There have been a few lab experiments on how bed bugs react to heat. The experiments suggested the bugs would generally not venture far from the harbourage but would actually come out of the harbourage with foraging behaviour and when it became too hot they would return to the harbourage. This was good news for […]

I was asked to help an elderly man with his bed bugs. The home was very cluttered and I had to walk sideways when walking in the hallways due to the stacks of clutter. Less than 20% of the baseboards were accessible. The elderly man hired a whole home heat treatment from a local exterminator […]

Harry Lehotsky was a Winnipeg inner city pastor/activist before he died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago. I admired and respected his work immensely. One of Harry’s duties was writing a column for the Winnipeg Sun. In one column he outlined his experience with one of his tenants who complained that there were bugs […]

  I occasionally hear tenants claim that a bed bug deliberately fell off the ceiling and landed on their isolated bed. I would agree with Robert Usinger that these reports are exaggerated and if something like that would happen it would be accidental.   As an experiment I covered a block of wood measuring 1.5 […]

A few years ago Richard Cooper et al published an excellent article entitled “Bed Bugs In Office Buildings : The Ultimate challenge.” The authors stated, in regard to public spaces, that “bed bug numbers tend to be low, increasing by periodic reintroductions rather than through reproduction.” In my own experience I would agree with that […]

As an exterminator specializing in multi family I have noted that suites surrounding the laundry room are more prone to bed bug infestations than other suites. I have also noted a private home with a relatively small infestation and the owners complained they saw bugs coming out of the heating vents on the floor of […]

The news programs have recently identified apartment blocks as having more difficulty with bed bugs than other types of dwellings. There is some truth to these claims as apartment blocks have a high degree of transient populations and the potential to spread the bugs to other suites is high due tenant panic and error (raid […]

Ten years ago my wife, children, and I moved to the inner city and became inner city landlords with great aspirations of making a difference in the community. I came prepared with degrees in Biblical studies, International Development, and Conflict Resolution. But nothing could prepare us for what assaulted our senses. We came from the […]