The Toronto Star And the OLA on the Bedbug Issue

[tag-photos]

Back on topic, I wonder what will happen during the Bedbug Summit coming up.

Too bad it is behind closed doors.

[helga]

On another thread I had asked Admin or anyone from OLA to advise who is attending to represent the OLA and if they have anything prepared for the media - haven't rec'd a response, so I'm a little worried.

[New]

I would like to go. Do they sell tickets?

[mikeedwards]

This must be park of Colle's comeback after being kicked out of his ministry over a funding scandal.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoa ... 90986.html

Fighting back against bed bugs
By IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN
Last Updated: September 27, 2010 1:36pm

Mike Colle is itching for a fight.

With a bed bug infestation spreading across in North America, especially in urban centres, the Toronto MPP is hosting a summit Wednesday in a bid to battle the bitsy blood-suckers.

And victim Carol Gilmore will be up-front at the conference in Queen's Park to relate her summer-long nightmare.

"I thought I was in hell," she told The Sun on Tuesday.

Gilmore's repeated bites began after she rented an $800-a-month room in late May from "a friend of a friend" in a home in an upscale Mississauga neighbourhood.

Pleas to the owner brought various responses, from delays to occasionally spraying of her room with Raid, she said. "But that made me sick and when they stopped spraying for a week, the bedbugs attacked me again."

Creams and lotions from a pharmacy provided minimal, temporary relief as the blood-sucking appleseed-size bugs kept up their nightly vampire attacks.

"I would never have gone into that house if I had known," Gilmore, 45, said. "I found out later they had bed bugs when they bought it a year ago."

She moved into one motel, but believes the bedbugs may have hitched a ride in her clothing because "I was bitten again."

When friends — even her sister — learned her plight, they refused to provide a safe haven, Gilmore said. "They were all afraid of me ... they were afraid of bugs."

Enacting provincial legislation requiring landlords to disclose the presence or previous existence of bed bugs to prospective tenants is one of the main reforms Colle is proposing.

He invited key stakeholders to his Bed Bug Summit, including various provincial representatives, public health units, private and public sector landlords, pest management experts and front-line agencies that deal "with this infestation.

“Bed Bug infestation is not just a Toronto problem," Colle said in a statement. "These blood sucking pests do not respect borders," he said. "We need a comprehensive provincial strategy to deal with this scourge.”

The idea is to prepare recommendations and to share best practices in dealing with the bugs, which experts say spread over the past decade after governments banned various pesticides as harmful to the environment.

I am sure the next installment in this story will be in the Red... I mean, Toronto Star.