“It’s like getting bit by a mosquito, only it lasts for over a week and is 10 times itchier,” Kris Figueroa says, talking about bedbug bites. “I did my best not to scratch them, but it was almost impossible, really. My roommate scratched all over hers and now is covered in scars.” The tiny blood-sucking insects were in Figueroa’s Ocean Towers apartment and they’re popping up all over HRM.
Alderney Manor, a Dartmouth housing complex for seniors, recently had trouble with a bedbug infestation. The Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority organized a spraying to get rid of them.
John Fleming, at the housing authority, says there were reports of bedbugs in 15 units. But the problem was so bad that the authority and Orkin decided to spray 40 units as a preventative measure. “Phase two is to go back and do a follow-up check,”says Fleming.
The housing authority’s thoroughness is not without reason. Bedbugs are among the most difficult pests to get rid of, says Sean Rollo, a bedbug expert and publisher of The Bedbug Resource, an online catalogue of all things bedbug-ish.
“Basically, if you can take a business card and fit it in somewhere, that’s about the width of a gap that bedbugs can get into. So if you think about all the millions of places that they could be in a home, sometimes it can be very challenging to get rid of them.”
Figueroa can attest to that. He says that when he moved to Ocean Towers’ Tower 3, he started seeing bedbugs within three days. His roommate got 70 bites on her legs. He complained to the building’s rental office.
“They sent in Braemar to spray for our bugs about two weeks after we moved in and Braemar tore up our apartment completely. The spraying didn’t help at all. We vacuumed three times a day like Braemar told us to, but we were still getting bitten.”
Figueroa says that after months of failed sprayings, he stopped paying rent and found a different place to live. The management at his new building knew about the bedbugs at Ocean Towers, however, and had him fill out a form saying that if he brought bedbugs with him, he’d have to pay for extermination.
“They also told us that we had to rent a moving van and put all of our stuff in it and park this van inside a warehouse where an extermination company could use a powerful chemical to rid us finally of the bugs.”
As Figueroa explains it, renting the warehouse and having Orkin exterminate ended up costing him over $1,500. Meanwhile, he says, Transglobe, the company that owns Ocean Towers, sent him an order to appear in court over unpaid rent. He counter-claimed and was awarded $2,400 by the provincial Residential Tenancies Board.
(Transglobe would neither confirm or deny Figueroa’s account and Tenancies Board judgements are not public records.)
Joseph Rooney lived in Ocean Towers’ Tower 1. He says that he was being bitten on his first night living there and he complained the next morning. Within two days, the apartment was being sprayed.
Despite that, Rooney doesn’t live there anymore. “I didn’t take it too well. I didn’t stick around too long. I wasn’t having that.”
But why are bedbugs on the rise? Rollo says North America has seen a resurgence of bedbugs because of changing methods for exterminating cockroaches. Roaches used to be a big problem, Rollo says, and pest-control companies would kill them with a pesticide spray, which would kill most other pests in the area, including bedbugs.
“Roughly 10 or 15 years ago, the pest control industry had developed a ‘bait’ application for cockroaches…which is a food-based product that cockroaches come feed on.” The bait product kills cockroaches, but doesn’t kill bedbugs. When the pest control industry made this switch, bedbugscould flourish.
Bedbugs typically spread by hitchhiking in the belongings of travellers, says Rollo. “If you’re staying in a hotel room that might have bedbugs and you leave your suitcase out, the bedbug comes from its harbourage space to its food source, which is you it inadvertently gets caught up in your things and you take it home with you.”
Rollo says that bedbugs are here to stay. “They’ve been around for centuries and they probably always will be.”
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2008.
Too much of bed bugs …in tower 2 as well …and i got body full of bites and i have complained in tenancy board too but they havent taken any action and they want me too stay another year kindly please dont take apartment in oceantowers and better they can change the name as bed bugs tower.
Hello viewers,
we too have the same bedbug problem in ocean tower tower 2, almost every apt here is with bedbugs. We went and complained to the transglobe(now citigroup) the apt was sprayed but it became worse. we don’t know what to do? The management staffs are very rude and reluctant in handling this issue. Please suggest what has to be done so that we get of ocean towers before the lease period. Thanks
One of the first questions I enquire about with new landlords is what company they are from. If it’s transglobe I don’t take the chance. Have heard nothing but negative stories about their properties and how they treat people.
eastwood manor at 55 crichton ave. dartmouth n.s. has a bed bug problem , it’s so bad now that next week they are bringing in the bug dog, they will be doing 3 floors at a time, this is an on going problem, and they are trying to make it sound like it is all under control, but it isn’t, people there are so upset, because , it is not just the bed bus , but also the dirt, and down where the lockers are at, the walls are rotted out from the water plus, all the mole and decayis everywhere. it has been reported for years and they do nothing, nothing then and nothing now, it is becoming a slum building, because housing does not care.i guess rent money means more than thepeople that live there. alot of them cannot aford to live any where else.
I’m in tower 2 but I don’t have them.. yet
Can I still break lease?
What floor are you guys on?
latest news on bed bugs at eastwood manor located at 55 crichton ave . dartmouth n.s. it has been really bad , bad enough that the whole building had to be done and all tenants had to leave the building today, so much for bed bugs, what about the mole, rotten walls , asbestos, all in the rooms where your lockers are at? o well, time wiull help. hopefully at least maybe the bed bugs are under control.
gabbie
I live in Tower 1 of Ocean Towers. We definitely have a rapant bedbug problem. I truely believe our Superintendant is doing everything they can to help us, but as the research shows, bedbugs are simply incredibly difficult to get rid of. My room-mate and I have agreed that we don’t want to move, we feel we’d just bring them with us and spread them around. We wouldn’t be able to afford it anyway, and getting rid of our furniture isn’t really an option for us either.
There’s no point in playing the blame game, but why the hell isn’t Transglobe tackling the problem on a large scale?
I live in Gordono B. Isnor Manor and the bedbug problem in our building is extremely bad. I hate to have company incase. It is not long off that all our apartments will have a problem. No matter how many sprays they do when people have that problem, obviously these are not working
. You cannot move because it cost too much, and as you said there is no guaranteed you might get them from someone even on the over crowded elevator as the construction crew has other elevator on service for their work. their are sooo many buildings with same problem. Also some people cannot afford to do cleaning and laundry required to help get rid of them, also some people do not understand this and are not capable of doing it themselves a lot of people do not report it when they should because they are embarassed and think they might get in trouble, also just some people are handicapped. they bring garbage back up to their apartment because they might like item. PEOPLE DO NOT TOUCH THESE THINGS, YOU ARE ONLY BRINGING THE BUGS BACK UP INTO BUILDING. i truly dont know what to do i cannot even get rid a couple i have only seen in 3 months and because of this only, i have had powder put on outside walls and been sprayed 4 time. Heaven forbid if i get any more
If the residential tenancies board actually did some enforcement and the entire onus wasn’t on the tenant to prove negligence then maybe we wouldn’t have so many delapitated slums in Halifax. I’m a thirty something professional and my landlord stole my damage because the apartment “required a second coat of paint.” I’m out of pocket $500 until I pay $30 to file and $30 to get a sherif to serve the sleazeball who’s avoiding me. Having to move immediately due to bedbugs is costly as this article states, and you don’t get it back unless you do A LOT of work, do your homework and follow through at Tenancies. Too many renters can’t afford the cost or the time. The onus should be on the landlord to prove there’s no bed bugs.
In this day and age, computers and the space station, we should not have to live with bed bugs. The city will have to have mandatory spraying in complexes and parks, etc. This reminds me of something my mother told me; when she was young everyone had cockroaches and bed bugs. Well that was before colored TV and cell phones. Come on people, what are we going to do
about this!!!
I cannot believe that this city is not taking drastic measures to insure that these pests are not spread. Spray them with a pestcide that is strong enough to kill the bastards. I cannot believe that in 2010 that we have to deal with this shit. I would rather breath in a chemical than live with bedbugs. The health department needs to get a grip on this, it’s sounds like it is already out of control.
Disgusted
I’d take Transglobe a lot more seriously if they’d respond to these complaints rather than just no commenting their way through. Even the slightest allegation of bedbugs (or cockroaches, which I’ve also heard some of their places have had problems with) should be enough to have a company doing some serious checks. Any potential tenant might read these reports and steer clear. I was about to move in when I realized this.
YouTube bedbugs for some seriously scary videos! Would make a great Halloween costume.
yeah it’s pretty damn pathetic!! i’ve moved around a lot! and have never had to deal with any kind of bugs and now our 4 unit apartment building is being fumigated for bed bugs because our neighbours found some in their apartment and it’s scaring the hell out of me! i can’t even sleep, i’m up all night looking for these damn bugs! it could really drive a person insane! and after they fumigate today they have to come back 2 more times to fumigate again to make sure they haven’t re-infested! like yuck, just kill them all the first time! this is hell to have to go through all this!! just the thought of them makes my skin crawl.
Were going to start a petition and get the DDT or whatever the hell else we need back, If we can rot our livers with acutane and colour our hair with countless amounts of chemicals, we can do this. I believe I saw one in my apartment on Friday Night and I can’t sleep. Frankly I want to enjoy what life I do have on this planet. We need to organize something here people. C’mon!!! Let’s get together and get the officials involved and whip the suckers out for good. I am a humanitarian, but No tree lovers understand what this is like until you find one in your bed!!!!!!!!! The world’s a goddamn mess anyway ,dod we want our kids starting school infested with bed bug bites. F*** Off. It pisses me off we have to wait until dire straits before we take this seriously. if it’s about money, build another casino. bedbugfighter1@ymail.com-If u wanna help get in touch ,if u just wanna bitch save your time. Peace out and good night: don’t let the bedbugs bite
Wow, I have a Halifax trip planned for next week and now I know I won’t be able to sleep in the hotel room. Plus I’ll be super paranoid that I’ll bring them back with me in my luggage! Gross, I’m typically pretty “green-concious” and don’t use a lot of chemicals myself, but when it comes to a public health and safety issue like this, its time to bring in the big guns. We shouldn’t be living like Pre-WW1 times. I’m itchy just thinking about it!
I’m planning a move back to NS in Jan and was already stressed about finding a place to rent but now I’ll have to add bedbug history to the screening process! there should be a better registery to let people know there have been cases of bed bugs.
There is a common denominator to this whole bed bug epidemic – Hipsters! If they washed their sheets more than annually maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.
If Transglobe only treats the apartments that complain, they’ll never deal with the problem. Our landlord treats all the apartments that surround one with bedbugs – the little critters travel fast and the logic is that they must have come from somewhere.
You can buy bed bug moats for your bed. You stick them under the legs of your bed and the bugs crawl into the moat and can’t climb up the furniture. Diacetamous earth in the moat creates tiny cuts on their bodies and kills them.
This article misses one important reason we are seeing a huge resurgence of bed bugs – hoarding. To get rid of an infestation takes a lot of work, including laundering everything you can in really hot water and drying on a high heat as well. People who hoard find it difficult to do that work. Which means the bugs can retreat into the piles of stuff and survive and spraying that is done.
Don’t pick up stuff left out at the curb, keep your suitcase up on a rack when in hotels and be proactive in demanding that your landlord develop a bed bug strategy that includes providing free hot water laundry and drying. It is much cheaper to give everyone free hot water for a week than to keep paying for multiple sprayings.
justinbieber4eva your comment is funny but there’s total truth in it. I live in an old victorian and had a nasty, messy neighbour for awhile. Nice person. But spades are spades. What messy, untidy packrats fail to understand is that their filth spreads out very quickly. I am immaculate not only for myself but out of courtesy for the people living around me.
Messy apartment dwellers are just damned selfish. I’ve been dealing with your fruit flies and mold now for some time. If i find a bedbug i’m going to be pissed off.
I was recently cursed with Bed Bugs. My building… 1070 Barrington Street “Barrington Terrace” was infested with them. My building however did not pay for spraying. We as tenants forced to arrange and pay for our own spraying. Some people could and did, others couldn’t. Matresses were dragged down the hallways and they spread even worse. I moved out 5 months ago and I still itch even tho I pretty much tossed everything I owned to escape them.
I had bedbugs when I lived in Halifax. Spraying did not really help. What I did find helped was getting a zippered plastic mattress cover for both my mattress and boxspring (harder for them to grip to the plastic on the outside, and if they get caught inside, and zipped up they can starve and die in there.) and fill all the gaps between the floor and baseboards (we had a wood floor, so also floorboard gaps) with a clay. Then I kept vacuuming and washing my things in only hot water and was eventually able to beat them. Good luck, guys!
Can anyone dealing with bedbugs in Halifax chat with me about their experience? christineisa17@gmail.com. Thanks!
I put DIATOMACEOUS EARTH around the apartment ,just a line on the floor that meet the wall, going all through the apartment in the closets ,KITCHEN, BEDROOM, bathroom, in front of the entrance door. I put some under the cusions on the chair and couch, I took mattress of bed and put it on bed frame , on bottom of mattress, and around the legs of the bed frame. This product is food grade and will not hurt pets, but it say excessive dust inhalation may cause lung damage, so long as you take care, be careful do not have a fan aiming at the dust while you put it down. This product will kill any crawling insect including BED BUGS. The only way to get rid of the bugs is to have something like Diatomaceous Earth in the areas where they crawl before they get in your home.
Bought mine at Planet Organic, on Quinpool for $10.00 used half a bottle to do my apartment.
Where in Dartmouth can I buy the Earth product to put in an apartment if there are bed bug’s around?
DIATOMACEOUS EARTH DOES KILL THEM BUT , YOU MUST BE EXTREMELY CAREFULL WITH THIS STUFF. IF YOU HAVE A PET OR CHILDREN I WOULD NOT USE IT. I HAD A FAN ON AND IT WENT THROUGH THE AIR AN I USED A TINY BIT AROUND THE SIDE OF THE WALLS. DO NOT PUT IN ON YOUR MATTRESS. USE A SMALL BRUSH AND PUT A LITE DUSTING AROUND THE LEGS OF THE BED THEY WILL HAVE TO CRAWL THROUGH IT AND IT WILL KILL THEM. THE CONTAINER SAYS NOT TO BREATH IT IN IT CAN CAUSE LUNG PROBLEMS. SO IF YOU USE IT, A VERY LIGHT DUSTING. USE CAUTION. ONLY TRIED IT BECAUSE OF AN ARTICLE BY DAVID SUZUKI. ALSO KEEP DRAINS PLUGED, A LARGE ONE CRAWLED OUT OF THE BATHTUB DRAIN. TAPE AROUND PIPES UNDER THE SINK.
Is there still a bed bug problem at the Alderney Manor building in Dartmouth, and also do people like living there, despite the situation there? Thank you
I’m in Ontario but I found a product called DX 13 in an aerosol can that is diatomaceous earth and I’m now bed bug free !! It was so easy to apply from the can and did not create a big mess….I also washed and dried all my clothes on HIGH heat and vacuumed daily. DE works !