A North Vancouver man says he is getting eaten alive by bedbugs each night while having no luck getting his landlord to acknowledge the problem.
Sam Tabei, a 32-year-old contractor, has been dealing with the infestation at his apartment at 255 East 13th St. since January 2013.
Property manager AW M Alliance has hired pest control companies numerous times to spray the apartment with pesticides and now insists to Tabei that his claim has no merit. Meanwhile, Tabei said he is "covered in bites."
"My place has probably been sprayed eight times so far within the past year. From April until now, they've refused to do anything more," Tabei said.
"I'm constantly itchy. I'm trying to stay positive but sometimes you have suicidal thoughts because it's been happening for so long. Holy smokes. I'm a strong dude but this stuff breaks you down."
Tabei has since seen his doctor to get cortisone treatments for the bites and a note that says his rash is consistent with bedbug bites. He has also hired his own exterminator to come in at the end of June to confirm that his unit and his neighour's unit are both still infested, and spray them both.
"We found a whole bunch of them a few nights ago. They're definitely there," he said.
Tabei wants AW M to hire a pest control specialist to give the building a thermal treatment, which involves bringing in a "furnace on wheels" to pump hot air into all the cracks and crevices of the unit, bringing the temperature up to 57° C for about six hours and killing every insect, egg and larva inside.
"The fact is heat is by far the most effective remedy against bedbugs. There's no doubt about it," said Brett Johnston, president of Assured Thermal Solutions. "There are situations that you will never ever solve without a heat treatment. The reason for that is bugs can hide in places that you can't spray or steam or dust."
But it's also significantly more expensive. A onebedroom apartment like Tabei's typically costs $1,000 depending on the size, layout and logistics involved, Johnston said.
Tabei is now planning to take AW M to the Residential Tenancy Branch, which is often the only option for renters, according to Tom Durning, spokesman for the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre.
"There are treatments out there. If you do an integrated pest management system and a heat treatment and the whole bit, it will cost the landlord thousands and a lot of them don't want to do that," he said.
The Residential Tenancy Act's provisions for health and safety are vague enough that landlords typically opt to spray and consider the matter closed, Durning said.
"It gets kind of complicated as it goes along for these little brown bastards," he said. "If the landlord is saying 'Look, I'm only doing Chevrolet pest control. I'm not doing Cadillac pest control because I can't afford it,' we'll have to see how a third party rules."
Bedbugs are now at pandemic levels across North America in all types of housing, and seniors are least likely to report them out of a greater fear of stigma, eviction or being put into an extended care facility by their families, Durning said. It's also harder for them to prepare their units for fumigation and there is no requirement for landlords to help them.
Durning said that the best way to avoid bedbugs is to check the online registry found at bedbugregistry.com before moving into a building with a known infestation. The City of North Vancouver has its own bylaw that states all residential buildings must be kept free of bedbugs.
AWM Alliance declined to comment on the story.
