Bothersome bugs
St. John’s ranks No. 5 on Orkin Canada’s ‘Top 25 Bed Bug Cities’
Orkin Canada has released its first-ever national list of top bed bug cities in the country, and it’s enough to make your skin crawl — St. John’s is ranked fifth.
Orkin Canada has released its first-ever national list of top bed bug cities in the country, and it’s enough to make your skin crawl.
St. John’s ranked fifth place, while Toronto ranked first, and it’s leaving people wondering just how many bed bugs they need to be worried about.
Ken Penney, Orkin Canada service manager in St. John’s, said it’s really not that simple.
“It was never about the amount of bed bugs, because that would be a little bit too hard,” he told The Telegram on Wednesday. “One female bed bug lays one to five eggs per day. If two of those eggs hatch and are female … well, you do the math.”
Penney explained that the list was created because Orkin Canada is the largest pestcontrol company in the country, and, since it has branches across Canada, it took information about the amount of services performed in cities — both residential and commercial — to determine each city’s ranking on the list.
The number of services completed in St. John’s between July 2016 and June 2017 determined the city’s fifth-place status.
The ranking might spur St. John’s residents to worry about how bed bugs spread, in homes and in public.
The Orkin Canada website states a number of things can cause them to relocate, including disturbances, food shortages or simply moving furniture to a different room.
That said, bed bugs aren’t able to stick to a surface the way a flea or tick could.
“Bed bugs don’t cling to people, but they can easily get caught up in someone’s luggage, purse or phone case,” Penney said. “The thing is, bed bugs have relied on humans for a long time. Not only for lunch, but they rely on us for transport, too.”
He said people generally fear the pests are unstoppable, but that really isn’t the case if people take the right steps to avoid and control them.
“We have an arsenal of tools that we can use to eradicate bed bugs, but timing is everything,” he said, stating that if someone does find signs of the bugs, they should seek professional help right away to make the treatment easier and more effective. If bitten by one, Penney said, people react differently, the most common symptom being itchy red hives.
To help avoid that, the Orkin Canada website lists several ways to help people identify bed bugs.
Although they are sometimes too small to see, the website advises that people regularly check for any live or dead insects in the seams and folds of mattresses, and check sheets and pillowcases for tiny brown blood stains.
If people are concerned about missing something when checking on their own, they can check out Orkin Canada’s K9 detection department — bed bug dogs.
“Claude and Stewart are constantly on the move with their handlers,” Penney said, referring to the two dogs by name. “Basically, we just bring them in wherever they’re needed and they’re trained to look for the scent of bed bug DNA.
“They’re also trained to have a particular sign. Someone will say ‘sit’ or ‘paw’ at the area, and the dogs will use their muzzles to actually hit the bed and direct to where the bug is. Then the handler does a visual inspection to see if the dog is positive.”
If the dog is right, a technician is called to come in and administer the control treatment.
“As a professional, and any professional would say, we know that we see the better part of the worst. Sometimes when we talk about bed bugs, it’s easy to fear it as a pandemic, or to think that once you have it, that’s it, it’s over. But that’s not the case at all.”