Hamilton’s bed bug strategy described as the ‘start of a journey’

This is the final year of a three-year strategy to deal with bed bugs in Hamilton.

The $1 million integrated pest management approach, which includes the use of pesticides, was initially launched in response to a 600 per cent increase in complaints about the blood-sucking insects.

An update on the strategy was presented to a meeting of Hamilton’s Emergency and Community Services Committee on Thursday, where Ward 8 Councillor Terry Whitehead asked “are we really winning the war?”

Terry Quinn, the city’s Director of Service Channel Integration, said: “I think we’re on the right track” but added that “we’re at the start of a journey and it’s going to be several years before we’re seeing significant improvements.”

The city’s approach includes the use of a “navigator” to guide low-income and vulnerable populations through the difficult process of getting rid of bed bugs, which are commonly found in apartment buildings.

Quinn stresses that landlords have been taking their advice by paying for recommended building inspections.

He adds that they are finding bed bug infestations they didn’t know they had which “stops the spread and reduces the suffering.”