EXCLUSIVE: TCH senior’s building infested with bedbugs, cockroaches
Posted April 8, 2015 7:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Residents at a Toronto Community Housing (TCH) senior’s home in Scarborough say their building is infested with bedbugs, cockroaches and an assortment of other unwanted critters that are crushing their collective sanity.
Andrea Hodges says she’s been dealing with bedbugs for over a year in her apartment at Brimley Road and St. Clair Avenue East.
“I think what’s the worst is the psychological damage that it does,” she told CityNews. “This is a senior’s apartment. We are at our most vulnerable. We don’t have all the physical strength to do everything.”
Hodges says she sees bedbugs out of the corner of her eye when she tries to sleep at night. Needless to say, she doesn’t get much rest.
“I mean you panic,” she adds. “You don’t want a bug to be beside you in bed. You feel safe in your bed. I don’t feel safe, I don’t sleep anymore.”
More than 100 residents have a signed a petition asking TCH and the government for help.
TCH has brought in pest control numerous times, but many seniors aren’t able to do the preparations to make the treatments effective.
“If somebody is 90 and they are in a walker or a scooter, they can’t do anything about their bug problem,” said resident Dan Mowers.
When asked what kinds of bugs are infesting the building, he rolls off a skin-crawling list: “Cockroaches, bedbugs, earwigs, ants, unidentifiable bugs…any bug you can imagine. they are in the apartments here.”
Some tenants have tried to ward off the critter invasion by wrapping their bed legs in double-sided tape so they can’t crawl up and settle in their sheets. Others have tossed their bedding and thrown items onto their balconies.
TCH says it has activated the city’s integrated pest management program, bringing in extra resources from other agencies to help in the preparation and cleaning.
