Bedbugs take bites out of peoples' mental health

By JENNY YUEN, Toronto Sun. Friday, October 1, 2010

The stigma of having bedbugs might be too much for some to bear.
In a packed conference room inside Queen’s Park during the city’s first bedbug summit Wednesday, registered nurse Betty Graham recalls the mental meltdown she encountered speaking to residents in a St. Clair Ave. apartment who were dealing with the blood-sucking pests. Many of them contemplated suicide.
“One lady said to me, 'I was so afraid of living like a hermit, I thought about jumping off my balcony,’ and another lady said, 'If only they could exterminate me',” Graham recalled.
“We need to do something, because bedbug bites may not pose something to someone’s physical health, but the threat to people’s mental health is potentially disastrous.”
The bedbug summit – which attracted experts from the pest control industry, municipal public health units, landlords and politicians – was spearheaded by Liberal MPP Mike Colle. He is calling for a national plan to help shoot down the tiny bloodsuckers.
“We know nothing about how widespread this is because there’s no scientific research or quantification that’s been done,” Colle said at the conference.
“We need to find out why they’re coming here and how do we prevent this.”
Colle said he will present information gathered at the summit to provincial health and government officials in hopes it will lead to an education program and standards for pesticides to kill the bugs.
“We’ll say, 'Here’s what the evidence is, what can we do to help?’ ” he said.
“It’s a way of reinforcing the case people are making.”
The number of bedbug cases in Toronto has skyrocketed from about 190 cases in 2005 to almost 10 times that number, according to Toronto Public Health.
Some speakers at the meeting said prevention and education are key to defeating the rising bed bug infestation in Ontario and called for more provincial money to deal with the problem.