Thunder Bay doesn’t have a bedbug problem and the health unit wants to keep it that way.
That’s why it held the Preventing and Reducing the Impact of Bed Bugs conference Tuesday at the Italian Cultural Centre. The Thunder Bay District Health Unit only had 11 complaints of bedbugs in the city last year, which is much lower than big cities and even Northwestern Ontario.
Christopher Beveridge, the health unit’s manager of environmental health programs, said the best way to keep bedbugs out of the city is for people travelling to take precautions so they don’t bring the bugs back to Thunder Bay with them. Checking the seams of a hotel mattress for blood spots is one of the best ways to tell if a room has bedbugs.
“If you do find it report it right away and get another room,” Beveridge said.
And keeping luggage off the floor of a hotel room is a good way to ensure the bugs won’t leave with a person when they checkout.
Bedbugs are usually associated with a dirty room, but that’s a misconception. Typically it is upscale hotels that are the most popular for bedbugs said health unit entomologist Ken Deacon.
“It has nothing to do with dirt it has everything to do with the rapidity of transportation and how careful you are with your luggage,” Deacon said.
Bedbugs can live up to nine months without a meal, which is human blood. Once a female eats she can lay five eggs.
“We walk into an area where there are bedbugs and they’re on to us they need about ten minutes to get a complete meal,” he said.
If a person thinks they did bring bedbugs home with them, vacuuming and steam cleaning can solve the problem.
“It’s possible to get rid of them you just have to be aware of where they’re living and then the professionals can help you deal with them,” Deacon said.
With suspicious luggage, washing clothes at a high temperature can kill the bugs provided the suitcase has been emptied carefully so that no bugs can get out. And if it’s winter, the luggage can be left in a shed or porch for six days provided the temperature is under –10 C.
“Then you’re guaranteed you’ve killed them all,” Deacon said.
