Because the recently proposed bed bug education bill in NYC contemplates a bed bug website at the Department of Health—on this point we’ve already indulged big dreams that we know aren’t happening anytime soon—we should really look at a working bed bug website.
Toronto Public Health’s bed bug website is the most comprehensive of its kind anywhere that we have seen. While health departments in many cities are putting out materials and fact sheets—and we now have more widely available best practice literature from various sources around the world—the presentation of so much useful bed bug information directed at various specific audiences, in a clear and organized way, is a major step forward.
Toronto has set the bar very high.
Some items of interest, in no particular order:
- a clear telephone number to call for help
- a bed bug fact sheet available in 13 languages
- half a dozen places to bring in a bed bug sample for identification (this is awesome!)
- a fact sheet for health care professionals
- a fact sheet about rights and responsibilities: who’s responsible? who pays? rights of access, eviction, etc. (the need to make this information widely available in our city is so dire, it’s impossible to overstate it)
- I like this Top 10 Tips for Landlords to Keep Bed Bugs Away, especially this:
10. Seal up hiding spots
Make sure all holes, cracks, gaps, and voids around pipes, baseboards and electrical cover plates are sealed with caulking or expansion foam to prevent pests from traveling unit to unit.
- here’s another version: Bed Bug Information for Landlords and Property Managers
- and this is great, a clearly available training resource:
Toronto Public Health staff is available to conduct educational seminars on bed bug detection, treatment and prevention. Call Toronto Health Connection 416-338-7600.
And there are lots more good things. The site also has a section about the Toronto Bed Bug Project and we’ve already discussed how impressed we are—you can read our interview with the co-chair of the Toronto Bed Bug Project here.
At this point we should probably begin a discussion of why some would object to the presentation of prescriptive information about how to control a pest as challenging as bed bugs. Toronto has several fact sheets that address preparation and treatment. No one wants to inhibit the testing and development of improved tools and protocols by pest control professionals. And some professionals may disagree about the reliability of any one protocol. However, I think the benefits of clear guidelines outweigh these concerns. I would describe the benefits of clearly expressed suggested protocols like this:
- they provide consumers information to evaluate the expertise of the pest control company they intend to hire;
- they allow the person who is in the weakest position, usually the bed bug sufferer, the means by which to evaluate the actual work provided by the pest control company; and
- they give people the authoritative information necessary to persuade those who need to be persuaded—depending on the scenario, that can be the tenant, landlord or pest control professional—that improvements are needed when treatments are failing or inadequate.
We will return to this subject because it’s already emerging as an important one in our internal discussions about the new bill.
We are really eager to know your thoughts?
These pages may be of related interest:
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