Landlord winning the bedbug war
November 26, 2008
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Joe Fiorito
The landlord sent a note to say that he'd had a bedbug situation in some of his buildings; in particular, two rooming houses on Dundas near Broadview. He said he was taking an approach that seemed to work.
I tend to take any landlord's claims with a pinch of salt, but the note David Brown sent was so smart, so thoughtful and so detailed that I went to see him.
He met me at one of the buildings with his super, Eric Marshall. They have been a team for quite a while. They invited me into a small apartment.
David said, "We had a tenant here who was disabled; whether he brought bedbugs with him, or whether they came from elsewhere, I don't know. But he was having difficulty a while ago and we had to call the ambulance for him."
Eric said, "It was clear he was senile. I had to go into his apartment to get his ID." He paused at the memory of what he saw. "The walls were black and moving. I panicked and called Dave."
David said, "We found bedbugs in two units; this one, and the one below. We renovated. We put insecticide powder down; diatomaceous earth, with a weak insecticide. Then we put in new floors; laminate, tight-fitting." They also put new quarter-round on all the baseboards, and they sealed all the cracks; they rebuilt walls and sealed and sprayed the drywall; they put powder in all the electrical outlets; they caulked everywhere they could.
David, who has five buildings and is negotiating to buy three more, said, "I think I've spent $15,000 to $20,000 on bedbugs over the past five years."
I was curious. He said, "I have a social responsibility. I don't want a reputation as a slum landlord. I regard my tenants as my customers; some have become my friends." I was disarmed.
What drew my attention originally was that David said, in his note, that he had decided to learn as much as he could about bedbugs. It has been my experience that many landlords and supers simply turn a blind eye, or they lay blame and wash their hands.
David said he knew his tenants would not always report an infestation; he said some would simply think they had mosquito bites.
He also knew that not all his tenants would be able to prepare their rooms for spraying.
They found out the hard way that professional spraying is not guaranteed. Bedbugs spread as rapidly as fire and they are every bit as serious. That's why David and Eric declared war.
Of Toronto's infestation, Eric said, "The average person could deal with bedbugs, but the average person doesn't know how. Really, anyone can get a caulking gun, and the powder's cheap; well, relatively cheap."
Eric has additional qualifications – before he was a super, he was a social worker. He said, "It's not just about taking care of the place, it's about taking care of the people."
We walked down the street to another of David's buildings. Same situation: The rooming house was clean, well-lit, brightly painted and bug-free. How do I know? As we talked, a tenant named Robert came down the stairs.
I asked him how things were in the building. He did not hesitate; with a light French accent he said, "They sprayed the entire building. There's no more punaises in my room." Punaises?
French for bedbugs.
Merveilleux.
Public Health, and the city's bedbug committee, should put David and Eric on a retainer.
Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca
Toronto Star