Winnipeg Free Press > Local > Bug blasters tackle infested high-rise

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Bug blasters tackle infested high-rise

By: Jen Skerritt

6/03/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 10

BED bugs may have won the battle, but the province is undertaking a $65,000 pilot project to win the war against the pesky bloodsuckers in one Osborne Village high-rise with a chronic infestation.

Dave Funk, pest control coordinator for Manitoba Housing, said a provincial team of veteran bug blasters will try and eradicate bed bugs at 260 Nassau St. once and for all by emptying the building of all 118 tenants and deploying new measures to annihilate the pests.

Between March 9 and 13, Funk said all tenants will be put up in hotels so pest control can spray every suite in the building. They will also push insecticide deep into wall crevices and behind walls, and kill all bugs and their eggs with hot steam treatments - methods never before used by the province against the pests.

Usually, Manitoba Housing only sprays the suite infested with bed bugs and all adjacent suites.

Critics have said this is a haphazard way to approach the problem, since the bed bugs manage to spread to other neighbouring apartments.

The Nassau Street building has been infested with the pesky bugs since early 2007, and the province has since spent about $130,000 to unsuccessfully get rid of them.

Funk said they will spend $65,000 -- this year's pest control budget for the building -- to try and zap them in one fell swoop.

If it works, he said the attack method could be used in other Manitoba Housing high-rises with recurring infestations. "You're talking about a pest that has only one food source -- they love warm bodies," Funk said, noting that's why the bugs love big apartment blocks.

"It's basically a bed-bug buffet."

Cities across North America have seen a surge in the nocturnal critters, and an increase in international travel and a ban on pesticides such as DDT have made it easier for bedbugs to spread and become resistant to some insecticides.

Funk said bed bugs are hard to kill because they can stay in crevices and hiding spots between a week and a year and hibernate to avoid residue from pesticide. He said anything above 40 C kills the bugs on contact.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 6, 2009 B2

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10 Commentscomment icon

The bed bugs will be back: 1.Costly professional extermination comes with no guarentees and usually requires at least 3 visits; 2. between/after vists the bugs will return (edited). The money would be better spent in innovating: 1. protect the pipes and allow the building/contents to freeze to -15 C on a cold day - the tennants could go to ?city hall for the day and not infect a hotel - it could be done once a year more cheaply than exterminators 2. support research into C02/warmth/phermone traps which would reduce bug blood meals and gradually aid in depopulating them. 3. supply metal beds that tennants can scrub regularly and supply mechanical barries on bed legs to reduce nightly bites; assist in making laundry services cheap and available and do these things so that responsible tennants can keep bed bug populations low between yearly building freezes. 4. Consider building a bed bug sauna in the building - a large room that heats to 50 C - tennants could intermittently bring all their furniture and stuff and kill the eggs/larvae/bugs while applying the scrub brush to the room. It would not get rid of the problem forever, but it would keep it at bay for those residents with the will to work on their own behalf. Professional exterminators are no longer able to eliminate the problem as there are now enough infestations in our communities that they will just come right on back. The professional exterminators are currently laughing all the way to the bank.

Lots of good points here. A couple of thoughts - many of the resident in MB Housing are seniors, often having difficulty walking or suffering from chronic illnesses. Getting everybody together to properly educate them isn't always as easy as it sounds. Regarding the spraying, I hope they're going deep into the furniture as well. Many of these critters hide inside the furniture during fumigations.

skittles - I just wanted to be clear it wasn't a stab at people in MHA dwellings re: hygiene comments. My point is more about some people not being able to care for themselves in that regard. Having kids also, I really empathize with you having to tolerate conditions like that. I cannot even imagine. Everyone deserves safe, clean shelter. Period.

I live in Manitoba Housing and we have Bedbugs in our building, I don't believe it when they say that Manitoba Housing sprays all adjacent suites. There are bedbugs the floor above and the floor below me but why did they not do the apartment in between the apartments that have the bedbugs (which is the apartment directly across from me) they did my suite and the suite beside the people whom they should have sprayed. Does that make sense?

I agree with Realist... the province needs to put more effort into keeping these people within the realm of clean. Just because you are a "low-income" family doesn't mean you have to be dirty and dis-respectful. I myself live in a low-income building with my children and it is a discusting mess... not to mention the questionable people they let stay there. Clean up the people they let live in these places and then maybe bugs won't be an issue in the future.

Sadly however, not everyone is taught how to keep themselves, thier homes & surroundings clean. In any case, the province's exterminators better make darn sure that these bed-bugs are eliminated, lest they spread their filth throughout the entire city, province, and beyond! Absolutely disgusting!

So they blow the entire year's pest control budget, $65K, on a single treatment that may or may not be 100% effective. As others have questioned, will there be a treatment/holding area for new and existing tenants to bring their 2nd hand furniture? If there isn't, the bugs will be back in a couple of months again.

Bobbi - they are supposedly heat treating and laundering people's belongings before they enter the hotels. But how effective is that? Seriously I would like to know which hotels these people are staying at, as I would stay away from them at all costs.

It is a great idea to "Blast the bugs" but have they thought of what will happen in the hotel that the people will be staying at ? Has anyone considered what precautions need to be made to keep the hotel free from an infestation as well? 118 people and their suitcases ,all with the potential of carrying bed bugs ....I would not want to use that hotel afterwards.

Sounds like a great effort, but even if they do eliminate the bugs in one fell swoop, there's one variable they cannot control - the clientele coming back to live there. How is the province going to control their lifestyle and hygiene?

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