A New Way To Fight Bed Bugs
Heat treatment safer, more effective
A local business is hoping it has found the solution to a growing pest problem that's swarming Regina as much as it is the rest of the world.
Poulin's Pest Control's Shawn Sherwood says the company is seeing roughly ten times as many calls about bed bugs as it did 20 years ago; sometimes they field multiple calls a day about the pests. He says a new heat treatment system Poulin's recently purchased is the most effective way to kill the bugs.
The system utilizes numerous sizeable heaters and a deisel generator. "We've got four large heaters in there," explains Sherwood. "We're drawing the ambient air from the room down through the top of them, increasing its temperature by 5° and pumping it out the bottom." That process continues until the home reaches a sweltering 120° Farenheit or nearly 50° Celsius. Sherwood says they maintain that level of heat for four hours to ensure the heat permeates mattresses, box springs, and other places the bugs may be hiding.
Sherwood says the problem has gotten much more severe in recent years.
"In the 80's and early 90's my branch here in Regina did 4 or 5 bed bug jobs a month. Now we're doing one and sometimes two a day. We're talking 30 to 40 bed bug jobs a month." He says part of the reason is that people don't understand just how easily transferrable the bugs are and how tough they can be to get rid of. That, he says, is the draw of the heat system. He believes it's a more failsafe system than the existing chemical treatment
"In Canada we only have one chemical that we are legally allowed to use and the bed bugs are becoming resistent to it. We have to come back multiple times. We have to put chemicals into your home multiple times." While the chemical treatment does kill the bugs it takes three treatments, with a week in between each. Even then the eggs aren't destroyed and can still hatch.
Poulin's heat unit is currently in use in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba but Sherwood says he expects to purchase another unit dedicated solely for Regina. That could happen in a matter of weeks.
