Inside Toronto: Seek help in battling bed bugs, Scarborough meeting told

Toronto health inspector Wayne Fletcher is telling people bed bugs can hide behind their wallpaper and picture frames, in drawers with clothes, in mattress seams – and also how to get rid of them. 

“The earlier we can deal with the problem, the better it is,” he says.

A senior in the room at Scarborough’s Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre says she can’t bend to move her furniture for treatments to kill the blood-sucking insects and their hidden eggs.

“That’s why we have good neighbours,” Fletcher suggests, adding the woman, if she’s in that situation, could call relatives to help. If you’re in a building, Fletcher adds, form a group.

“Call it the bed bug committee, call it the health committee.”

Officials say the city is more able to battle bed bugs than it was last year, when The Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations called the insects’ spread “an epidemic” and mayoral candidates spoke of the need to declare all-out war on them.

Toronto health inspector Wayne Fletcher is telling people bed bugs can hide behind their wallpaper and picture frames, in drawers with clothes, in mattress seams – and also how to get rid of them. 

“The earlier we can deal with the problem, the better it is,” he says.

A senior in the room at Scarborough’s Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre says she can’t bend to move her furniture for treatments to kill the blood-sucking insects and their hidden eggs.

“That’s why we have good neighbours,” Fletcher suggests, adding the woman, if she’s in that situation, could call relatives to help. If you’re in a building, Fletcher adds, form a group.

“Call it the bed bug committee, call it the health committee.”

Officials say the city is more able to battle bed bugs than it was last year, when The Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations called the insects’ spread “an epidemic” and mayoral candidates spoke of the need to declare all-out war on them.

Since 2008, Reg Ayre had run Toronto Public Health’s Bed Bug Project using borrowed resources and staff seconded from other duties, such as food safety inspections. It wasn’t sustainable, he said in an interview.

Last fall, though, the city health unit asked the province for funds and got $1.2 million. Though one-time money that must be used by March of next year, it was enough to hire a special bed bug team of five health inspectors, three public health nurses and a manager to take Ayre’s place.

Besides presentations such as Fletcher’s – which the department does for any group on request – the city offers advice by phone and can sometimes help its most vulnerable citizens prepare for bug treatment.

“If someone is really struggling,” Ayre said, city staff will inspect their home, “to see why they’re struggling.”

The provincial funds – city councillors added $87,000 more this year by choosing not to take cost-of-living increases – won’t be enough to reverse the bugs’ spread across North America.

Toronto wants at least $3 million a year, Paula Fletcher, a member of the city’s health board, said this month.

“The more you dig, the more difficult you find the problem.”

There’s now good information on what to do, but some people are unable to effectively treat their bed bugs, and their physical or mental incapacity leads to chronic bed bug problems which can infect a whole building, the Toronto-Danforth councillor said.

Preparing for bug treatments is a lot of work, and people are afraid of getting bugs themselves. Some buildings have dealt with bed bugs quickly, but others have produced dozens of cases, Fletcher said.

And given that bed bugs aren’t in the same category as contagious disease there’s less ability for landlords to act decisively when a tenant refuses treatment, she said.

“Sometimes you have to say you’re going to evict them, and then they open the door. It’s a very tough thing.”

Still, the city’s expertise in beating the bugs has improved, Fletcher said. “We keep learning more. We’re not where we were at the beginning.”

Eglinton-Lawrence MPP Mike Colle, who organized a summit on the insects last September, said half the problem is stigma attached to bed bugs and lack of knowledge about them.

“Not talking about it makes these things multiply,” he said in an interview. “Child care centres, hospitals, will deny they have them.”

To defeat the insects, Colle said, people have to do many things differently. Hospitals and other institutions can think about discarding their carpets and upholstered furniture, building codes changes can make it harder for bugs to spread, and people should stop picking up used furniture, especially mattresses, off the street, he said.

But Colle also said pest control companies – some of whom “are making a fortune” off bed bug treatments – have to chip in by lowering treatment costs if people can’t afford them.

“There’s people making a killing selling mattress covers now. Everybody’s got to offer a bit of help,” he said.â?¨Though complaints to Public Health are on the rise, the number of verifiable infestations in Ontario is unknown, though the province is working on a reporting system so the spread of the bugs can be tracked accurately, Andrew Morrison, a health ministry spokesperson said.