Toronto bedbug war still rages, especially in Parkdale …

A while back I was at a meeting about bedbugs at the Davenport Perth Community Centre; the usual information was offered to, and the usual complaints were gathered from, some 40 people in the neighbourhood.

I arrived early and bumped into two guys smoking on the sidewalk. Had they come for the meeting? No, they were just chatting. But they both had, um, personal knowledge of the little bloodsuckers. The problem is not going away.

Heres one reason why:

After the meeting ended, a woman who lives in community housing on Pelham Ave. said she wanted to show me something. She led me to her building, a few blocks away.

In the back was a closed-off area where tenants can dump furniture: the old, the broken, the infested. But the closed-off area was not closed off; anyone had access. Yes, there was a gate with a latch and a lock, but the gate was wide open, and there was furniture available for the taking.

Thats not right.

Back to the meeting: there had been a young man there with maps updates on the bedbug maps this paper published a while back.

We made arrangements to talk more.

Noah Adams is a social worker, studying for his post-graduate degree. He moved here recently from Vancouver, a place not unknown to bedbugs.

There, he worked in the downtown east side. He said, I used to cut hair at a drop-in centre. I met one guy who had bedbugs in his hair; he also had some mental health issues. I cut his hair outside, and put it in a plastic bag.

Thats a key point, and I dont mean about the hair in the bag. I mean some people with mental health issues may not be able to evaluate the problems associated with an infestation.

So?

So where there are infestations, it is axiomatic that there ought to be outreach; where there is no outreach there is I do not hesitate to say this negligence.

Anyway, Noah has mapped the calls made to Public Health, based on postal codes.

The old Star maps show that in 2009, there were 1,563 reports of bedbugs. The next year, there were 2,018 reports.

Noahs updates indicate that there were 1,764 calls in 2011, and 1,375 calls in 2012. He said, Parkdale is the hottest area in the city.

Yikes again.

I live in Parkdale.

The numbers indicate a rise, and then a fall; the fall coincides with the results of a $5 million provincial bed-bug fund; Torontos share of that fund was $1.2 million.

The money may disappear.

Noah said, with some concern, If it was working, why would you stop in the middle of the fight?

Good point.

No, excellent point.

His main concern, apart from the need for vigilance and continued funding? We need integrated pest management. You educate the people, you help them prepare, you treat the unit right away, you treat around the infestation, and you use the proper product; sometimes you use heat.

Heat kills bugs and eggs.

And, as you know, spray does not kill eggs, and so spraying must be repeated when the eggs hatch two weeks later. But there is little use in spraying unless you treat the adjacent units, because bedbugs are neither stupid nor immobile; they scatter when you try to kill them.

Noah then told me something that is forehead-slappingly obvious. In Vancouver, there is a lot of single-room occupancy housing. The province brought them up to code; in some buildings, they have a heat room, where people can bring their things for treatment.

A heat room?

He said, You could do it in old buildings here if you insulated properly, and did the electrical.

TCHC, are you listening?

He also thinks as I do - that landlords ought to be required to inform tenants about bedbug issues, as is required in New York City. Chicago and San Francisco are considering similar legislation.

I wish we would do so here.

Joe Fiorito appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca

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Toronto bedbug war still rages, especially in Parkdale ...