Category Archives: Bed Bugs British Columbia

  British Columbia, Canada Bed Bug Registry Map
  Tuesday 21st of March 2023 12:45 PM


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If You See Murder Hornets, Call the Authorities Immediately – Best Life

The first murder hornet was reported in the U.S. in Aug. 2019, but these creatures made headlines last year as more emerged amid the COVID pandemic. The pesky insects are a menace to humans, but they pose an even more significant threat to honey bees. And if these hornets wipe out our honey bee population, we will suffer the consequences. As the murder hornets' hibernation comes to a close, officials are asking you to help eradicate the invasive species. Keep reading to find out what you should do if you spot a murder hornet, and for signs of infestation you need to know, If You Smell This in Your Bedroom, You Might Have Bed Bugs.

Murder hornets grow up to five centimeters long and have a wingspan of up to seven centimeters, a menacing stinger, and a large orange head, Vice reports. If you see an insect that resembles this description, officials urge you to call authorities and report the incident. Sightings of these hornets have mostly occurred in Washington state and British Columbia, but they could travel outside of these areas. If you spot one in Washington, report the sighting onlinevia email at hornets@agr.wa.gov, or by calling 1-800-443-6684.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

Vice reports that on March 17, Paul van Westendorp, an apiculturist with the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture said, "We would like to use the public's eyes to report sightings because we just don't have enough resources to be everywhere all the time." According to Vice, public reporting in Washington in 2020 led to 31 sightings, culminating in the eradication of one nest containing hundreds of queen murder hornets. "It's an absolutely serious danger to our health and well-being," Westendorp added. "These are intimidating insects." And for more insects to look out for, If You See This in Your Yard, Prepare for a Bug Invasion, USDA Says.

The murder hornets, also known as Asian giant hornets or Vespa mandarinia, pose a significant threat to honey bee colonies and other local insects that play an integral role in our ecosystems, Vice explains. Although the murder hornets don't tend to be aggressive towards humans, an Aug. 2020 article described a sting from one of thesehornets as "excruciating." The study also noted that, unlike honey bees, hornets can sting multiple times.

"This is not a species we want to tolerate here in the United States,"Sven-Erik Spichiger of the Washington State Department of Agriculture told the Associated Press (AP). In addition to reporting sightings of these pests, there's another step you can take to help eradicate them. And for more insect onslaughts, If You Live Here, Prepare for a Major Bug Infestation, Expert Warns.

Vice reports that scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries encouraged citizens to set a trap for murder hornets. To create a trap, lay out a mix of one cup of brown sugar and one cup of water to lure and trap the murder hornets. People should do this in April, as the end of the hornet's hibernation period approaches. Per the AP, Washington state officials will use an orange juice and rice cooking wine mixture to trap the hornets, which citizens are also welcome to try concocting. And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Officials are working to pinpoint where exactly the murder hornets came from. By understanding the hornets' origin, experts can better determine how they are making their way across the Pacific Ocean. Spichiger told the AP that the current theory is that these hornets are crossing the ocean on cargo ships. And for more bugs you'll want to avoid, These Awful Bugs You Forgot About May Soon Come Back, Exterminators Warn.

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If You See Murder Hornets, Call the Authorities Immediately - Best Life

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Bedbugs | HealthLink BC

What are bedbugs?

Bedbugs are flat, wingless insects about 0.6 cm (0.25 in.) long. They range in colour from almost white to brown. They turn rusty red after feeding. Like mosquitoes, bedbugs feed on blood from animals or people.

Bedbugs have that name because they like to hide in bedding and mattresses. Bedbugs usually hide during the day and are active at night when they feed. They can go for weeks without feeding. See a picture of a bedbug.

Bedbugs are not known to spread disease to people. But itching from the bites can be so bad that some people will scratch enough to cause breaks in the skin that get infected easily. The bites can also cause an allergic reaction in some people.

Bedbugs are found worldwide. They are most often found in hotels, motels, hostels, shelters, and apartment complexes where large numbers of people come and go.

Because bedbugs hide in small crevices, they can come into your house on luggage, furniture, clothing, pillows, boxes, and other objects. The bugs can hide in beds, floors, furniture, wood, and paper trash during the day.

The first sign of bedbugs may be red, itchy bites on the skin, usually on the arms or shoulders. Bedbugs tend to leave straight rows of bites, unlike some other insects that leave bites here and there.

Look also for these other signs:

Home treatment can help stop the itching and prevent an infection. You can:

Bedbugs can be hard to kill. Bugs can hide in cracks and crevices in the mattress, bed frame, and box spring. They can spread into cracks and crevices in the room and lay their eggs. For these reasons, it is best to call a professional pest control company for treatment choices. The usual treatments include:

When the bugs are gone, be careful not to bring bedbugs back into your house.

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Bedbugs | HealthLink BC

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No Escape: The Human Cost of Making Social Housing Scarce – TheTyee.ca

[Editors note: Four years ago, a spike in home prices and rent rates spurred B.C. residents to call for change and politicians to respond with new taxes to prevent speculation, and funding to build housing. Then the COVID-19 crisis hit. In this special series, The Tyee focuses on how families are faring in Metro Vancouvers housing market, whether new policies are making an impact, and how to build a resilient housing system post-pandemic.]

On a cold January evening, Janice Abbott was getting ready to leave work when she got a call.

A woman was being discharged from the hospital with a four-day-old baby, said Abbott, the CEO of Atira Womens Resource Society, a non-profit that operates housing for women. And she was looking for housing.

It was Jan. 13, the start of a week of snow and cold in the Lower Mainland. Abbott said it was sheer luck that she picked up the phone.

I kept her on hold and started phoning around, and we made space for her in a transition house, said Abbott, referring to temporary housing for women who are fleeing unsafe homes.

But Im thinking, What do you mean shes being discharged with a four-day-old baby in minus-eight degree weather, and shes on the phone calling me at five after five on a Monday night?

Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, British Columbia already had a desperate shortage of social housing, and such a tight and unforgiving rental market that some advocates feared the clock was turning backwards when it came to women being able to leave dangerous relationships.

Then the pandemic hit, and with an emphasis on staying at home as much as possible, things only got worse for women who might have otherwise tried to flee. Vancouver's Battered Women Support Services reported a 300-per-cent increase in calls, part of a national and worldwide trend.

Atira opened an emergency transition house to respond to the increased need; it filled up immediately.

"It feels significantly riskier for women now," said Abbott. "And maybe that's because women can't leave."

The shortage of social and affordable housing has been worsening for years, and long waiting lists mean its now virtually impossible to get women and their children into BC Housing buildings, said Lisa Rupert, the director of housing services at YWCA Metro Vancouver.

The wait time to get into social housing has grown from one year, to one and a half years, to indefinite.

Four years ago, we stopped being able to get anyone into BC Housing, Rupert said.

In a pre-pandemic interview, Rupert said the housing crisis is so bad, she fears vulnerable women in B.C. are at risk.

I really feel that [with] the housing crisis, we forget that this is keeping people in abusive relationships, Rupert said.

It was really only in the 1970s and 80s and 90s that women began to be able to afford to leave. Now I think were going right back to a place where women wont be able to leave, and the impact on them and on their children is huge.

In a follow-up email in May, Rupert said the pandemic has created even more awareness of the need for adequate affordable housing, both in terms of people being able to shelter in place and to self-isolate if unwell, and because it has highlighted the danger to women in abusive relationships if they don't have another home to go to.

She said its important to highlight that transition houses are still open and offering emergency housing to women and children.

There are now new pressures on the provincial and federal finances as governments spend to keep renters, homeowners, workers and businesses afloat during a pandemic-caused recession. But many housing advocates think that with such a strong link between health, safety and housing demonstrated during the crisis, governments won't walk back those previous commitments.

The B.C. government says there is no change to its 10-year plan to build 114,000 units of housing.

"Having this pandemic amplify the problem of misogyny and violence against women and the potential for more funding to go into solving this issue is not worth the lives lost," Abbott said, referring to several recent murders of Canadian women by their partners.

"But I hope that in particular policy makers' awareness of what a big issue this is will result in more attention and resources.

Atkey said her organization will be lobbying to bring the planned spending forward.

"Now that there is broader public understanding of the connection between health and housing for individuals and for communities, I think there will be public support," she said.

It wasnt a nice feeling

When Evangeline Dalaya was looking for apartments as one-half of a couple, she never had a problem finding a place to rent.

That changed when Dalaya, 32, left her partner and became a single mom last summer. Dalaya and her now two-year-old daughter first lived in a transition house, and then with a friend as she searched for a place to rent.

But Dalaya found that as soon as she told potential landlords she was a single mom, theyd say the apartment was already rented, or simply stop responding to her.

Youd think that everyone has equal opportunity, everyone has similar resources available to them, and then I became a single mom and suddenly realized OK, this is very challenging, Dalaya said.

You want to be honest with people, and I was very open about it, and then I could see the hesitation if I was speaking to them in person, she said.

It wasnt a nice feeling, feeling vulnerable like that that Im being judged or critiqued for being a single mom.

Then there was the cost of housing. Dalaya wanted to spend at most $1,200 a month. But even one-bedrooms were far above that price: average rent for a one-bedroom in Metro Vancouver is now $1,382 a month, according to Canada Mortgage and Housings annual rental market survey.

Dalayas experience is common, Rupert said, and its a major factor behind an ever-worsening waiting list for social housing.

The problem has been getting gradually worse for years. But Rupert said things got worse in 2016 the same year home prices and rents rose to historic highs in Vancouver (see sidebar).

Politicians and advocates have warned B.C. has been in a housing crisis for at least four years. The epicentre is in Metro Vancouver, where housing prices, quickly followed by rents, spiked during a speculative rush that peaked in 2016.

Starting in 2018, the B.C. government pledged to spend $7 billion to help build 114,000 new affordable housing units over 10 years. In 2016, the provincial government committed to spend $855 million to build 4,900 units.

BC Housing says 23,000 of those 114,000 promised homes have either been completed, are under construction or in development, and 8,400 of those homes are in the Metro Vancouver area.

But critics have said construction is lagging behind the governments goals: so far, just 20 per cent of the planned units for Metro Vancouver have actually been completed. The majority of those completed homes 74 per cent are for very low-income people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness.

When the 2020 provincial budget was released in February, before the coronavirus threw the economy and B.C.s finances in disarray, Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association was pessimistic. She warned that even though the government is committing to spend $4.2 billion over three years on housing, its still not enough to turn the corner on the crisis anytime soon.

We will remain in crisis response mode for longer than anticipated, Atkey said. And then the pandemic hit. Jen St. Denis

We stopped getting anyone in our transition houses into BC Housing, Rupert said. It just doesnt happen for women staying in YWCA second stage [transition housing] anymore.

Rupert contrasts the situation now with 20 years ago, when she first started working at the YWCA. Many women would leave a transition house and simply rent an apartment.

Social housing was available, and women stayed a while and then moved on as they went back to school, got a higher-paying job and started earning more money.

Abbott said women who are open to moving anywhere in the Lower Mainland face a shorter wait time. But for women who want to stay in the same area where their kids go to school and they may have social or family supports the wait time can be years.

High rents also mean that people are staying in social housing longer, so new spaces arent opening up as often, Rupert said.

Dalaya never thought she would need social housing, until she encountered Vancouvers rental market. A friend showed her an article about a new building the YWCA was working on in partnership with the City of Vancouver in the Killarney neighbourhood, and she filled out an application right away. Rents in the building range from $520 to $1,164.

In early January, she moved into a two-bedroom apartment. Even though she pays below-market rent, its still a stretch for Dalaya, who is training to work as an operations manager at a fast food chain.

I love where I live, its an amazing building, she said. I think there needs to be more rent is obviously sky high.

The social housing supply problem

To understand how we got here, you have to look back nearly 50 years, to the 1970s when social housing construction was booming across Canada.

In 1972, around 31,000 units were built across Canada, and over the next 22 years, that number fluctuated from a low of around 9,000 (1987) to just more than 27,000 (1973). The numbers come from CMHCs National Housing Observer, which is no longer publicly available The Tyee obtained the data from Brian Clifford, a policy manager at the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.

But the pace of social housing construction dropped off a cliff when the federal government decided to withdraw from the housing sector in the mid-90s, downloading the responsibility to the provinces.

From 1994 to 1998, the numbers dropped from a little more than 9,000 units to 1,000 units a year, and sometimes less, for all of Canada. Except for a blip in 2006, the numbers remained at that level for the next decade.

Social housing is housing that is subsidized by government, while the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation defines housing as affordable when a household is paying no more than 30 per cent of income to rent. Non-market housing is any housing protected from market forces, such as housing co-ops, according to Patrick Condon, a professor at UBCs School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Just nine per cent of the housing in the city of Vancouver is non-market or social housing, while 20 per cent of the citys residents are in need of housing they can afford or is big enough for their family.

Penny Gurstein, a planning professor at the University of British Columbia, said B.C. fared better than many other provinces when the federal government stepped away from housing. It had a provincial agency devoted to housing, and the non-profit housing sector stepped into the gap and started developing creative partnerships to get housing built.

But the number of people experiencing homelessness and the need for subsidized housing for seniors and working families kept growing. In the mid-2000s, the then-BC Liberal provincial government introduced a new plan that focused on helping those who were most in need.

The funding priority was building or opening new emergency housing spots for high-needs people at most risk of homelessness.

For those who simply struggled to pay the rent, government focused on rent supplements to help people afford private rental apartments.

From 2006 to 2014, the province increased the number of emergency and supportive housing spots from 5,138 to 9,839 and the number of rent supplements for the private rental market from 18,897 to 32,428.

But during that same period the number of non-supportive social housing units for people whose challenge was simply affording rent fell by 464 units, according to a 2017 report by B.C.s Auditor General, even as demand soared.

At both the federal and provincial levels, the 2000s and early 2010s were marked by an emphasis on supporting homeowners, with budget after budget offering new tax credits for homebuyers or increasing existing ones.

That changed in 2016. That year, with the housing crisis in full swing and an election on the horizon, the BC Liberals announced $855 million to build 4,900 units of social housing and expand the rental supplement program.

When the NDP was elected in 2017, they introduced a 30-point housing plan that promised to build 114,000 units of affordable homes over 10 years. Currently, 23,000 of those units are in some form of development.

Also in 2017, the federal government announced it was re-entering the housing sector with a new National Housing Strategy. Housing advocates have both cheered the return of the feds to the sector, and criticized them for not earmarking enough money to actually fix the huge gap created over the past 30 years.

According to BC Housing, the B.C. governments current housing investment is split into several income bands. Some of the housing is for people who are on welfare, where a single person has $385 to spend on rent every month, and a single parent has $525.

Theres another batch of units for low to moderate income: people who live in social housing and make less than $65,000; or who live in market rental and make less than $74,000.

There are also some units under construction for middle-income earners. The average household that qualifies for those units makes around $99,000.

Gurstein praised the B.C. governments 30-point plan, because it addresses problems with the entire housing system, including new taxes targeting the speculative demand that has warped housing prices.

But it will take time to repair the damage done as social housing construction was neglected for 30 years. Ramping up supply is great, but it takes time to build all those projects, Gurstein said.

There are a lot of women living really precariously

Fifteen years ago, Gurstein conducted a study of single mothers, interviewing a group of women every six months. Some had secure, stable housing; others didnt.

What became really obvious was that those who could get into stable housing were faring so much better than the others, Gurstein said.

The others were having to constantly move. It was constant disruption, it was really affecting their families and affecting their health it was housing that had bedbugs or was causing asthma.

Single moms were also facing discrimination in the private rental market, Gurstein said.

The landlords just did not want to rent to them, she said. It was just a horror story.

Not much has changed since then. Dalayas experience of facing discrimination because shes a single mom is common, said Abbott. Thats why relying on rent supplement programs an approach the BC Liberals favoured in the 2000s and 2010s isnt the answer.

Private landlords can be very picky who they house, and finding landlords who are open to housing women fleeing violence especially if theyre not white is a real challenge, Abbott said.

As the province funds more projects, and as cities like Vancouver offer up land for housing, Abbott also wants to see more family-sized units built. Just like the prevalence of one-bedroom and studio suites in condos, theres been a trend towards building smaller units in non-market buildings.

We have a lot of studio apartments for women, and its not that we dont need more, but our bigger priority is women who are getting their children back from care, Abbott said.

Abbott and Rupert said the provinces system of transition houses and second-stage housing, where women can stay for up to two years, is working well.

When it comes to finding permanent housing, both Atira and YWCA are relying on their own stock of buildings to get women from transition or second-stage housing run by the non-profit organizations into non-market buildings.

Thats good for women already in Atiras and YWCAs system but it leaves a long list of external applicants out in the cold, Rupert said.

There are a lot of women living really precariously, and theyre making these awful choices about their limited amount of money, Rupert said. Theyre not paying their rent and getting evicted; theyre moving from place to place all the time.

Its not what we want for children and for the future of our society, to have to constantly be moving and losing schools and friends.

This article is part of a series produced with financial support from SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Support for this project does not necessarily imply endorsement of the findings nor content of this report. Funders neither influence nor endorse the particular content of reporting. Other publications wishing to publish this series, contact us here.

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No Escape: The Human Cost of Making Social Housing Scarce - TheTyee.ca

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Vancouver Bed Bug Registry Maps Vancouver, British …

Vancouver Bed Bug Registry MapsThursday 19th of March 2020 18:43 PMJavascript must be enabled in order to use Google Maps.

Max. Incidents:10001479

Incident Radius: 350 Miles

03.1720

1. LIVE BUGS + BLOOD STAINS

Bed bugs like hiding in the cracks and creases of items within 15 feet of where you sleep. The most comfortable place to check for bed bugs in your mattress. Inspect the edges, looking for any live bugs (think the size of an apple seed) or fecal stains (think of a dot from a pen).

When bed bug eggs hatch, they shed the egg and turn into nymphs. As the nymphs mature, they require blood to moult and mature. With each moult, they cast off their exoskeletons to grow. Check for these in the dark crevices around your bed, such as the cracks of your mattress, box spring, bed frame or joints of furniture.

Remember that not all bites are bed bug bites! Mosquitoes, carpet beetles, allergic reactions are all possible. Three bites in a line dont mean you have bed bugs so ignore the old bed bug adage of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The blog post was written by https://bcbug.com

Canada Bed Bug1281 W Georgia St #610B, Vancouver, BC V6E 3J7(604) 239-1549

Excerpt from:How to Check for Bed Bugs | BC Bug Vancouver

03.1720

The June bug flaunts a gaudy wing, the fire bug flies for fame; the bedbug has no wings at all, but he gets there all the same. Unnamed American poet, circa 1890 In an Industrial Avenue strip mall, a working beagle named Stella vigorously noses into baseboards, bookcases, table legs and chairs. Continue reading

The federal government is rushing to hire pest control professionals who can deal with bedbugs that public servants bring home from the office, as the insects continue to pop up in government buildings around the national capital region. According to a tender posted last Friday by Public Works and Government Services Canada, the feds are looking to issue up to five standing offers to pest management firms that can inspect and treat its workers homes and vehicles for bedbugs as needed, over the next five years. The budget for each standing offer? Continue reading

Become a Vendor We are constantly expanding our dealer network. If you are interested in becoming an affiliate of 1st Defence Industries Get on Board We are happy to customize your order to reflect your brand. Colors, Logos and more can all be added large volume orders. Continue reading

RANT* DOES CANADA NOT WANT ME TO GET RID OF MY BED BUGS????? Proof: Can't buy Cimexa or Nuvan strips... How am I going to treat my over 1500$ worth of engineering textbooks that I had intended to keep indefinitely Continue reading

Are thinking of relocating to Canada? Moving your family to a different city can be overwhelming especially when you know little about the town. If you are moving to a new location and you are worried about who will foot the bills in case of bug infestations, then read on Continue reading

Read the original post:British Columbia, Canada Bed Bug Registry Map Bed Bug ...

03.720

Good morning, Ottawa! Currently it is -1 with light snow, which will continue into the afternoon while reaching a high of 1. Dont forget that Daylight Savings begins Sunday. Remember to set your clocks an hour ahead before you go to bed Saturday night. Its time to spring forward despite the snow.Here are your top headlines today:

There were more than 120 Canadians who were evacuated from a cruise ship in Japan and placed in quarantine for two weeks in Cornwall. Read and listen to the last of those who were released today from Cornwall at CBC Ottawa.

After six months of treatment for ovarian cancer, Coun Diane Deans says she believes that she will beat it at her annual Womens day conference. Read more about what she has to say at the Ottawa Citizen.

On Wednesday, OC Transpo workers were cleared out of head office after bed bugs were found. A pest management company found bed bugs in certain specific areas of the office. Global News reports.

The coffee chain has decided to stop using reusable cups in an effort to minimize the chances of contracting the virus. This decision has Tim Hortons delaying the distribution of 1.8 million reusable cups they were going to give out for Roll Up The Rim this year. Other coffee companies are doing the same sort of thing. Read more on this at CTV News Ottawa.

This is the third straight month of employment growth in Canada. Even so there are signs the economy is slowing in the report which shows a slight increase in the unemployment rate to 5.6 per cent. Read more on this at the Financial Post.

View post:IN THE NEWS: Friday, March 6 - capitalcurrent.ca

02.1920

Radio-Canada employees must wait even more impatiently to move into their new offices since the brown tower on Ren-Lvesque Boulevard has recently been struggling with bedbugs.

The Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal is now added to the list of federal buildings, after those in Ottawa and Gatineau, which have faced a bed bug problem.

Following [sic] the detection of traces of bedbugs inside in the past few weeks, we conducted an inspection of the building over the weekend in the presence of dogs detection and a certified exterminator , we can read in an internal note sent to employees and obtained by Le Journal yesterday.

According to what it is possible to learn there, the inspection made it possible to detect the presence of traces of bedbugs in certain targeted places of the tower.

We are not talking about an infestation here, but rather isolated cases. Several floors were free of bedbugs, he added.

The Crown corporation confirmed that a decontamination treatment with steam had been carried out immediately in the limited areas. She also assured that the follow-up would be done with the affected employees.

Rest assured that management takes the situation very seriously and that a preventive bed bug detection plan will be deployed to prevent this from happening again, the e-mail concluded.

The official move date to the new offices located nearby is not yet known.

The building was to be ready on January 1 st. However, Radio-Canada is already in court with its owner. She believes that she should not have to pay her monthly rent of $ 1.8 million since the project is not considered complete.

Read more here:Bed bugs at Radio-Canada - The Ticker Times

02.1020

Bed bugs are seeing a resurgence in Canada and even the cleanest of homes can fall victim to these painful pests that feed on the blood of humans and pets.

Bed bugs are especially attracted to the carbon dioxide and warmth that humans emit, which makes them particularly drawn to multi-unit rental apartments.

At night, they feed on sleeping humans, and by day, they hide in dark undisturbed areas like furniture, baseboards, floorboards, carpets, and even wallpaper.

You may find red spots of fecal matter on your bed after being bitten by bed bugs, but it can be maddeningly difficult to detect where the bugs are actually hiding.

nfortunately, bed bugs multiply quickly. In just six months, a few of these pests can turn into a full-on infestation of more than 13,000 bed bugs. Adults can also survive for a year without feeding, so even if you leave, they might not.

Home remedies can reduce the infestation, but the only way to truly rid yourself of bed bugs is professional pest control. Orkin Canada uses specially trained bed bug dogs, to detect anywhere live bed bugs and their eggs are hiding and make sure theyre gone for good.

Original post:Professional Bed Bug Control For Your Home | Orkin Canada

02.920

Advertisement

VANCOUVER When Gregor Robertson took over as mayor of Vancouver, he said he had not anticipated the financial collapse of a planned home when the Winter Olympics and Paralymics approached in 2010.

Olympic Village, a community of around 1,100 condominium units along the edge of False Creek of the city, is expected to house 3,000 athletes and add much needed affordable housing supplies to the city.

But it didnt go as planned, he said in an interview.

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It took me more than 14 months before the Games started and the Olympic Village was in total financial decline, and that project was not on track to be completed for the Games, he said.

The 2010 Olympic Games coincided with the recession. The $ 1.1 billion project went under guardianship and the city raised $ 690 million in debt to keep it alive, but Robertson said it had paid off.

In the end it all worked out. Its a great neighborhood in Vancouver with a great legacy for the city.

The 10th anniversary of the Olympic Games is on Wednesday and Robertson is one of many public figures who, looking in the rear-view mirror, expressed mixed feelings about the experience, but ultimately said it was worth it.

The games came with significant infrastructure investments such as the Canada Line SkyTrain, a fast transit line that connects downtown Vancouver with the airport in Richmond. Athletic facilities built for the Games are now valued community and leisure centers. And the Sea-to-Sky Highway that winds to Whistler was considerably improved, giving the region north of Vancouver more tourism.

Ten years later, the legacy of those investments proves a blessing for the community, but some payouts took longer than expected.

I think the Vancouver Olympics really launched on the world stage and strengthened our reputation as a city that can host major events that had a dynamic economy and a varied population, said Robertson.

Quantifying the economic impact is virtually impossible, said James Raymond, senior research manager at the Vancouver Economic Commission.

An analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers was published in the year after the Olympic Games discovered that the Vancouver organizing committee continued to spend under $ 2 billion. It was estimated that the Games contributed $ 2.3 billion to GDP, resulted in $ 1.26 billion in local development projects, and attracted 650,000 visitors in one month alone.

The city said in April 2010 that it had spent $ 550 million and used another $ 174.9 million from other levels of government, and considered it an investment that a sustainable legacy of city assets for the use of our citizens for years to come. created .

Raymond said the benefits have gone far beyond those numbers. From his perspective, Vancouver has organized one of the most successful Olympic Games in recent history.

Unlike other host cities with ghost facilities that languish unused after the Games, the Vancouver Olympic infrastructure continues to flourish, said Raymond, whose visits to host cities include Seoul, Barcelona, Sidney and Athens.

He brings his own daughter to ballet class in a community center that organized curling events and now has a popular pool and farmers market.

It has only brought life and energy to that one neighborhood, he said.

The brand value of Vancouver also increased thanks to the Games and probably contributed to foreign investments by companies such as Amazon and MasterCard that are expanding their technology activities in the city and attracting international events to the Vancouver Convention Center, Raymond said.

He calls the Vancouver organizing committee the legacy in mind in his investment decision.

Vancouver has shown really well that the Olympics can be fantastic for your city, he said.

Its about scaling things the right way and the legacy as the most important thing to think about.

John Furlong, CEO of the committee, said that during planning, members made it a priority to consider how infrastructure fits into the long-term vision of the community.

There was only one project the ski jump location that the team determined was unlikely to sustain itself, so the committee said ongoing funding.

More important is his opinion that he calls the human legacy and how it contributed to Vancouvers reputation.

The Vancouver 2010 Games were confronted with extraordinary obstacles and hardships on the way and had to overcome many things. So in many ways it was important that the project was seen as a metaphor for what is possible, Furlong said.

The city has this kind of look in the eyes and the feeling that it can handle anything.

Leaders from two First Nations said they were enthusiastic and hopeful to participate in the Games.

Lilwat Chief Dean Nelson and Squamish Nations Gibby Jacob both said their communities were receiving land on which they still have not been able to build but are considering long-term investments.

Jacob said that a $ 30 million shared cultural center in Whistler was more of a financial burden than expected, but now operates in the black. Nelson added that many local youth are employed in the center and it allows them to share their history.

Nelson, who taught in 2010, said it was fun for his students to hold Olympic presentations in schools and a snowboard team that was formed in 2010 is still driving.

The Games also put forward anti-poverty lawyers who considered spending as frivolous.

Vancouver Coun. Jean Swanson helped the Poverty Olympics in the run-up to the Games to draw attention to inequality in the city.

We had our own mascots, we had our own national anthem, we had our own games. My favorite was the wide jump over the bed bugs-affected mattress, she said.

The message was clear then and she is now there, she said, If the money spent on the Olympics was spent on ending poverty, we could do it.

But the Games also came with some benefit for the poor, she said. Swanson endorses the pressure of lawyers with the decision of the provincial government to build 14 permanent supporting residential buildings with approximately 100 units each in the region.

On the other hand, Swanson said she believes the Olympic Games have strengthened Vancouvers international profile as a real estate destination, contributing to a housing crisis that peaked years after the Games.

Robertson also linked international attention to the misery of the townhouse, while the reputation boost it gave the city should not be underestimated.

We were previously seen as a non-fun city with limited economic prospects, known only for resources. And now we are known as one of the greenest, technically educated culturally diverse cities in the world, said Robertson.

That is a huge added value and I think it is easy to remember some of the real estate challenges or complications, but I think it was generally a big advantage for Vancouver and Canada.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on February 9, 2020.

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Originally posted here:10 years later: Vancouver looks back on its Olympic moment with mixed feelings - Daily Gaming Worlld

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Dr. Bob Davis

Target Specialty Products, a service provider of pest and turf and ornamental solutions in the United States and Canada, will hold a 1-hour webinar on Friday, Feb. 18, at 10:30 a.m. PDT. As part of its Business Growth Webinar Series of 2020, the topic is Understanding Innovation: A Scientific Approach to Pest Management.

BASF Professional & Specialty Solutions has sponsored this months webinar. Dr. Bob Davis, BCE, technical services representative for BASF, will share explore why innovation is critical to human success and how it can help to combat many global issues.

His presentation will cover innovation processes and examples of how pest management professionals can use innovations to help protect the health, well-being and quality of life for society.

Dr. Davis earned his bachelors, masters and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. His graduate work focused on testing and evaluating termite control materials and techniques. Davis has been in the industry for more than 30 years, including positions as fisheries biologist, pest control operator, pest control technician, extension research specialist, graduate research assistant, technical director for ABC Pest & Lawn Services of Austin, Texas, and technical field representative for Aventis and Bayer Environmental Sciences.

Pest management professionals interested in attending can register for the upcoming webinar here.

This is Targets second webinar of 202o. The first was a webinar, sponsored by Nisus Corp., where Dr. Jamel Sandidge, BCE, shared his knowledge about the biology of some pests and modes of action in the insecticides used during his presentation, Battling Insecticide Resistance.

Targets Business Growth Webinar Series addressed insecticide formulationsthis past fall and solutions fortough summer pestsand bed bugs this past summer. Clickhereto be added to Targets mailing list and notified of future educational opportunities.

Headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., Target Specialty Products operates 44 locations across the United States and Canada.

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Bedbug invasion: Why the itch-inducing pests are making a big comeback in a building near you – Ottawa Citizen

The June bug flaunts a gaudy wing, the fire bug flies for fame; the bedbug has no wings at all, but he gets there all the same. Unnamed American poet, circa 1890

In an Industrial Avenue strip mall, a working beagle named Stella vigorously noses into baseboards, bookcases, table legs and chairs.

Beagles are bred to track rabbits; Stella has learned to hunt bedbugs.

Flat, oval-shaped, rust brown and vampirish, bedbugs have skittered into the public spotlight following their discovery in nine federal government office buildings in the National Capital Region.

Civil servants are up in arms about the infestations. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has called on the government to check all federal offices for bedbugs and train workers to identify them. Meanwhile, the government has advertised a $400,000 pest control contract to clear bedbugs from employees cars and homes.

But civil servants are not alone in confronting the menace. Local office buildings, libraries, nursing homes, hotels and apartment blocks have been invaded by the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, as part of an extraordinary resurgence of the nocturnal pest.

The pest control firm Orkin Canada publishes a list of the top 25 bedbug cities in the country based on the number of treatments the company performed. Last year, Ottawa ranked sixth in the nation.

Right now, we cant keep up with demand, says Rob Caron, Ottawa regional manager for Orkin Canada, the firm that employs Stella, a trained detection dog.

Stella, Ottawas resident bedbug sniffing dog. Trained in California, Stella is now being deployed to federal government buildings at night to detect bedbugs.Errol McGihon / Postmedia

The bedbug control business has increased 10 to 15 per cent in each of the past 15 years in Ottawa, Caron says. To meet that demand, the Ottawa office has launched a nightshift and is trying to secure a second sniffer dog.

Once on the verge of disappearing from public consciousness in North America, bedbugs have roared back to prominence during the past 20 years as part of what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls an alarming resurgence in the population.

Scientists say bedbugs have developed resistance to some common pesticides, while at the same time benefitted from the explosion of international travel. Bedbugs have no wings, but theyre accomplished hitchhikers: They regularly travel to new locations in clothing, backpacks, luggage and furniture.

A single, fertilized female can launch an infestation.

It means that a whole new generation of Canadians is now confronting one of mankinds oldest nemeses. As ancient as the dinosaurs, bedbugs have evolved to survive almost anything, even DDT.

As a species, they are lousy with both contradictions and curiosities. Bedbugs like to live in groups, but have insanely violent mating practices. Theyre among the most feared insects on Earth, but dont transmit disease. They eat only blood; they can starve for months; they can expand their bodies to feast.

Its enough to keep you up at night. But should it?

The dreaded bedbug.SunMedia

The history

Few animals, few objects even, evoke such profound feelings of horror, fear and fright as bedbugs, writes Klaus Reinhardt, a German professor of applied zoology, in his engrossing 2018 book, Bedbug.

It was once impolite even to say the word bedbugs in public, he says, for fear it would invite them into a home. Even today, the subject is fraught.

You can joke about cockroaches in an apartment, or fleas, he says, but you dont make a joke about bedbugs in someones house.

Bedbugs have unnerved humans for thousands of years, but the blood-sucking insects were on the scene long before Homo sapiens arrived.

A recent study found that bedbugs evolved more than 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs reigned. Primitive birds were then the most likely hosts for the insects.

Bats evolved about 50 or 60 million years ago, and bedbugs developed a taste for their blood. When humans sought refuge in those same bat caves, several species of bedbugs evolved to feed on them.

Scientists have identified more than 100 different kinds of bedbug, many of them highly specialized. Latrocimex, for instance, is a bedbug that feeds exclusively on the blood of fish-eating bats that live in South Americas mangrove forests. Others feed on pigeons, swallows and purple martins.

Some bedbug species are small, others are large, most are brownish, and all suck blood, writes Reinhardt, former vice-president of the Royal Entomological Society of London. (Founded in 1833, the society counts Charles Darwin among its former vice-presidents.)

Only two types of bedbugs target humans: the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, found in temperate areas of the planet, and Cimex hemipterus, which lives in the tropics. Theyll feed on the blood of mice, rats, dogs, cats and birds if humans are not readily available.

For all of recorded history, bedbugs have been part of the human experience and the subject of our dark humour. In the ancient Greek comedy, The Frogs, first performed in 405 BC, the god of wine, Dionysus, searches out hostels with the fewest bedbugs on his way to the underworld.

A story on bedbugs from the Ottawa Citizen on Sept. 2, 1943.jpg

In Ottawa, early inhabitants of the rough-hewn lumber town shared poems and jokes about the same scourge. In 1891, the Citizen reported that a lease in Paris had been declared null and void after the discovery of a single bedbug. This may be very good law in Paris, a writer editorialized, but we fear that if an attempt was made to enforce this in Ottawa, a good many leases may be cancelled.

Bedbugs used to be associated with poverty and neglect; harbouring them was often viewed as shameful.

In 1898, a judicial inquiry was held following an uproar about a Citizen story which reported that bedbugs had been found in the Ottawa police dormitory so many that one officer threw a handful on a colleagues bed. After a hearing, Judge D.B. MacTavish ruled that only a few bugs were present; the officers who supplied the information were fined $10 each for failing to report the problem to superiors.

Bedbugs remained a common nuisance in Ottawa until the 1950s when their populations suddenly declined across North America. Better housing conditions, along with new and corrosive pesticides, combined to send them into retreat.

In the 1980s, the International Union for Conservation of Nature considered them a threatened species.

But the common bedbug would not go gently into the night.

The biology

Traumatic insemination is the scientific name for the ghastly mating practice of the bedbug.

Male bedbugs possess a knife-like penis (aedeagus) that they use to pierce the belly of females. Theres no courting ritual, no display behaviour involved: Males set upon females when theyre engorged with blood and unable to flatten themselves against the ground.

The females have a fully functional genital tract, but for reasons about which scientists can only theorize, male bedbugs only go for the stomach. (The males of one bedbug species, Afrocimex constrictus, will also skewer other males.) Their sperm is injected directly into the females abdominal cavity and propelled towards her unfertilized eggs.

To put it mildly, bedbugs have an unusual form of reproduction, says Klaus Reinhardt, an evolutionary biologist who was drawn to bedbug research decades ago.

Klaus Reinhardt, a professor of applied zoology in Dresden, Germany, is the author of the recently published book, Bedbug, an entertaining and scholarly account of the bedbug that also makes a a plea for a greater tolerance of the insects.jpg

Bedbugs are something of an evolutionary marvel since few species have flourished with such an injurious form of procreation.How do females survive to perpetuate the species?

The counter-intuitive answer is that females survive because most of their ancestors died, says Reinhardt. In other words, only females that had survived the deadly male attacks in the past were able to produce offspring, with this survival ability written in their genes.

Those females produced more offspring, which themselves laid more eggs after surviving the sexual procedure. Over time, the only females that remained were those that were best at surviving traumatic insemination and laying eggs natural selection.

Female bedbugs had to evolve quickly in order to defend themselves. Theyve developed whats known as a spermalege a unique organ that protects against bodily damage and sexually transmitted microbes. It features a deep, padded groove where theyre commonly stabbed. The padding is made from resilin, an intensely elastic material that makes it easier for males to penetrate, and minimizes the damage to females.

Despite their evolutionary battle of the sexes, bedbugs still like to huddle together in dark places.To find each other, they emit pheromones that alert other bedbugs to their presence. They release a different scent to raise an alarm.

The smell of bedbugs has been variously described as sickly sweet, musty and buggy. The 19th century novelist, Honor de Balzac, described it as the typical odour of French boarding houses.

Bedbugs like to spend their days gathered in cracks and crevices near their food source, then emerge late at night in search of a meal. Peak feeding hours are between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

All bedbugs males, females, adults, children drink blood. They have five nymphal stages and each new stage can only be reached after a blood meal, which is drawn through the bedbugs sucking mouthpart, its proboscis. Females require a blood meal to develop their eggs.

Bedbugs can sense the warmth of sleeping people, as well as the carbon dioxide they exhale. After crawling onto a victim, bedbugs rock back and forth to drive their proboscis into a blood vessel. They take about 10 minutes to drink their fill. To avoid detection and ensure a smooth flow of blood, they inject their victims with both a local anesthetic and an anti-coagulant.

They consume up to three times their own body weight in blood.

They are the ultimate binge drinkers, says Reinhardt.

Bedbugs feed on Stephen Kells, a University of Minnesota entomologist, at his lab in St. Paul, Minn.ALLEN BRISSON-SMITH / NYT

Only their segmented bodies and expandable skin allow for such overindulgence. In hard times, when a blood meal is not readily available, bedbugs can flatten themselves and endure more than six months without eating.

The parasites become sluggish after a big meal, and some are unable to stagger back to their daytime hiding places. These wayward bedbugs can end up in clothes, purses or backpacks, and be carried to a new home.

A single hitchhiker can establish a new infestation since a well-fed, fertilized female can lay more than 200 eggs.Her male offspring they take about eight weeks to mature will mate with their siblings and with their mother. Indeed, genetic tests have confirmed that most home infestations come from a lone female.

The defence

Stella is a four-year-old rescue dog trained to detect the pheromones that bedbugs excrete when theyre lonely or scared. Shes a regular visitor to office buildings and hotels in Ottawa where she scours cubicles and rooms for the telltale scent of an infestation.

If the scent is there, shes going to find it, says her handler, Natalie Leblond, 33, of Ottawa. Ive seen her alert on one baby bug hiding behind a nightstand.

Trained in California, Stella has had her bug-hunting proficiency certified by the World Detector Dog Organization, a non-profit dedicated to improving the trade, which takes advantage of the remarkable noses of dogs. Their sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 more acute than our own, which means they can detect some odours in parts per trillion.

Stella will sit down whenever she smells a bedbug, and tap with her paw to confirm the location. Shes fed strictly as a reward for her discoveries.

Stella works for her food: she doesnt eat out of a bowl, says Leblond, who will plant synthesized bedbug pheromones to ensure the beagle can be fed when real bedbugs are nowhere to be found.

Bedbugs tend to stay within two metres of their food source, which means theyre commonly found along the seams of mattresses, or in the cracks formed by box springs and bed frames. They can hide behind night tables or picture frames, in wall cracks or floor seams. They also like wall plugs, clocks, radiators and radios.

Stella, Ottawas resident bedbug sniffing dog with Natalie Leblond, a K9 handler withf Orkin Pest Control Ottawa.Errol McGihon / Postmedia

Bedbugs often announce their presence with dark spots on bed sheets. This fecal spotting is the result of bedbugs releasing drops of old, blackened blood from their guts during the feeding process.

In an office environment, bedbugs are often found in the material of chairs, sofas or the cracks between cubicle partitions. They love to hide in the cubicle walls, says Orkin Candas Rob Caron. They like to be in the dark, to feel safe, and they love material more than metal.

When an infestation is confirmed, Orkin technicians vacuum and steam clean affected areas. Heat treatments are the most effective means of killing bedbugs, says Caron, since the insects will desiccate when temperatures are held at 60 C for at least two hours. The heat bomb will drive bedbugs down so floors and baseboards have to be steam treated at the same time.

With serious infestations, chemical treatments will also be used as part of an integrated pest management strategy. Bedbugs are very resilient, Caron says. If you dont remove everything, and do every single crack and crevice, theyll come back.

Entomologist Murray Isman, an emeritus professor at the University of British Columbia who has served as a consultant for the federal government on the question of bedbugs, says complete eradication is difficult since the insects can hide in tiny cracks or holes for long periods of time. Whats more, theyre easily re-introduced in high-traffic buildings.

Thats why its a real challenge to eradicate them, Isman says. Realistically, the goal is managing them to the point where someone sees one-bug-a-month kind of thing.

Nathalie Leblond didnt know anything about bedbugs when she applied for the job of dog handler at Orkin Canada two years ago. I didnt even know what they looked like, she says. But I know a lot now: We see bedbugs every day.

Working with a bedbug detection dog is not for everyone, she says, since the hours are long and some places they visit are heavily infested: You have to really want to work dogs and train. Ill steam my boots if I go into an infested place and put my clothes in the wash right away when I get home just in case.

Leblond takes Stella home with her every night; they have never brought home a bedbug.

Anyone can get them, even if you are the cleanest person, Leblond says. You can sit on a bus, and if theres one left behind, it can get on you, and you can bring it home. People who are cleaner, theyre going to find them sooner so it doesnt get to the point of a big infestation. But it has nothing to do with dirt.

Bedbugs.JEWEL SAMAD / AFP/Getty Images

The horror?

Bedbug bites dont hurt thanks to the painkiller the insects deliver in their spit.

Its one of the reasons bedbugs can survive in an office environment where sleeping is generally considered bad form. Desperately hungry bedbugs will take advantage of motionless workers to feed even during the daytime.

And its not just civil servants being victimized: Bedbugs have been reported in Googles posh New York offices and the New York Times newsroom.

Humans dont have to be sleeping, says UBCs Murray Isman. Bedbugs dont jump on people that are moving around, but if youre lying down on a sofa in a lunchroom, or sitting at your desk and not moving very much, bedbugs will have access to a decent blood meal.

In an interview from his home in Dresden, Germany, Klaus Reinhardt says office-dwelling bedbugs can also survive on mice and rats.

If youre an office worker and if you sit eight hours on your chair and dont move much, I think this might be some possibility for a little bedbug nibble, he says. But it is odd, I have to say. Most bedbugs will not feed during the daytime.

70 Cremazie in Gatineau was evacuated due to bed bugs, October 10, 2019.Jean Levac / Postmedia News

The vast majority of people will develop welts from bedbug bites, but it can take up to 11 days for the telltale, itchy red spots to appear. The welts are an allergic reaction to the chemical cocktail that bedbugs deliver through their saliva.

A small percentage of the population is immune. Reinhardt once subjected himself to repeated bedbug bites as part of a broader experiment to better understand immunity rates. Only one of the 19 test subjects failed to develop welts.

The experiment followed in the finest tradition of bedbug research. In the 20th century, biologist Albrecht Hase, best known for his work on lice control, submitted to more than 2,500 bedbug bites during his research career. Robert Usinger, widely regarded as the worlds greatest bedbug researcher, once strapped a collection of bedbugs to his body to ensure they stayed well fed while he travelled with them.

In rare cases, bedbug bites can cause a severe allergic reaction, or lead to secondary infections, or anemia, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, most of the damage inflicted by bedbugs is psychological. In a 2010 study, researchers interviewed 474 people who had endured bedbug infestations; 29 per cent of them said they suffered from insomnia as a result.

Some patients have disturbed sleep from just the knowledge of having an active or past infestation in their own bed, researchers reported.

Says Isman: People are freaked out by them. They get very anxious about having them in their home, or being bitten, even though the bites themselves are typically no worse than a mosquito bite.

Reinhardt, a professed fan of bedbugs, insists the insects should not elicit so much fear and loathing.

While other insects such as lice and mites want to live on people, he says, bedbugs want to dine and dash. Whats more, unlike other blood-sucking insects such as mosquitos and ticks, bedbugs do not transmit disease. Bedbugs have been accused of spreading dozens of diseases everything from HIV to TB, from hepatitis to leprosy but scientists have always proved them innocent.

In hundreds of experiments, Reinhardt says, there has never been any proven transmission. (For some reason, pathogens do not replicate in the guts of bedbugs.)

Mosquitos have killed billions of people through the spread of malaria, dengue and yellow fever, yet it is the common bedbug that keeps people awake.

The bedbug is not even dangerous, argues Reinhardt. We should not be so scared of them. But we still are scared of them, I think, because of the intimate relationship with our beds: Mosquitos, they fly away, but bedbugs, they stay next to you.

aduffy@postmedia.com

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Bedbug invasion: Why the itch-inducing pests are making a big comeback in a building near you - Ottawa Citizen

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