There is a certain trio of dusky-colored high-rise apartment buildings in Halifax that are, and have always been, swarming with bedbugs.
Since these infested buildings have been gentrified and rented out to the oft-mobile university student population, what we have is a spread of bedbugs to other homes and buildings throughout Halifax.
Current legislation places the responsibility of bedbug control on the person who brought them into the building. Since extermination is expensive, tenants stay mum about it until the infestation spreads like wildfire to their neighbors.
Home care workers are refusing to go to houses of the sick that contain bedbugs. It has gotten that much out of hand.
I say anyone who has experienced the anxiety and disgust of a bedbug infestation, and anyone who does not want to live through the former, should write to your local Halifax counsellor and demand legislation that places the responsibility of bedbug control on the landlord. Such a law would force landlords to keep buildings bug-free by regular maintenance, since an infestation would cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Also, to help curb this resurgence in bedbug infestation, one could petition to unban DDT or other potent, effective insecticides for residential use. Research on bedbugs is scant, and it is not known if the bugs transmit disease. Hepatitis B has been found in the feces of these insects, however, so the possibility is there. Thus, potent insecticides would be crucial to control the bedbug epidemic.
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2008.
I’d be onboard for shifting the responsibility of eradicating the pests to the landlord but I don’t think you have to go and unban DDT….it was banned for some very good reasons and there are other insecticides out there that are effective. The problem of people not reporting their bug problems, which ultimately spreads through the whole building, is the best argument for making the landlords responsible for clean-up.
Are these apt buildings your talking about Brunswick Towers but now is called Ocean Towers?
Sounds like it. Ocean Towers, Causeway Bay, Brunswick Towers, Gerrish Towers, Chateau Ghetto…
I know another building on Lacewood drive that has bedbugs too.
I lived in the Ghetto Towers and I’m not surprised. One thing I am gonna say, worst management EVER!
Tens of thousands of dollars you say? You do realize that it just takes a blast of 55c heat to kill bedbugs right? Use a HAIRDRYER on your mattresses and furniture especially focusing on “folds” or “crevices”…continued application of this process over the course of a week or two and you will be bug free, until your nieghbour comes by and re-infects.MAKE SURE ANYONE COMING TO YOUR PLACE IS:1)Aware of your present infestation2)Taking the above steps to ensure they don’t reinfect your place or others.If you keep to this you should be fine…not guaranteed but better than sitting there expecting someone else to fix the situation.
Have to agree with Miles on this as DDT was banned for some good reasons. I would say that the landlord and specific tenant should share some fo the cost and maybe even the city. A good PCO treatment combined with some non-pesticide spray use like Kleen-Free usually works well. I just wish that Kleen-Free was available in stores instead of having to order it online.I know some people who do not go the PCO route and just use Kleen-Free or other solutions and that likely will not work as Kleen-Free and many other solutions are only contact killers and since Bedbugs hide well adn travel alot, there is little possibility that you will spray them all.Have not seen any mention of there being a bedbug dog in Halifax yet but apparently there are dogs that can sniff out bedbugs and let you know if you have them or not although with some of these buildings, there is little doubt.So, don’t unban DDT – that just creates its own problems. Get landlord, tenant and city to all come to the table and come up with a solution funded by all three. Get PCO involved and also use a good spray like Kleen-Free (see http://www.ecoginesis.com) that kills them on contact.And act on them as soon as you can since they spread like crazy! We need to get on top of this now before it gets worse and halifax gets a reputation as a bedbug infested city.
I know of someone who got bedbugs from Adsum House early last year and Adsum House didn’t do a thing about it.Nowonder why the city still has them!!!
I used to live in Ocean Towers… what a nightmare. I tried to get out of my lease because of the bedbugs… not to mention a myriad of other mis-management blunders… but they wouldn’t break my lease, the fuckers.I wrote to the health and safety board and the tenancy board, but neither really wanted to deal with it.Do not rent an apartment here!