When I first began my career in Pest control in the late 1970’s; we were having similar problems with bedbugs as we are now again in 2013. Our advantage then was our ability to use DDT, Chlordane, and lindane. Boy oh boy; did they work! They killed quickly, effectively, and had a long residual effect that survived on surfaces longer than the elusive bedbug could hide without feeding. By 1981, the bedbug population from Hamilton to Toronto was all but dormant. Not gone though; the insecticides we were allowed to use did a great job at keeping them down. One treatment and bugs were gone…
Over the years; they banned the family of insecticides that were then very effective but deemed harmful to humans as they were carcinogenic and could pose serious health risks. It was a wise move to ban that family of insecticides known as ChlorinatedHydroCarbons.
We still had weapons in our arsenal to deal with bedbugs, cockroaches, ticks fleas etc. These were OrganoChlorines with interesting names such as Diazanon, Dursban, Fosban, Malathion and a few others. They all worked well too, but were deemed much safer to humans, animals and the environment. We were able to deal well with all insect infestations.
There were also two other products that were amazing and came in powder form to be added to water. They were Ficam W and Ficam plus. Both had a synergistic flushing effect and were wonderful for pest technicians to use.
Fast forward to 2001. MOE starts talking with the Liberal party about greening up the pest control business without consulting any actual techs who were in the field using the products. In one sweep , and without alot of factual data to back it up, they delisted almost every effective insecticide we were using. They introduced newer, much higher priced insecticides to replace them, but at what cost? These new; seemingly invinceable cockroaches and bedbugs are surviving, moving freely and populating at a rapid pace. We now have them in almost 70 % of buildings downtown, at least three hospitals, libraries, colleges, the university, city buses, office buildings, schools and medical offices.
We can definitely treat and fully eliminate bedbugs but they are now travelling faster and further and at a rate that makes our job much more difficult. At Action Pest Control, we offer free bedbug inspections and a written guarantee. Call today @ 905-318-1242.
