“Good night, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

I can still hear my dad say those words before tucking us in to sleep on our northern Alberta home. At the time, I put bedbugs in the same category as the boogeyman along with other things that could scare the bejeebers out of children in the middle of the night.

I never had any actual bedbug encounters until about seven years ago. I have yet to be bitten by the creepy crawlers, but they are no longer mythical monsters that get us in the middle of the night.

In fact, I now know they are real monsters that attack many people in Winnipeg every night.

Recently I was told to wash all new clothes before wearing them because bedbugs can easily travel from other parts of the world through fabrics. Imagine what could’ve been waiting for us when we put on that new Christmas sweater!

But nevermind clothes, what if the bugs threaten our living situation?

We often hear the word epidemic used when describing some low income housing complexes. There are reports guests in hotels and people in movie theatres have also been bitten, and worse yet, carry the critters home with them.

The truth is many people are forced to choose between living with bedbugs and living in a shelter.

One Winnipeg woman even said she’d rather go back to sleeping in a shed than sharing her Manitoba Housing suite with the blood-sucking insects. Those of us that haven’t lived with bedbugs can’t appreciate the suffering this pestilence is causing her and so many others.

I have talked to people that squirm or twitch the moment you mention bedbugs. Imagine mosquitoes waiting for you in your bed every night. I bet you’re now twitching, too.

The question that remains is how do we stop this epidemic from spreading and get it under control?

After all, these bugs are resilient critters. It only takes a couple of them to survive and repopulate, infecting an apartment unit at first and then the whole apartment block.

If some tenants are less conscientious than others, any hopes to eradicate the bugs seem futile and regular mitigation will have to be the way of life at those places.

Then there is the cost of controlling the bedbugs. Western provinces have already put responsibility on the landlord, while others don’t have regulations as to who should pay for the ongoing battle.

That can be good or bad. If the tenants take no financial responsibility, then some people may not be conscientious about preventing the spread of bugs.

The landlords I’ve talked to all say controlling bedbugs often eats up most of the maintenance budget, causing them to neglect other maintenance duties. Buildings are left to deteriorate because bedbugs are biting any and all profits. With rent controls there is no way for the landlords to recoup bedbug mitigation costs.

So, what now?

I think it’s time the provincial government step forward with a plan and resources to stop these critters from biting.

We are currently losing the battle against these little enemies. Bring on the troops, please.

— Floyd Perras is the executive director of Siloam Mission.

SUN Article