Bed Bugs at Work

Imagine going to work only to find a bed bug crawling across your desk, ready to answer the phone. You might think it is safe to go to work in a bank, but Scotiabank has recently been battling a bed bug infestation in their downtown Toronto office tower. An entire floor was shut down in order to treat for bed bugs using heat treatment.

In an effort to stem the problem at the source, Scotiabank has offered employees a free home inspection. However, bed bugs are notoriously hard to find in the early stages of an infestation. They hide in the cracks and crevasses of your box spring and bed frame. It is only after you have had the bed bugs for several months that you are able to spot the little black stains, often found around the staple marks of the box spring, which is a sign that a bed bug has been hiding there. Bed bugs are night crawlers and you may never see one in the daylight until you have a large population.

When customers call and ask me if we do inspections, my advice is to save your money. An inspection is going to cost you at least $150 and up to $300 if you call in a bed bug sniffer dog. I advise customers that if they are getting bites or have seen any evidence of bugs, they should put that money into renting our equipment. Whatever is biting them, spiders, carpet beetles, will be incinerated when they are baked to a toasty 45C. You may never see a bed bug, but you will not be getting bitten any more.

Adrienne and Logan are happy to answer any of your questions.