a powder he found at Home Depot advertised as a killer for bedbugs and crawling insects. Thats the stuff that works the best, he said.

Since he moved into the building roughly eight years ago, he said the bugs have been a nightmare. Sometimes it gets a little better, he noted, but then the scales will tip back the other way. He said hed grown up in a Regent Park social housing complex, but cant remember ever seeing bedbugs there.

Cockroaches once in a while, but we took care of them or they brought guys and they got rid of them.

He believes treating units one by one is ineffective, and allows the pests to simply move to another unit. They just might as well burn the money that theyre spending on it, he said.

June Nagle, a resident in her 80s living on the buildings fourth floor, agreed with Malloch that distancing might be tricky with a full-building treatment, though she suggested that they could make use of a rec room to spread residents out.

But shes skeptical that even a full-building treatment can rid Glen Stewart Acres of bedbugs entirely. Her unit was sprayed repeatedly last year, she said, and she eventually had to throw out a couch and a carpet that were riddled with them.

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About a week ago, she said three bedbugs reappeared in her unit one in her bed and two in her bathtub. Nagle stresses about potential infestations, checking her bed each night and waking at any tickle in her legs.

You dont sleep properly. You dont sleep at all, she said.

Its an ongoing battle in here.

More here:
'It's an ongoing battle in here': COVID-19 has halted building-wide spraying for bedbugs in Toronto's community housing. Tenants feel helpless -...